“He used to make me do these private performances for him and his friends. Sometimes his girlfriend would be there and I’d have to play while they held hands and stuff. It was like I became a possession to him…like that damn violin.”
The pain in Nolan’s voice hurt my heart and I found myself putting my arm around his shoulders and tucking him up against my side. I was glad when he dropped his head on my shoulder.
“It took almost three years for me to come to my senses and end the relationship. The day after I told him I was leaving him, the violin disappeared from my apartment. Trey told the police I’d taken it to get back at him because I was obsessed with him. He told them he’d only been helping me out by paying for the apartment and stuff because I was broke. When I told them I’d given all my money to Trey to invest for me, they didn’t find any proof of any investments.”
I stiffened and forced Nolan to sit up so I could type out a message.
He stole your money?
Nolan nodded. “All I had left was about five thousand in my checking account. I’d given Trey access to all my accounts, so I never knew when he took the money or what he did with it, but the police couldn’t link any of the transactions back to him. They believed Trey’s story that I took the violin. They accused me of stealing it to both get back at Trey and because I was hoping to sell it on the black market.”
What happened? Did they charge you?
Nolan shook his head and dashed at his eyes. “No, but it was close. The cops found surveillance footage of someone my size and height taking the violin from the building. But I had an alibi for when it happened. I’d flown to London to audition with the orchestra there. Trey hadn’t known about it. The cops were able to see that whoever took it had some kind of tattoo on his arm. They accused me of having a friend steal it, but they didn’t have any proof, so they couldn’t charge me.”
So it was never found?
“No. Trey told anyone who would listen that I took it. He was really powerful in the community and everyone believed him over me. He ruined my reputation – no orchestra will hire a musician who steals. The cops…they even came out here to question my parents,” he whispered.
Your parents, they believed you, right?
He didn’t answer, which was answer enough.
Is that why you came back to Pelican Bay? I asked.
Nolan shook his head. “Um, no. My plan was to take what little money I had left and just disappear. Maybe get a job teaching music somewhere. Then my mom called to tell me my dad had a partial stroke and told me I needed to come back to help her take care of him. I thought it would just be for a few weeks…”
The truth of the situation hit me when I remembered Nolan’s sheer desperation for a job. If he’d had some money saved up, it meant he hadn’t been the one with money trouble.
Which left his parents.
Jesus, had he really used his money to bail out the parents who hadn’t believed their own son when he’d denied taking the violin?
“You know what the worst part is?” Nolan said softly. He looked at me briefly before turning his attention back to the raccoons. “When Trey had the locks to my apartment changed, he left my clothes in garbage bags with the doorman. But he wouldn’t give me back the violin I’d been using before he gave me the Stradivarius.” Nolan shook his head. “I’d saved for so long for that violin. It was worth practically nothing to a guy like him. But he knew what it meant to me…what it meant to be able to play every day, whether I was performing or not.”
I fought the unholy urge to hunt Trey down and kick his ass.
After a few minutes of silence, Nolan turned to me and said, “Thanks for bringing me, Dallas. I like knowing he has a chance now.” He motioned to the family of raccoons. The baby Nolan had saved was slightly smaller than its adopted sibling, but it had grown strong under its new mother’s care.
I pulled Nolan’s hand up to my mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of it. His skin was cold so I eased myself to my feet, ignoring the sting in my own hip, and then pulled him to a standing position. And for the life of me, I couldn’t release his hand after that. So I ignored the mixed messages I was sending him and held onto his hand as I grabbed the cage with my other hand.
And I didn’t release him until we’d made it all the way back to the truck.
Chapter Nine
Nolan
What the hell had I been thinking?
That was the question that kept going through my mind as I stared at the aisle full of bags and bags of dog food.
Grain-free.
Large breed.
Small chunks.
Beef flavored, chicken flavored, beef and chicken…the choices were endless.
“He says just get whatever,” I murmured to myself as I finally looked at the price tags and selected something halfway between the most and least expensive. After that, I picked the bag with a dog that looked most like Loki on the outside of it and began dragging the huge bags into the grocery cart.
It had been my idea to drive to town to grab the dog food after the guy who delivered all of the food and supplies for the center messed up and forgot to include the week’s supply of dog food. Since there hadn’t been enough left to feed the dogs their evening meal, I’d suggested to Dallas that we just buy enough to tide the dogs over until the guy brought a special shipment in a few days.
I hadn’t understood why Dallas had been so hesitant at first.
And I felt pretty shitty that he’d been forced to tell me rather than me figuring it out on my own.
I don’t go to town.
Those few words, along with the memory of how my mother had talked about Dallas, like he was a damn pariah, had been enough to make me realize that was exactly what he was.
It was what the town had turned him into.
And all because of a bad choice he’d made ten years ago that so many of the residents could have easily made themselves.
Dallas had been on the verge of making the forty-five-minute drive to Greenville, but when I’d offered to go to the local farm and feed store in Pelican Bay, he’d reluctantly conceded. I’d been tempted to ask him to come with me, because it bothered me more than I wanted to admit that he’d let the townspeople run him out of the place he’d been revered in as a kid, but I’d decided against it. Having had my own bout with infamy, I couldn’t really fault him for it. After all, if I’d had the chance, I would have run from Pelican Bay for a second time without looking back.
As it was, I could already feel the stares and muted whispers as people began recognizing me. I’d been back for more than a month and the talk about me that had been going around while I’d been searching for a job hadn’t dissipated even a bit. I suspected I had my mother’s gossiping ways to thank for that. She’d ended up adding fuel to the fire by spreading the word that I was working for Dallas. I had no clue why anyone cared, since I’d never been worth noticing before my return to Pelican Bay and clearly people wanted to pretend Dallas and his animals didn’t exist. But as I made my way to check out, one person after another watched me with suspicious eyes.
I half-expected someone to tackle me and accuse me of planning to steal the dog food.
All four bags that, combined, weighed more than I did.
I breathed a silent thanks when I saw that there wasn’t a line at the checkout, but that thanks turned into a slew of curse words as soon as my eyes landed on the man running the register.
Jimmy Cornell.
AKA Nolan Grainger’s Tormentor-in-Chief.
I didn’t bother begging Fate to make it so Jimmy didn’t recognize me, because his eyes lit up the second he saw me.
Like a kid who’d found his favorite toy behind the couch after months of searching for it.
“Nerdy Nolan Grainger,” Jimmy said with a wide grin as his eyes raked over me. “Heard you were back in town.”
The years hadn’t been kind to Jimmy. He had stringy black hair that hung in a disheveled mess around his face. Hi
s once-lean frame was now carrying a decent beer belly that the store’s red apron couldn’t hide. His teeth were yellowed and one was actually missing. There was a certain dullness to his gaze that reminded me of many of the homeless drug addicts I’d so often seen on the streets of both San Francisco and Boston alike. I had to wonder if it was more than just too much beer that Jimmy splurged on. I’d seen enough on the news recently to know that small towns weren’t immune to the vices of the big city. It wouldn’t have surprised me a bit if drugs had managed to find their way to the postcard cover worthy hamlet of Pelican Bay.
“Jimmy,” I said with a nod. “I’m all set,” I added, hoping to speed things along. What I really needed was a customer to get in line behind me, but, of course, Fate was having too good of a time.
“You gonna ask your mama to try out some new recipes for you?” Jimmy said with a laugh as he nodded at the dog food.
I bit back the urge to lob some equally crude comment back at him since he was the son of my mother’s best friend, Edith. Not only would word get back to my mother, it would get back in such a way that only reinforced her theory that I’d been corrupted by city life. I pulled in a breath and said, “I’m in a bit of a hurry, if you don’t mind.”
“Whatcha gotta do? Plan your next heist?” he cackled as he grabbed his scanner and began ringing up the bags.
I stayed silent as he totaled the bill and read me the amount. I handed him the credit card Dallas had given to me to pay for the food. But just before he ran it through the scanner on the register, he paused and studied the card.
“Well, looks like we got ourselves a problem. This here card ain’t yours.”
“It’s Dallas’s,” I said. “The food is for his wildlife center.”
“So you say,” he said snidely. “How do I know you didn’t steal it?”
“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll use my card.” I dug my wallet out of my pocket and pulled out my debit card. I barely had enough left in my personal account to cover the cost of the food, but I knew Dallas would reimburse me. I handed it to Jimmy, but he ignored it and pinched Dallas’s card between his fingers.
“So you’re working at that reject zoo of his?” he asked. “Shoulda seen that one coming a mile away.”
Ignore him, Nolan.
Ignore him.
“Seen what?” I asked, shutting out that voice in my head.
“The way you were fawning all over him in school. Couldn’t stop staring at him. Guess you finally got what you wanted, huh? Wouldn’t have been hard nowadays, considering things. The fag and the freak,” he mused, his dull eyes shifting from the card to me.
I ground my jaw together and held out my card. “The food, Jimmy.”
“So how does it work? He bends you over so your ass looks like any girl’s and you get what…a good pounding? Or you in it for something else? Heard he’s still sitting pretty with all the cash he got after killing his folks. That’s called, what…” Jimmy mulled his words over before saying, “A mutually beneficial relationship?”
“Which part is it that riles you more?” I asked as I leaned across the counter and snatched Dallas’s card from Jimmy’s fingers. “The fact that even without his voice he’s still more man than you’ll ever be, or that it’s not your ass that’s getting pounded?”
Jimmy’s eyes blazed with fury, but just as he was about to reach for me, a man’s voice called, “Jimmy?”
We both turned to see a portly older man watching us from a doorway leading to a small office in the corner of the store near the registers. He was wearing a nametag like Jimmy’s, but I could see it had the title of Manager underneath the name.
“Problem here?” he asked as he stepped closer to the register.
“Um, no sir, Mr. Blaine. I was just checking this gentleman out.”
Thankfully, the manager hung around while Jimmy completed the transaction. I hurried out of the store, but not before I heard the manager’s raised voice behind me. A part of me wanted to stay behind to watch the guy chew Jimmy out, but the other part of me was eager to get back to the center.
Funny how it had become a sanctuary of sorts for me, too, in the past few weeks.
It had been a little over a week since Dallas and I had released the raccoons, and we’d been getting along better and had even started having lunch together in Dallas’s office every afternoon. I’d gotten to hear more and more about the different animals and their stories, but curiously, Dallas never talked about himself. But he did ask me a lot of questions, mostly about all the performances I’d given in different cities all over the world.
The work itself had gotten a little easier for me as my body had adjusted to the physical demands of the job. I’d been surprised when Dallas had asked me if I wanted to start helping him with other tasks that involved the wildlife. It was still just a lot of cleaning, but since I was now able to get my chores done with the domesticated animals by lunchtime, I spent the rest of the afternoon helping Dallas clean or repair various habitats. He’d let me interact with some of the wildlife that weren’t considered dangerous and that weren’t slated to be re-released, and I’d quickly grown as fond of them as I had of Jerry and the other animals I spent my mornings with.
The only problem with spending more time in Dallas’s presence was that it made me want to spend more time in his presence.
But not just professionally speaking.
Horizontally speaking was definitely at the top of the list. I’d even had plenty of fantasies where vertically would have been extremely desirable. But I also wanted to do the stuff that came before and after.
I wanted to be able to touch him whenever I wanted.
I wanted to make him smile or laugh.
And no, he didn’t actually make any sound when he laughed, but a few times I’d caught him lost in a humorous moment when he hadn’t had time to be self-conscious about how he looked when he laughed without sound. Truth was, he didn’t need to. His body did all the talking for him.
But it was just another case of Nerdy Nolan wanting something he couldn’t have.
Because Dallas had been a perfect gentleman ever since the night he’d come to my house and told me it had been a mistake to fuck me.
We were squarely parked in the friend zone and the parking brake had been set and locked.
Stop.
Do not pass go.
My nerves from the encounter with Jimmy didn’t ease until I was within a few miles of the center. The second I pulled into the driveway, Loki was there to greet me. I’d long ago lost my fear of the big animal, so as soon as I was out of the car, I dropped to my knees in the couple of inches of snow we’d gotten overnight and wrapped my arms around him. He licked my wrist and then tried to steal my glove from my pocket. Keep away was one of the few dog games that Loki liked, and it never failed to have Dallas laughing his ass off as he watched me chase the wolf hybrid around trying to get the damn thing back.
“Nope, not this time,” I said as I grabbed my glove before he could pull it from my pocket. “I’m on to you.” Dallas had definitely chosen well when it had come to naming the animal Loki – he was most certainly a trickster.
“Where’s your daddy, huh?”
On cue, Dallas stepped around the corner of the building. He gave me the okay sign and I nodded. There was no need to tell him about Jimmy. I pulled his card from my pocket and handed it to him. “They wouldn’t take it without you there so I had to pay using my money.”
Dallas frowned and immediately pulled out his wallet. I covered his hand and said, “Give it to me later. Before I leave.”
He nodded and then motioned to the trunk. We spent the next few minutes hauling the bags of dog food down to the dog enclosure and fed the excited animals. It was pitch dark by the time we finished, though it wasn’t even five o’clock yet. Dallas and I walked side by side back up to the driveway. We stopped by my car and he gave me the money for the food. His eyes held mine for a moment and I found that I couldn’t look aw
ay. I would have given anything for him to kiss me.
He pulled out his phone and typed, Stay for dinner?
It was the first time he’d asked me to stay since the night I’d started working for him.
“I can’t,” I said, disappointment seeping through me. “I promised my mother I’d be home by five-thirty. She’s got plans with her friends tonight.”
Dallas might have looked disappointed, but I couldn’t be sure.
How is your dad?
“Struggling,” I admitted. “He doesn’t make it easy.”
It was a huge understatement. My father had become combative with both his physical and speech therapists.
And me, of course.
Despite the assurances of his doctor and the therapists, he’d seemingly given up on whatever hope he might have had at making a complete recovery. He wasn’t as aggressive toward my mother, but even she was feeling the strain of caring for him. Despite my frustration with her, I couldn’t fault her for needing a break.
I thought the conversation was over, but Dallas typed me another message. Tomorrow night?
I went all giddy on the inside like a schoolgirl being asked out by the cutest boy in school. Sadly, it wasn’t far from the truth.
“I’d like that,” I said with a nod.
We said our goodbyes and I drove home. My mother was already dressed and ready to go by the time I walked in.
“He’s eaten already,” she said as I handed her the keys. I didn’t miss the pallor of her skin beneath her carefully applied makeup or the smudges under her eyes. “He had a rough day, so he should go to bed early.”
“Okay,” I said. “Have fun.”
My mother stood there stiffly for a moment, then nodded and put her hand on my arm and gave it a little pat before she left. The move was so uncharacteristic that I stood there in the kitchen for several long seconds after she left. I went to check on my father who was half-asleep in his chair.
“Dad,” I said as I carefully touched his arm.
Locked in Silence_Pelican Bay [Book 1] Page 12
