THIRTEEN
Rowdy ordered pizza at midnight and brought it to bed. He fed her bites of pepperoni and cheese and let her drink from his beer. He propped himself behind her, naked, and let her use his chest for a pillow as she acclimated herself from being a virgin to being his woman.
“When were the parents getting home?” The moon had risen hours ago, somewhere around the time that Rowdy was making her scream in the shower.
“They were staying overnight.” His voice was low, lazy. It soothed now, reaching into that part of her soul that had been stripped bare by his loving. “I thought we would stay the night on the boat.”
Kelly stilled against him. She could feel the tension slowly invading his body now, and it wasn’t sexual.
“Why?” Not that she cared to spend the night on the boat, but she knew he worried about vulnerabilities the boat presented if someone were watching it.
His arms came around her, snug, sheltering, and she knew immediately that something was wrong. Rowdy sighed behind her, his muscular arms flexing as he rubbed his cheek against her hair.
“You may as well tell me, Rowdy.”
“Someone was watching the house last night,” he said softly. “On the hill in front of your bedroom window. They were there for most of the night.”
Kelly swallowed tightly as she stared across the room. “He’s been watching me.” She had sensed it. A part of her had known she was being watched, she just hadn’t wanted to admit it.
“It’s okay, Kelly.” Rowdy’s voice lowered as his lips pressed against the top of her head. “It might not even be him. I just want to be certain.”
“And how are you going to be certain?” she asked, feeling the fear invade her in a slow, insidious crawl. “Where are Dawg and Natches?”
“They’re watching the boat. The sheriff is going to check out the hill tonight. He’s ex-Army, he knows how to do it. Besides, there’s no way I can make love to you in Dad’s house. Every time I think about it, Kelly, my balls shrivel.”
He was trying to lighten the mood. She could hear it in his voice. Kelly shook her head as she pulled herself from his arms and moved from the bed, swiping the shirt he had worn earlier from the floor and pulling it on.
“Kelly,” he protested softly. “Baby, I’ll fix this. I promise.”
She held her hand up without turning back to him, hiding her desperate attempt to hold back her screams with sheer force. Shaking her head she moved quickly to the doorway then down the steps that led to the first floor of the houseboat.
Where she was going to go, she didn’t know. There was no place to hide, no way to escape.
You’re my good girl, Kelly. My good little girl. Tell me you love me. You love me, don’t you?
Kelly stumbled at the last step as the words whispered through her mind, the memory of his hissing voice, his hands holding her down, parting the cheeks of her rear as he spread the lubrication there and attempted to rape her.
She had felt him trying to enter her.
She wrapped her arms over her stomach, determined not to throw up, not to scream in rage.
“Don’t do this to yourself!” Rowdy’s voice was dark, angry, as his arms came around her again, turning her to his chest, pulling her against him as he surrounded her, sharing the heat of his body as she felt ice building in her soul. “Kelly, I swear. We’ll catch him.”
She shook her head desperately, realizing tears were washing down her cheeks as the sobs clawed at her chest.
She could still feel the cuts the attacker had sliced into her flesh, the blood running over her skin, hot, slick.
“I can’t do this,” she cried, her fingers curling into fists as he held her to him, refusing to let her go. “I can’t do it again.” She would never survive another attack and she knew it. “Oh, God, Rowdy. Oh, God. I can’t…”
Rowdy picked Kelly up in his arms, moving to the sofa, cradling her against his naked body as he held her head to his chest and fought back the intense, primal violence threatening within him.
The bastard had scarred her. Not just her mind with his attempted rape, but her soul. The attack had instilled a fear inside her that he knew she would never fully recover from, and it destroyed him.
“It’s okay, Kelly,” he crooned at her ear. “I have you, baby. No one can hurt you here, sweetheart. I swear it.”
She shuddered against him. The cries had eased, but the trembling in her body hadn’t.
“Kelly, baby, you have to trust me.” He cupped her chin, forcing her to look up at him, his heart breaking at the sight of her eyes drenched in tears, her face pale from fear. “It’s going to be okay, baby.”
“It won’t be.” Husky, filled with fear, her voice sliced open his heart. “I knew he was watching me. I could feel him. God, Rowdy.”
She jumped from his lap before he could stop her, stumbling across the floor. She turned on him, her eyes blazing with cloudy fury as she stared across the distance.
“He won’t stop. He won’t stop until he hurts someone again, and next time, he might hurt you.”
What he thought was fury in her eyes was actually horror. He saw it swamp her features, leeching the rest of the color from her face.
Rowdy straightened from the couch, aware he was naked, aware his body was responding to the sight of her, the smell of her. He saw her gaze flicker down, then jerk back up.
“God, Rowdy now is not the time for that.” The look of complete female irritation on her face shouldn’t have been amusing—he was certain.
He made sure his look was completely wicked. He couldn’t bear to see the fear in her eyes; if he had to replace it with irritation or even anger, than so be it.
“Sweetheart, anytime is the perfect for this when you’re around,” he chuckled.
“No.” She shook her head, pacing back. “We have to talk about this, Rowdy. I have to figure this out.”
“Figure what out?” His eyes narrowed at the purpose that began to fill her face.
“I have to leave.” Her voice was laden with sorrow, with grief. “I have relatives on Dad’s side in Montana. It’s a nice little town. I can go there. For awhile.” Her voice roughened with the threat of tears.
“No.”
“Don’t be stubborn, Rowdy.” She faced him, determination and grief filling her eyes. “I can’t stay here. He could strike at Mom or your dad. Or—you.” Her voice trembled.
What the hell was he going to do with her? Rowdy stared back at her somberly, feeling his chest ache with an emotion that so outdistanced love that he couldn’t describe it.
“Forget it.” He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned back at her. “I’ll only follow you, Kelly.”
“You can’t follow me,” she snapped. “This is your home. The marina. The lake. All of it.”
“There’s lakes in Montana.” He shrugged. Arguing over her leaving would only make her more determined to go. He knew Kelly. Once she decided she was right, that was it. It took blood, sweat, and tears, on her part, before she would realize how wrong she was.
She was stubborn, defiant, soft, and loving, but she could drive him crazy in two hours flat if he let her. But he would never be bored with her. Frustrated, yes. Bored? Never.
“You can’t leave.” She glared back at him. “Your friends are here. Your cousins, your family.”
“So are yours.” He shrugged. “If you want to leave, fine. Pack. We’ll go to Montana. Hell, we’ll go to fucking Fiji if you want to and become beach bums, but you aren’t leaving without me.”
She propped her fists on her hips as her lips flattened.
“So I’m supposed to just sit here and wait on that bastard to attack again? Wait on him to hurt someone else? Maybe you?”
“I can take him.” His smile was tight, hard. He would relish it.
“You can’t fight a bullet, Rowdy,” she argued desperately. “What if he doesn’t fight fair?”
“What if you try dropping any idea you have of leaving me,” he growled. “It’s not going to happen. I didn’t go through hell for the past eight years to give you a chance to be certain you want me, just to have some sick bastard fuck it up. You’re mine, Kelly.”
And if his words didn’t convince her, then his cock better, because it was stiff as steel and throbbing with a life of its own.
Her gaze flickered down again, a bit of color flushing her pale cheeks as she licked her lips nervously.
“Put your pants on.”
“Why? I’ll just have to take them right back off,” he promised her. “Take the shirt off.”
“No.” She crossed her arms over her breasts again. “We’re not finished talking.”
“Of course we are.” He moved closer. “The only thing left is your decision. Do we stay or do we leave? Because whichever, Kelly, we do together.”
Before she could evade him he had her in his arms again, ignoring the sharp little nails that pressed into his shoulders as he pulled her hips in against his and pressed his cock against her lower stomach.
“Feel how hard I am, Kelly.” He nipped at her ear as she trembled in his arms. “Do you really want to leave me like this? Hot and hard for you? Aching for you every night that you’re gone? Like I’ve ached for the past eight years.”
“You survived,” she moaned.
“But I hadn’t had you then.” He licked the shell of her ear before trailing his lips to her throat. “I hadn’t felt your hot little pussy wrapped around my cock, milking me dry. I’ve had that now. I don’t think I can live without it.”
He watched as heat began to fill her eyes, as the anger in her expression softened, just a little.
“I don’t want you hurt,” she whispered breathlessly. “He’s crazy—”
“Damn right he is,” Rowdy bit off the fury that would have filled his voice, barely managing just anger. “He touched you, Kelly. He made the mistake of taking from you, of hurting you. Do you think I’ll ever forget that? That he won’t pay for it if I ever manage to find out who he is? The son of a bitch would have served himself better to run as hard and as far as he could from me, rather than stalking you. Because I won’t rest until I find him.”
Kelly opened her lips to speak, to argue he was certain, only to be interrupted by a less than polite pounding on the side of the houseboat.
“Open up, cuz,” Dawg called through the sliding doors. “We have trouble, man.”
Kelly’s eyes widened in alarm as Rowdy stalked to the back of the houseboat, grabbed a pair of shorts, and jerked them on before stalking back to the door.
Dawg and Natches stepped into the room seconds later, their expressions dark, cold.
“He hit the house while we were on the hill, Rowdy,” Dawg growled as he glanced over at Kelly. “Kelly’s room. He trashed it.”
He was going to kill the motherfucker. The minute Rowdy walked into Kelly’s room, he made that vow. This wasn’t like the promises he had made before to kill a son of a bitch. This was a vow, a soul-deep pledge to kill the sleazy, fucking bastard crazy enough to do this to his woman.
Her room was destroyed. Everything she had was destroyed.
Bits of lace and silk that had once been a treasure trove of frilly feminine panties and bras were scattered on the floor. Her hair bows were broken, ripped, cut. Her bedspread was slashed to ribbons as were her clothes.
Rowdy knelt in front of the closet and picked up the tatters of what had once been a pretty scarlet sundress. Beside it lay a shoe, the heel broken off, the red leather hacked at.
Makeup was smeared, swiped, and dumped over her dresser. Jeans were shredded, frothy nightgowns were unrecognizable, and more than a dozen pair of lace and silk stockings were destroyed.
The feathers from the pillows drifted along the floor, the dresser mirror was smashed, and the padding in the chair had been ripped out.
Kelly was still waiting downstairs to come up and see if anything was missing. The sheriff and his boys had finished dusting for prints, but nothing had been found.
“Someone was pissed.” Deputy Carlyle stood in the doorway, his expression curious as he stared around the wreckage.
Rowdy lifted his gaze and stared back at the younger man. Carlyle was new on the force. An unfamiliar face and therefore suspicious as far as Rowdy was concerned.
And Rowdy didn’t like the way he was staring around Kelly’s room. Curious. A little too interested in the bits of fluff that had once been her clothes.
Carlyle was young, maybe in his early twenties, definitely not long out of the Police Academy, with an ego that showed clearly on his handsome face.
“Did you get any prints?” Rowdy raised slowly, his eyes narrowed as he stared at the deputy.
“Nothin’.” Carlyle leaned against the door, his too lean body rangy, his brown eyes surveying the room again. “No prints on the door either. He slid right by the security system, came straight up here, and sliced and diced. Good thing Kelly wasn’t here.”
Rowdy restrained a growl. Bastard had no right to act so familiar with Kelly.
“Yeah. Good thing,” he retorted instead.
“Sheriff contacted your parents, they’ll be here soon.” Carlyle smiled. “They were upset of course.”
His parents? Rowdy frowned at the hint of condemnation in the deputy’s voice. As if Kelly were his sister, or some blood relation. The judgment set his teeth on edge.
“Are you finished here?” Rowdy asked tightly. “Anything else you need, Deputy?”
Carlyle lifted a brow. “Nothing, Mr. Mackay. We have everything.” He smiled confidently.
“Then maybe you should leave.” Rowdy smiled back, all teeth.
“I will.” Carlyle nodded. “As soon as we get Kelly up here to see if anything is missing. I need that before I leave. The sheriff insisted.”
Assaulting an officer of the law was a very bad thing, Rowdy reminded himself. Kelly would be upset. She wouldn’t be happy with him at all.
“She can give her statement tomorrow afternoon, Deputy,” he all but barked. “She won’t be able to tell you shit tonight.”
Carlyle smiled again as he lowered his head and shook it slowly.
“I heard you were a real tough guy,” he commented, his voice on the wrong side of mocking. “I’d rein that in if I were you, boy.”
Boy? Rowdy narrowed his eyes slowly.
“Get the fuck out of my house,” Rowdy growled. “Don’t piss me off any further, boy. And before you get on your high horse maybe you should call your boss and ask him just how far back we go together. You’re risking more than my fist in that smirking face of yours.”
Beating around the bush wasn’t his style, and he’d just had enough of this little dweeb’s sneer.
“Dawg and Natches are still downstairs, Mackay,” the deputy said.
“So?” Rowdy snapped.
“Last I heard, there isn’t much you boys don’t do together. Don’t tell me you’d actually fight without them.”
Rowdy smiled at that one. The kid was a punk, and he was about to learn a lesson he didn’t want right now. “I managed to kill just fine without them for four years, Deputy. Want to test it?”
Carlyle’s smirk was going to get him killed for sure.
“I’ll just leave you to your business here then,” he chuckled. “Bring Kelly into the office in the morning. I’m looking forward to talking to her.”
Carlyle turned then and ambled down the hall as Rowdy reminded himself that killing outside the Marines was a bad thing. Very bad. Especially smart-mouthed deputies.
Son of a bitch, when had kids like that decided the job was a power trip? Rowdy had half a mind to follow him outside and show him what real power was. The kind of power that slipped up on you in the dark and left you bleeding.
And he could have, hell, he would have taken him out while he was standing there in the doorway with that sneer, but all he saw was Kelly. She would have been horrified if he had actually hurt that little punk while she was around.
Shaking his head he moved downstairs, mentally gearing himself up to face Kelly. Every little treasure she possessed had been in that room. The teddy bear he won for her at a fair when she was just a kid. The porcelain doll one of her friends had gotten her for a birthday. Her frilly hair bows and her silky clothes.
He stepped into the living room, his gaze connecting with Dawg and Natches as Kelly jumped to her feet from the chair she had been sitting in.
“How bad is it?” Her fingers were twisting together in front of her, her face pale.
Damn, he hated this.
“It’s pretty bad, baby,” he sighed, moving to her and pulling her into his arms.
She fit against him perfectly. A warm weight he hadn’t known was missing in his life until now.
“I’m okay.” She shook her head against his chest. “I need to go up there, though. I have to see what’s left. The sheriff wants a statement.”
And he couldn’t keep her from going up there, despite the fact that it was killing him.
He stared at Dawg and Natches over her head and with a small movement of his head indicated that he wanted the area outside of the house checked. The sheriff’s boys could have missed something. Something his cousins might identify quicker than the investigative team that had come out could have.
Dawg nodded as he and Natches moved from the room.
“Come on,” Rowdy sighed, keeping his arm around her. “Let’s go check it out.”
There was nothing left, just as Rowdy had warned her. Kelly stared at the mess silently from the doorway and fought back her tears. Even the jewelry box had been destroyed.
“How am I supposed to tell if anything is missing?” The destruction was complete.
“We’ll get it cleaned up.” Rowdy’s arms were wrapped around her from behind, his presence sheltering her. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“It’s not your fault.” Kelly shook her head, trying to hold back the fear growing inside her. “He’s angry now, isn’t he?”
Always be my good girl. You’ll always be my good girl.
“Yeah, he’s angry now,” Rowdy admitted. “But he’s not the only one. Do you want to go through the room now or wait till morning? It might be better to wait.”
She had been violated again. Kelly could feel the pervasive knowledge that even though the attacker hadn’t touched her again, he had still violated her. He had taken something else from her.
She shook her head. “I need to get this cleaned up. I can’t stand knowing it’s destroyed like this.”
She had to force back her tears. It broke her heart, seeing her treasures destroyed as they were, knowing there was nothing she could do to bring them back. But wasn’t that the purpose behind this sort of attack? To take her mementos, the things she loved away from her?
She moved into the bedroom, staring around at the destruction, and wanted to scream. This was her room. She had had all her treasures here. Her jewelry, her stuffed animals, her dolls. And her hair bows. For once Rowdy hadn’t been able to save her hair bows.
She bent down and picked up the pieces of a hair comb. The small fake pearls were crushed, the little crystals shattered. It had been one of her favorites.
“We’ll replace them, Kelly,” Rowdy promised behind her. “All of them.”
She cradled the bit of plastic that was left in her palm. They could replace the hair bows, but nothing could replace the sense of security that had been stolen from her.