CHAPTER 9
Gavin
Fucking hell… I cursed myself as I finished our drive to the local mall in silence. I’d done time in the slammer, not once, but twice, and Charlie was under the impression I was some kind of hero because I’d slipped a few extra bucks to a woman in need.
I really needed to straighten her out, let her know that I was far from the sterling guy she imagined. I was one of the most tarnished individuals she’d ever meet.
As visions floated through my mind about what had happened with Kane when we were in prison, I cringed silently. What would my sweet Charlie think about the fact that I’d raped my best friend?
My attraction to her kept deepening to the point where my dick was constantly hard whenever she and I were in the same vicinity—which was all the time, at this point.
I wasn’t sure what the hell was up with her father, but it sure as shit sounded like he wasn’t exactly a proud parent. How in the hell could any man not be proud of a daughter like Charlie?
I wanted to fuck her, and I wanted that badly. But the problem was, I also really liked her, and that complicated everything. Charlie wasn’t a woman you had a fling with and threw away. She was the type of woman you took to meet your family. She was the type of woman you spoiled. She was the type of woman a guy could fall for really hard.
And that made her dangerous.
There was no happily ever after for me, and certainly not with a woman like her.
I’d seen too much.
I’d done too much.
I’d experienced too much.
I had no doubt that some of the things I’d done she’d never understand. Why would she? Charlie had gone to school, studied to be a scientist, then pursued her career. Everything had been normal and above-board for her.
But I had lived my life in the shadows, and I stayed there. It was what I was used to, what I knew.
“What stores do you normally shop at?” I asked her. “Nordstrom?”
“Too expensive,” she said as she shook her head. “I just need some casual stuff.”
Nordstrom wasn’t a store I considered expensive. At least, not anymore. There were plenty of luxury stores that were far more expensive to shop at.
We argued good-naturedly for a few minutes before I finally parked near the middle of the mall, and we made our way to the entrance. She could wander wherever she wanted and I’d follow her.
I grinned as she made a beeline for one of the cheapest stores in the mall, a place known for inexpensive, but good quality, casual clothing.
“Stock up,” I warned her. “We don’t know when all this will end.”
She rolled her eyes, and the gesture was so damn cute that my dick was close to exploding.
“I do know how to do laundry,” she informed me indignantly. “I don’t need a whole bunch of stuff.”
She took a cart, running up and down the aisles so efficiently it made my head spin.
Underwear.
Shoes.
Socks.
Jeans.
And then T-shirts and sweaters.
We came to the toiletries next, and she shoved a few things in the cart.
“I think that’s it,” she mused as she surveyed the items she’d gathered.
We’d been in the store all of twenty minutes, and if the store hadn’t been so spread out, I’m sure she’d have managed to get everything done in five minutes flat.
“I’ve never seen a woman shop that fast,” I said. “How in the hell did you do that?”
She shrugged. “Most of the stores are set up the same. I’m not much into shopping, so I get the things I need as I go. And I hate wandering around.”
I knew instinctively that she was probably the type of woman who took a shopping list at Christmas and did everything in one, no-nonsense trip. Yeah, I kind of admired that, but it took the fun out of buying things for people who were important.
“Don’t you ever look at other stuff?” I asked as she started pushing her choices to a cash register.
She looked at me in surprise. “Why? Then I’d just be tempted to impulse buy things.”
“And that would be a bad thing?” I questioned.
“Of course. It would be a waste of time and energy, not to mention money.”
I pushed my way to the pay center as she unloaded the items. Once she was finished, and everything was rung up, I swiped my card and put it away.
“We can’t leave now,” I complained as we walked out of the store.
“Why?”
“We haven’t even been here for half an hour.”
“Did you need to get something?” she questioned.
Actually, I didn’t need a damn thing, but I took the bag from the cart as we dropped it at the door, then took her hand. “Let’s window shop.”
I wasn’t completely certain, but I was pretty sure she shuddered as I led her down the line of stores. Her aversion to malls was actually pretty adorable.
In the next hour, I’d added a new phone, laptop, and several other items to her growing list of purchases.
“Gavin, I really don’t need all of these things,” she complained as we went to the car with the items.
“Yeah, you do. You need a secure way to contact the people in your life so that they don’t worry about you when they realize you aren’t around. And you need to be able to do that without having it get traced back to your location.”
“There’s only me and my father, and he isn’t the type to panic,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Boyfriend?” Okay, the question wasn’t totally necessary, but I needed to know for sure.
“Nobody,” she answered wistfully.
I hated myself for being relieved that Charlie really didn’t have much of a life, and in that respect, we were very much alike. Yeah, Kane or my siblings would put out the alert once they realized that I was MIA, but it would take a while. Otherwise, I pretty much didn’t have anybody who gave a shit.
“What about your friends?”
She sighed as I opened the passenger door for her and she slid into the car. “There’s nobody who cares enough to report my disappearance to the police. I pretty much have the kind of friends who meet up occasionally for lunch or dinner.”
I slammed the passenger door and went to settle myself in the driver’s seat. Damn! Charlie was really alone.
“You know, that’s probably not the kind of thing you tell somebody you barely know,” I told her, wondering what would have happened if I had wanted to harm her. “What if I decided I wanted to abduct you?”
She laughed. “If you wanted to take advantage of the situation, you would have already done it.”
She was probably right, but she had no idea how difficult it was for me to fight the urge to pin her to the nearest wall and fuck her until my cock was satisfied.
Mine!
Fucking. Fantastic. I had it for Charlie in the worst of ways, and in addition to wanting to fuck her until she screamed my name, I wanted to take care of her, too.
There was no way I wanted her to know the internal battle I was fighting right now, but she sure as hell was not safe. If I heeded my baser instincts, she’d still be home in my bed trying to recover.
“Maybe so,” I muttered simply, not wanting to continue this conversation.
All I wanted was for her to understand that she shouldn’t trust me. She should never have faith in me. I wasn’t the type of guy who deserved the respect of a woman like her.
“So where is your partner?” Charlie asked. “Does he know you’re trying to save a damsel in distress?”
I was happy there was some levity in her voice. “He’s on his honeymoon. He just got married. We’re kind of between important projects at the moment.”
That wasn’t exactly true, but we weren’t working on anything enormous. I had trials to do for a big company, but Kane wasn’t as involved in testing as I was, and he deserved a damn honeymoon.
“So that’s why you were playing on the dark web?” Charlie asked curiously.
“I want to dismantle as much of the dark web as possible,” I explained. “If I could do it singlehandedly, I would. It’s an interest of mine.”
“An interest or an obsession?”
“Maybe a little of both,” I admitted. “I fucking hate the shit that goes on there. Sex trafficking. Prostitution. Underground gambling. Hits on really nice female scientists.”
She laughed, just like I’d hoped.
“I’m not much good on a computer,” she explained. “I don’t exactly hang out online and do the whole social media thing.”
“You’re not missing out on much—and the dark web is far different to anything most people would come across,” I cautioned. “It’s pure evil most of the time.”
Nothing good ever happened on the dark web. Taking it down piece by piece was my personal mission.
“So you were cruising around on the dark web when you saw my hit?”
I flinched. “I saw it as I was looking around, yes.” I hated the fact that I’d almost convinced myself not to get involved. So much bad shit happened there that I sometimes just focused on how I could abolish the whole thing rather than help one single person.
But somehow, Charlie’s situation hadn’t let me stay away.
“Thank you for stepping into this,” she said quietly. “You certainly didn’t have to. You may have saved my life.”
As I pulled into my driveway, I acknowledged to myself that I was glad I had decided to take action. Just the thought of anything happening to Charlie made my whole body tense, and my protective instincts spring into action.
“It’s not over yet,” I warned her.
No, the situation was far from resolved, but I swore right then and there that nothing would ever happen to Charlie unless I was dead and helpless to protect her.
The bastards would have to go through me first.