Chapter 12

As much as Holly clung to the relief that Madison was back safe and sound, her joy was short-lived. She was allowed perhaps three days with her daughter, reveling in every sight of her, the sound of her voice and the few touches Maddy allowed, before she was called back to the restaurant.

Kelly told her specifically that she’d had a visitor who promised to return to see her at a certain date and time.

Holly had never missed one of Kirk Luckston’s visits – and so she hardly knew what was in store for her.

But she could guess.

On her drive into the city, she tried to tell herself not to dwell on it. She had long learned that there was no way to mentally prepare herself for an encounter with Kirk Luckston. The man was unpredictable and crazy as a rabid dog.

Instead, she focused on Shane, and how she’d gotten him underneath her for the first time.

Though it hadn’t been intentional, Holly had turned Shane into her coping mechanism. It was selfish for more reasons that she could count, but she told herself that she was keeping the man safe by keeping him at a distance – and in turn, he helped her get through every meeting she had with the man who was slowly eating away at every shred of her dignity.

Holly knew she had acted impulsively. Shane had come to close – right to the edge of her spilling the truth to him – and that would have been dangerous for everyone involved. So, instead of speaking, Holly had touched him.

And God, had she touched him.

The man was all hard lines and mouthwatering muscle, from chest to thigh and beyond. Somehow, she hadn’t expected him to be nearly so responsive – for the skin pulled over tight steel to flutter beneath her touch and contract under her tongue.

Shane tasted like salt, sweat and a deeper, uniquely unidentifiable flavor that was simply him…and from the first sample, Holly was utterly and totally hooked.

Before Shane, she didn’t think she would ever have called herself aggressive in bed. Certainly, Tommy let her be on top her fair share of times and she’d enjoyed it well enough, but she had never been a take-charge sort of woman. Shane made her want to explore. To wretch every reaction she could from his gorgeous body and then some. Holly could lick him from head to toe and she knew it would never be enough.

That she would always want more.

She pressed her lips together tightly as she slid out of her small silver SUV in a parking lot not too far from the restaurant.

Kelly had suggested that she was leeching all the happiness from her life by not indulging Shane, but that wasn’t the truth at all. She was preserving his happiness. The man might have only re-entered her life a month ago, but Holly could see exactly who he was: a caring, kind figure that was perhaps a little too overprotective for his own good. A damaged man with a painful past he was trying to overcome.

The urge to give into him was almost overwhelming. There were times where she wanted to take him into her arms and soothe every hurt that he’d ever had…but Holly knew better.

They might be able to sleep together, but anything beyond that would complicate things – Tommy’s memory, Shane’s relationship with Maddy…there was enough guilt to go around the block and back when it came to things she couldn’t control. If there was one thing Holly knew, it was that loving someone meant losing them.

And she didn’t know if she could go through that again.

Locking her car, Holly quickly made her way to the restaurant, which was already open and serving brunch. Kelly greeted her at the door with a bright smile, taking her coat. As usual the blonde looked absolutely resplendent. Only she could pull off looking like an absolute goddess in her Tommy’s uniform. “He’s in the office waiting for you.”

Immediately, her heart plummeted into her stomach.

But for Kelly, Holly plastered a grin on her face, nodding as she made her way through the restaurant and towards the back office.

The door to the small room was already ajar when she reached it, and she took a deep breath before letting herself inside.

Kirk Luckston sat behind her desk, his hands folded before him, watching her with half-crazed blue eyes. Holly closed the office door behind her before setting her bag on top of the file cabinet to face her foe.

Kirk merely unfolded his fingers to tap them impatiently against the desk as they stared one another down for a long beat. Then, without a word, he beckoned her.

Holly went. She knew better than to try and escape him. It would only make what came next worse. No sooner had she come within arms-length than Kirk lunged forward, one hand yanking at a handful of her dark waves to bring her closer to him. Holly muffled her cry of pain by biting down on her lower lip – hard. “Where the fuck were you earlier this week?”

He certainly didn’t waste any time getting to the point, breathing words tinged with both lust and fury into her ear as he palmed her breast roughly. Holly flinched only slightly, telling herself stolidly to think of Shane. What Shane had done to her in this room. How Shane had managed Maddie earlier that week after the police found her.

Shane.

“I had an issue at home.” She managed, her scalp throbbing beneath Luckston’s hold. “There was an emergency and I couldn’t come in!”

“What the fuck kind of emergency takes you from me?” He seethed in return, forcing her body down into Tommy’s chair and against him. “You’re mine, d’you hear me? For as long as I deem necessary.”

“Yes, Kirk.” He pinched her thigh harshly enough that she knew he’d leave a bruise and she inhaled sharply as his grip on her hair only tightened. “The next time you miss a meeting, I’ll go right on down to that nice little community your mother lives in and pay her a visit.” Holly’s stomach twisted in nervousness. She’d meant to take Maddy down to visit her grandmother before she’d run away, but that had, of course, been nipped in the bud.

More than anything, she wanted to scream at Luckston for daring to threaten her family when she’d already been through so much, but she knew what the results of that endeavor would be. So she just kept silent. And later on that evening, she’d put in an anonymous tip about tightening the security in the community where her mother lived.

“Now, where’s my money?”

He always asked for the money first – but it never hurt Holly any less to part with it. Half of their biweekly earnings – sometimes up to thirty thousand dollars. Somehow, Holly strongly doubted that Tommy would have left enough debt for her to be paying Kirk Luckston forever.

Now he was just enjoying the power he held over her.

“If you let me go, I’ll get it for you.” She managed stiffly.

“No.” His reply was curt and immediate. “You can get it when I’m done with you.”

Holly’s stomach immediately tightened in apprehension, nausea threatening. While Kirk might not actually defile her body, he found plenty of ways to entertain himself with it – and none of them were pleasant. Closing her eyes, Holly concentrated on Shane.

And waited for Kirk to finish.