by J. S. Scott
I was intimidated by guys who were bigger and louder than I was, but I’d also learned that actions meant more than words. And Jett had been there when nobody else could or would have been.
Problem was, I just didn’t understand him at all.
Who, in their right mind, goes off and rescues a woman he doesn’t even know? I couldn’t even call his sister a real friend since we’d just met a few months ago. But these people, this family, had made it their business to help me out.
“How do I ever repay you and Dani for what you did for me?” I asked as I looked down at the tile floor. “How can I ever make up for getting you injured?”
I wasn’t used to anybody helping me, so I was at a loss on how to deal with all of this.
My question had pretty much been senseless because I could never pay him back anytime soon for the funds he’d shoveled out, or for the injury he’d taken on because of me.
“You can give the police your statement and then testify to put down the organization that profits off human trafficking,” he answered. “The people who kidnapped you were minions, part of a far more powerful group that operates all over the world. You can help put them out of business for good.”
I shook my head, still unable to meet his gaze as I said, “Who is going to believe me? I’m a homeless woman with no real family. I’m a nobody. I always have been. And I’m sure the top guy is probably rich.”
“He is. He’s well regarded in this city because he has money and donates to charity to keep his cover,” Jett said irritably.
“Then they’ll never believe me,” I said in a shaky voice.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jett moving, but I was still startled as he put his fingers on my chin and forced it upward until our gazes locked.
His green eyes grew stormy as he looked at me. “I know it won’t be easy,” he said in a kinder tone. “But I’ll be there to give my statement about what happened, too, and I’ll testify. The money I paid can easily be tracked. These people need to go to jail, Ruby. The couple who kidnapped you should be behind bars where they can’t hurt any more women ever again.”
“I’ll try,” I agreed.
I wanted everybody involved in the human trafficking ring to be unable to hurt anybody else. I didn’t want to see any woman to go through what I had.
But I was afraid because my word held no weight. I’d experienced the sense of being invisible to most people the whole time I’d been homeless. “I’m just not sure they’ll believe me.”
“You’re brave, Ruby. You can do it,” Jett encouraged in a persuasive baritone that left little room for argument.
“Necessity makes even the timid brave,” I mumbled.
“Isn’t that Sallust?” Jett questioned. “You’re into Roman history?”
I sighed. “I spend a lot of time in the library. I read a lot of things that come back to me at the weirdest of times.”
I didn’t tell him that I really used those little bits of knowledge to stay connected to the real world. If I was still learning, then I still existed.
His eyes bored into mine as he replied, “I don’t think you’re timid. I think you’re just afraid. And since life has basically shit on you, I can’t say I blame you.”
I stared back at him and replied, “You’d be surprised.” I’d learned to be submissive because being any other way was more painful.
He took my hand in his, and I didn’t balk because it felt so good to be connected to someone. I wanted to pull away instinctively, but I liked the false sense of security too much.
“Could you live with yourself if you don’t try?” he asked.
“It isn’t that I don’t want to,” I explained in a rush. “I do. But because I’m some homeless nobody, they aren’t likely to believe me. They’ll think I’m delusional.”
Because many of the people who had no place to go were mentally ill, it was the common assumption. But in reality, people were on the streets for various reasons. We all had a story, and most of them had very bad endings.
I was merely nonexistent to most people, an unfortunate woman who people assumed was a drug addict, an alcoholic, or mentally ill when I was seen sleeping in a public place. The world seemed like it evolved around me while I was always in the same place.
“I have a solution,” Jett said in a guttural voice.
I was falling into his beautiful green eyes, temporarily mesmerized by the determination I could see in the depths of his stare. “What?” I murmured.
“Do you really want to pay me back?” he asked.
“Yes!” I said immediately.
Just ask me. I’ll do whatever you want.
Having sex with him wasn’t altogether unappealing, even though I had my doubts whether he’d really want a skinny homeless woman who hadn’t been able to do anything about her straggly hair, torn up nails, bad skin, or anything else that resembled self-care for years.
“Marry me,” he said in a husky tone that was a demand and not a question.
“What?” I was certain I’d misheard him during my temporary stupor.
“Marry. Me.”
My eyes widened as I realized I’d heard him correctly. “What?”
“Think about it, Ruby. I’m a well-known technical guy in my field. I have my own company and I’m a businessman. Nobody would ever know how we met, or why we’d married once it comes time to testify. You’d be my wife, and unless you have a criminal history, your background wouldn’t even be in question. I’d find a way to make sure it never even comes up.”
“I-I’ve never been in trouble,” I stammered. “To most people, I just don’t exist.”
“You’d have a home address, and a life nobody would bother to investigate since you’re just a witness.”
“I don’t really know what it’s like to have a real home,” I blurted out, my tone wistful.
“You’ll have one if you marry me,” he vowed. “You’ll never see another day on the streets again. I promise.”
My heart skittered as I looked at his sincere expression.
I was a realist, but the deeply buried hope inside me desperately wanted to say yes to Jett’s insane proposal.
I had very little to lose.
“I’d get so much, and you’d get so little,” I said breathlessly. “You’d be saddled with a woman who had been homeless her entire adult life.”
“I’d get a lot. I’d get you,” he answered simply. “And if you’re unhappy with the arrangement after your testimony, we’ll get the marriage annulled.”
So he’s not expecting to have sex if he’s talking about getting the marriage annulled. What is his motive then?
As crazy as it was, I actually was tempted. Would life be any worse as somebody’s wife than it was on the streets?
I’d be warm at night.
I’d have a roof over my head.
And if I was lucky, I’d have food to eat every day.
The only thing that stopped me from saying yes was the fact that Jett was getting far less from the deal than I would.
“I want you to say yes, Ruby,” Jett prompted as he cupped my face with his hands.
I nearly melted at the sensation of his touch. For a big guy with a cranky attitude, he was surprisingly gentle.
There was only silence as I debated what to say to him.
Honestly, I felt like I was in the middle of a dream, and nobody had kicked the park bench yet.
I didn’t understand his motivation, but I still desperately wanted to take a chance.
Was the proposal fair to Jett?
But then, he was the one who had brought up the idea, so he had to have his reasons for wanting the arrangement, right?
Could I really marry a guy I didn’t even know?
Confused, jumbled thoughts continued to run through my brain until I finally mad
e my decision.
I broke eye contact with him as I muttered my answer in a barely audible voice, certain that it was the only answer I could give him.
But for some reason, that single word that had come out of my mouth had somehow felt so very wrong that I didn’t look at Jett again as the nurse entered the room with our discharge instructions and we were ready to leave the hospital.
Ruby
A few weeks later, I did regret the fact that I hadn’t become Jett Lawson’s wife.
Well…for me anyway.
For Jett…it had been the right call.
I’d learned a few things about Jett Lawson over the past few weeks:
Number one, he was stubborn and he definitely liked to get his own way, but not in a selfish kind of manner. He was usually looking out for somebody else when he got bossy. Lately, that somebody had been me.
Number two, he worked a lot. When we were at Marcus’s condo, Jett was almost always deep into his computer work with a laser focus that I wished I had.
Number three, I’d hurt him when I’d refused his marriage proposal. As hard as it was for me to accept, his offer had been sincere, and ever since I’d refused him, he’d been reserved and distant.
I knew I had done the right thing when I’d given him my no answer at the hospital.
For me, the marriage would have been the one lucky thing that had happened in my otherwise nightmarish life.
For Jett, making me his wife would be an act of kindness.
So while I regretted the fact that I wasn’t going to be married to the man who had been so good to me since the day we met. I knew he didn’t deserve a homeless woman with no decent future in sight.
Unfortunately for me, I still had a childhood fairy tale in my head that said that a couple should be in love when they get married. And although I’d gladly take a marriage of convenience and friendship opposed to the miserable life I had now, Jett should be looking for a whole lot more.
He’d felt sorry for me.
And pity was no basis for marriage.
Jett had gotten me through giving my statements to the police and the FBI interviews that followed by claiming me as his girlfriend, and giving me his home address and information. So even though we weren’t married, I was under his protection when it came to my fears of being ignored or disregarded.
The kingpin of the human trafficking organization had been taken down by Jett’s sister, Dani, so all that was left for us to do was to testify against our kidnappers and we were currently waiting to find out more about when that would happen and how everything was going to work out for indictments.
“Are you okay?” Jett asked gruffly from across the small table of the restaurant he’d chosen for dinner.
I realized I’d been staring at the wall, lost in my own thoughts as I answered, “Yeah. I’m good.”
“Is this about the stuff I picked up for you? Because if it is, we can exchange anything you don’t like.”
Oh yeah, there was a number four. Jett Lawson seemed to think it was his duty to get me everything I didn’t have.
I knew from our conversations that Jett had a good job, but I had no idea how much he made as a tech guy who owned his own business.
Obviously, he’d had enough money or credit to pay over a hundred grand to buy my freedom. But by freeing me, Jett could have completely cleaned out his savings and credit lines. And I worried about that since I didn’t have a job or a place to live, so I couldn’t get that money back to him anytime soon.
“Every single thing you got was top of the line. How could I not like that stuff? But I don’t like the fact that you’re spending money on me.”
Jett had gone way overboard on buying me what he considered necessities.
Once he’d found out what size I wore when we’d made a stop to buy me jeans and shirts, he’d ended producing a whole wardrobe for me a few days later.
New things came every single day to Marcus’s condo, and my guilt was pretty much choking me. Jett and I were using Marcus’s place until we were done with all of the FBI questioning and interviews, so at least he wasn’t paying for our stay. But what he saved wasn’t nearly the same amount as the items he was buying.
We’d had several discussions about his over-the-top tendencies when it came to getting things he thought I needed. But I usually felt like I was talking to a brick wall.
Today, I’d gotten the latest and greatest cell phone on the market, and a laptop. I’d cringed at the amount of money it had costed him.
He shrugged as he set his menu aside. “The stuff didn’t exactly break me.”
Relieved, I smiled back at him. “I really would have been okay with just a few pair of jeans. I didn’t need anything else.”
Just having an extra set or two of clothes was a big deal for me. I’d end up back on the streets once Jett left, a place where anything except food and clothing just weren’t all that important.
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have been good with that,” he said.
As usual, his comment was vague, with no explanation as to why he felt he needed to give me things that I’d never be able to carry with me once I was homeless again.
In between buying me things he thought I needed, Jett had managed to track down the two women who had been held captive with me at the club, and he’d learned that they had both escaped and were safely back in their home countries.
Finding the other women who had been victims of the sex trafficking enterprise had been only one of the many things I’d seen him do that told me he was a decent guy.
Okay, maybe more than just decent. To me, Jett was extraordinary, no matter how much he grumbled.
The waiter arrived to take our order. After he retreated, I asked Jett, “How old are you?”
Okay. Yeah. It was weird that I didn’t even know the basics about the guy I’d been staying with for weeks, but I wanted to know more. I just wasn’t feeling his willingness to be open with me, so maybe I was going to have to be the one who pushed.
“I just turned thirty-one last month,” he answered.
“Is Dani older or younger?”
He leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “She’s the baby of the family. There’s five of us. Harper, my other sister, is between me and Dani. And I have two older brothers.”
I took a cautious sip of the glass of wine the waiter had just delivered before I replied, “I wish I had siblings.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So I take it you don’t?”
I knew Jett would like to know more about why I was on the streets, but he hadn’t asked me anything personal until now.
I shook my head slowly. “I don’t have anyone.”
His face turned grim, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but he seemed to shake it off and reached for his drink.
“I’d like the chance to thank your sister for what she did,” I said softly. “We barely knew each other, yet she was willing to send you to help me when she was rushing into her own bad situation.”
Jett had mentioned some of Dani’s history, and what she’d been doing in Florida. I’d been pretty surprised when I’d discover that she was trying to take down a millionaire who was completely corrupt and the ringleader of not only the sex trafficking operation, but a lot of other despicable crimes.
He shrugged. “I guess you have to know Dani. She’s always had a big heart.”
“And your other sister?”
“She’s the same way,” he admitted.
“And your parents?” I asked, feeling like I was tugging information from him, little by little.
He shook his head, his expression grim. “They were both killed in a car accident. But they were both incredible.”
So are you.
Jett Lawson obviously had the same qualities when it came to helping other people as his sist
ers did, even though he tried to blow it off as nothing.
Since I hated the sudden sadness I saw in his extraordinary eyes, I changed the subject. “So will you be going back to Seattle soon?”
I started to fumble with my linen napkin, waiting uneasily to get his answer.
“Pretty soon,” he said noncommittally. “When I do, you’re coming with me.”
My heart tripped at the thought of staying with Jett, but I knew I couldn’t hang out as a guest of his forever. He’d already done way too much for me. “For how long?”
“Do we really need to set a time limit on friendship?” he asked.
Were Jett and I really friends? Mostly, he’d pretty much been stuck with me because he was too nice to dump me back on the streets.
I shook my head slowly. “No. Friendship shouldn’t have a time limit. But I’m…scared.”
“Of me?” he asked, glancing up to look at me as he waited for an answer with a disappointed expression.
“No,” I said immediately. “I’m not afraid of you. But I’m terrified that I’ll get too used to being with you, too used to sleeping in a real bed, and much too used to not being alone.”
Becoming accustomed to something that was going to eventually end was never a good idea.
“You’re never going to be alone again, and you need to get that into your head right now,” Jett rumbled. “Do you honestly think I’m ever going to put you out on the streets? It’s not going to happen, Ruby. I don’t care if it takes years for you to get into a position to be on your own. Until that happens, you stay with me, or you let me get you a place here in Florida and pay your bills until you can make it on your own. Those are your choices.”
I balked at his bossiness, but I shoved my indignation away as quickly as it appeared. Really, I wanted some kind of normal life so badly I could almost taste it. I longed for a stability I’d never experienced. Someday, I wanted to repay Jett for every cent he’d spent on me. It might take decades to return the money he’d spent to get me off the auction block and to somewhere safe, but I would pay him back.
