by Cali MacKay
“Which is exactly where I plan on staying. I’m never letting you go, Lil.” He’d marry her in a heartbeat if he didn’t think she’d murder him for even thinking it.
When Juno growled and barked as if it was the one and only thing she’d been born to do, Keane immediately thought of Sirius. He quickly shifted Lilly off his lap. “Stay here and lock the door behind me. Don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe—and if need be, call the cops. Okay? The address is 1070 Ocean Park Place.”
“Don’t go, Keane—or let me come with you.” She held onto him, worry lining her face as he forced her to let go.
“I’ll be careful, okay? It’s probably nothing, but you need to stay here so I can focus on what’s going on without worrying about you being in danger.” Reluctantly she nodded, though whether or not she’d stay put was still doubtful.
Stepping out into the hall, he stole a final kiss, and then, once he heard the door lock behind him, he headed toward Juno’s barking. He found her standing in a chair so she could bark and growl out the window, her hackles up. Petting her, he tried to spot what had set her off. “What is it, girl? What do you see out there?”
It wasn’t as if she never barked. With his home surrounded by a good number of trees, there was plenty of wildlife to tease Juno and get her riled up. But he wasn’t going to take any chances and ignore her when Sirius was still on the loose. He had security cameras around the house and at the gates of his home, but that still left a lot of ground uncovered.
Well, fuck it. If someone was out there threatening all he cared for, he’d be damned if he was going to stand idly by. Grabbing a baseball bat from the closet, he headed for the front door with Juno on his heels. Stepping out onto the front porch, he locked the door behind him, and headed down the stairs, though there was nothing obvious. No glimpse of anyone or any movement in the tree line, nothing out of sorts or out of place. Juno did, however, dart just past him toward a tree, letting out a random bark as if trying to call forth whatever it was that had her on the hunt.
Keane moved toward the tree line Juno was most interested in—and then he saw it. Crouching down, he picked it up. It wasn’t much. Just a silver piece of paper—a gum wrapper. It could have easily been carried in on the wind or by some bird or squirrel, and yet it looked as if it had just been tossed there, still too new and shiny to have been left exposed to the elements. It could mean nothing at all, and yet he didn’t like it one bit.
He stood and wandered through the woods a bit, taking the time to run along the perimeter of his fence line, though there were no other signs of anyone having trespassed onto his property. Yet he was now looking at his property from a different perspective. Suddenly, he could see all the ways someone might be able to get past the fence—gaps where the ground was uneven, allowing enough space for someone to potentially slip under the fence, overhanging branches from trees on the outside the perimeter that could be climbed. It meant they were nowhere near as safe as he thought them to be. Fuck.
Not wanting to leave Lilly any longer than was necessary, he headed back to the house, and was greeted by her leaping into his arms. Bloody hell, nothing had ever felt as good as having her back once more. “Are you okay, Lil?”
She nodded and leaned in to steal a kiss. “I was just so worried about you. You took so long, and I didn’t know if I should call the cops or not. What happened?”
“I walked the fence to make sure it was secure, and though it looked fine, it wouldn’t stop anyone from getting in if they were truly determined. And…I found this. It could have just blown in on the wind, but it doesn’t look weathered, so I somehow doubt it.” He held up the gum wrapper, though he was a bit surprised to see her eyes go wide and the color drain from her face. “Hey…what’s wrong?”
“Please tell me that’s not a wrapper from cinnamon gum.” The panic and tremble in her voice had him going on the alert, every muscle coiled tight and ready to attack—ready to protect her.
Holding the wrapper up to his nose, he took a deep breath, his head filling with the spicy scent. “You need to tell me what’s going on—it’s cinnamon.”
She bit her bottom lip as her eyes went wide. “I think I know who Sirius is.”
Chapter 15
Lilly didn’t want to think about it—and she sure as hell didn’t want to have to explain it all to Keane. It left her feeling embarrassed and stupid, vulnerable and broken—which was why she’d done all she could to try to forget that part of her life. “His name’s Dylan. I dated him for a short while after we split up. He had this habit of always chewing cinnamon gum.”
“How long were you together?” Keane’s jaw tightened, and she knew he wasn’t happy—not that she needed him to give her a hard time about it when she already felt like crap.
“Long enough for me to fuck him, if that’s what you’re after.” Her hurt and frustration had her lashing out. Sleeping with Dylan had been one of the biggest mistakes of her life—all in an attempt to forget Keane, and to try to get over her broken heart.
“That’s fucking brilliant.” Keane started to pace the room, vibrating with jealousy and anger. “So the guy who’s stalking you might be someone you’ve known all along, instead of a deranged fan?”
“Yeah—if it’s him, which sort of feels like a long shot, since I haven’t seen nor heard from him in seven years.” Why would he show up now all of a sudden?
“Seven?” Keane’s eyes widened incredulously. “Had my side of the bed even had a chance to cool down before you let this asshole in?”
“Except that you were already keeping your cock warm elsewhere while I was in bed waiting for you, so don’t you dare start with me, Keane.” When tears stung her eyes, she let out a stream of curses under her breath.
He added a few curses of his own when he saw how upset she was, pulling her into his arms. “It just makes me crazy to think of you with this guy.”
She sucked in a ragged breath, knowing she’d have to come clean about the sort of relationship it’d been. “Keane…if it is Dylan…” The shudder raced through her body before she was able to stop it, and she knew it hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Keane pulled back and cupped her face in his hands, his gaze taking her in as his eyes darkened. “What the fuck did he do to you, Lil?”
“He was…rough—and not in a fun way. Of course, it didn’t start out that way. He’d been sexy and sweet at the beginning. But then he started to get jealous and controlling. Wanted to constantly know where I was, where I was going, who I’d been with, even if I was just going to class or hanging out with friends.” And then things had gotten scary—scary enough that she didn’t want to tell Keane, knowing he’d lose it. “I broke things off. Except that he refused to go. He kept begging me to take him back, and freaking out when I didn’t. I should have called the cops, but I was too young and stupid to realize how out of control he’d gotten.”
“What did he do, Lil?” This time, Keane’s voice was laced, not only with anger, but with dread, clearly anticipating the worst—and he wouldn’t be wrong.
“He said he’d go in the morning, once and for all, if he could just hold me in his arms for one more night. Of course, I refused to let him stay, which ended up just pissing him off.” She pushed the memories from her mind with another shudder.
Keane brushed his thumbs across her cheeks and bent his head to hers, his body vibrating with suppressed anger. “Did he fucking hurt you? Tell me what he did, Lil.”
Her tears spilled over, her voice cracking as she spoke. “Yeah, he did, but…I can’t relive all that again. I’ve locked it all away, and did all I could to move past it.”
Keane looked ready to put his fist through a wall, ready to hunt down Dylan and murder with him with his bare hands—and she loved him for it. “It’s my fucking fault. You know that, don’t you?”
“It’d be easy to blame you, Keane—and maybe I did for a while. But the truth is that Dylan’s the only one at fault here. He’s the one who…” She l
et her words die on a choked sob she couldn’t contain, her arms wrapping around Keane’s neck as he scooped her into his arms and sat down with her in his lap, holding her tightly to him as he tried to soothe her with comforting words murmured against her skin.
He kissed the top of her head, kissed her forehead and the tears on her cheeks, covering her in sweet kisses, his mouth catching hers in a whisper, pushing her tears away until it was just the two of them once more. He broke away from their kiss, though it was just enough for him to get the words out, his stubble rough against the delicate skin of her face. “I swear, Lil…I won’t ever let him touch you again. I’ll fucking murder him with my bare hands if he comes near you again, tear him limb from limb.”
“I tried to press charges, you know. But…the cops didn’t want to pursue the assault charges because his dad was a police officer in a neighboring town, so they let him off with a warning. And…the rape…they said there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute, since we’d been in a relationship, and he was claiming it was consensual.” Maybe things had changed in the last seven years. It certainly felt like the police and the courts were more willing to prosecute rape cases, but when someone was well connected, it still seemed like there were few willing to put their careers on the line once it involved influential people who weren’t afraid to retaliate.
“Fuck, Lilly…” Keane was beyond furious, looking like a man ready to unleash his fury on his mortal enemy—and worst of all, he looked heartbroken. “I need to get you someplace safe, somewhere where he won’t be able to touch you. And I need him to fucking pay for what he’s done. Need to find him…”
“We should tell Hadley. It’d give her another direction to look in, though…honestly, Keane, the sort of computer knowledge she’s been talking about doesn’t sound like Dylan. None of it does, which is why I hadn’t thought to mention him.” Especially since she hadn’t wanted to tell Keane what had happened.
“What’s his last name?” He was already pulling out his phone and texting Hadley the details.
“It’s West—Dylan West.”
***
It didn’t take long for Hadley to get back to them, and by the sounds of it, Keane wasn’t happy. “It has to be him… Yeah, I understand. It just doesn’t make sense. Fuck… Okay, thanks…”
“It’s not him, is it?” Lilly slipped her hand into Keane’s, needing that physical connection to reassure her that everything would be all right.
“He’s been locked up for the last two years after he got into a bar fight and nearly killed a guy who looked at him the wrong way.” Keane shook his head. “Who the fuck were you dating, Lilly?”
“Well, clearly, I have horrible taste in men.” She pulled her hand free of his, annoyed at his implication that she somehow should have known better than to date Dylan, when the truth was, he’d done a damn fine job of masking his temper until it was too late.
“Lil…that’s not what I meant.” When she pinned him with an incredulous stare, he relented. “Okay…maybe I did mean it. But only because I’m so fucking frustrated and pissed off at myself that I let this happen to you—that I didn’t even fucking know about it, and you’d gone through this all on your own.”
“I wasn’t completely alone. Wyatt…I couldn’t bear to see you after it happened, but I was so fucking scared Dylan would come back, so…I called your brother.” She couldn’t help but cringe, knowing Keane was going to be furious—and he was. “Before you go getting angry with him, I made him promise not to tell you. It’s not his fault.”
“Are you fucking kidding me, Lil? Wyatt knew that you were beaten and raped and he didn’t bother to fucking tell me? And you don’t want me to be angry with him?” He shook his head and started to pace, every movement, every muscle, tense. “He’s just lucky that he’s in Dublin right about now.”
“It was my decision to keep this from you, Keane—not your brother’s. And don’t you think that maybe he agreed to it because he knew how you’d react?” Because right about now, Keane looked capable of murder, as he stalked the room like a wild animal caged.
“How else am I supposed to fucking react?”
It’s not that she couldn’t understand his anger, but things were different between them when it happened.
“I couldn’t tell you, Keane—and frankly, I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want you to look at me like I was damaged, like I was some sort of idiot for getting myself into that sort of situation. And I couldn’t risk you going after Dylan and getting yourself in trouble.”
“The only one in trouble is that fucking asshole for laying a finger on you—and I’ll be sure he fucking pays for it.”
Chapter 16
Keane had never been so fucking angry before—and he’d never been so devastated. He was such a fucking asshole. If he hadn’t cheated on Lilly, they’d have still been together—and that fucking animal wouldn’t have touched her. The fact that Wyatt knew all these years and never told him…that only added to the torrent of emotions he was feeling.
“Don’t you dare, Keane.” Lilly fisted his shirt in her small hands, all but shaking him. “I need you here with me—and not locked up in jail because you went off to exact revenge.”
“And what about Wyatt? Are you trying to tell me that he was more level-headed than I am?” He couldn’t fucking believe his brother sat idly by and did nothing—and if he did, then the two of them were going to have problems far bigger than the fact that Wyatt didn’t tell him about Lilly being assaulted.
“I made him give me his word not to pursue it while I still had him on the phone, before he’d even come over. And in his defense, I don’t think he quite realized what he was agreeing to—” She let out a weary sigh that all but killed him. “Nor the severity of what had happened. So don’t be angry with him, Keane. He only did what I asked.”
“Which was to keep this from me.” He wanted to shake her until she saw sense. Didn’t she fucking understand that he would have been there for her? “You should have called me—not my brother, Lil.”
“How could I? Are you fucking kidding me?” Her eyes shimmered with threatening tears, but when he tried to pull her into his arms, she batted him away. “You broke my heart, Keane—you broke me. And at the time, my heart was a gaping hole of a raw wound—and that was under the best of circumstances. Do you know what it would have done to me to have to face you after what Dylan put me through? It would have killed me. And don’t think it was easy for me to face Wyatt either, for that matter—or anyone else.”
Fuck. He wanted to hurt the bastard, and he wanted to put his fist through a wall. Wanted to fucking go on a rampage as his rage stormed inside him. “I don’t even know what to say, Lilly. I know I fucked up by cheating on you—but this…I never could have imagined that my mistake had cost you so much.”
Was it any wonder that she’d pushed him away all those years, why she’d avoided him at all costs, why she hated him for what he’d done? He didn’t even know how to fucking deal with the emotional cluster-fuck that was brewing inside him.
“I don’t blame you for what happened to me, Keane.” But when her tears finally spilled over, he fucking hated himself for all she’d had to endure because of his failures, even if he knew Dylan was the one responsible for the abuse.
This time, when he pulled her into his arms and kissed her tears away, she let him, even if it felt like he could barely take a breath through his anger. He needed more, needed to vent his frustration and find a way back to what they had, needed the intimacy between them. Yet how could he take her after what she’d been through? He then thought of all the times in the last few days that he’d taken her rough and hard, and it fucking did him in. He was such a fucking asshole.
Despite all of it, they had bigger problems that required their immediate attention. Finding a way through all this would have to wait until he got her someplace safe, because if the stalker wasn’t Dylan, then they were back to not knowing who was after her. She was still in danger. �
��We need to get you out of here. Even if that wasn’t Dylan out in the woods, I don’t know that I can keep you safe here.”
“Are you still thinking we should go to Dublin for a bit? Or maybe someplace completely new would be best.” When her eyes clouded over, he knew she was now avoiding Dublin because of Wyatt and what happened to her—and it fucking pissed him off that she had to maneuver through her life to avoid her hurts and heartaches.
“We’re going to Dublin to see Wyatt.” Especially since he and his brother had some unfinished business to attend to—and Wyatt had a whole lot of explaining to do.
“Keane…I know that look. This is not Wyatt’s fault, so don’t go blaming him for not telling you what happened.” Her glare wasn’t swaying him any. Not in the foul mood he was in.
“That’s between me and my brother—now go pack your things. We’re leaving first thing.” As soon as he could get a plane readied. “Do you have your passport?”
“At my house—though I’m not going anywhere unless you promise me that you won’t harass Wyatt over what happened.” With her arms now crossed in front of her chest, she was certainly looking determined—not that it mattered.
“Like I said, that’s between me and Wyatt. And you are going whether it’s under your own steam or trussed like a Christmas fucking goose.” She was making him absolutely bat-shit crazy, like a madman pushed completely over the edge.
“Oh, yeah…security at the airport would just love that one. So guess again.” Her smug look made him want to ravish her into submission, made him want to fuck her until she agreed to anything he asked of her—and yet he couldn’t after all she’d been through, and it fucking pissed him the hell off. “Promise me, Keane. Promise me to leave this alone when it comes to Wyatt. The last thing I want to do is to dredge this all up again, so that he’s back to looking at me the way you’re now looking at me—like you pity me, like I’m damaged and broken, like you can’t bear to look at me, ’cause it makes you think of what Dylan did to me. But that’s why I need you to let this go. It’s bad enough to have you looking at me like that—I don’t need it from Wyatt too.”
