Chapter Eleven
Two weeks later
The gala had been a fantastic event. Lewis and Mandy had been seen out as a couple, and in doing that had brought to light part of Mandy’s past. Blake had made sure the story that ran protected a great deal of details. Mandy was a kid who’d been snatched by traffickers, and she’d lived an awful life. However, Lewis helped fund the agency that tracked her down and brought her home.
It was a dark fairytale love story.
He already had Hollywood wanting rights to make a movie.
The biggest problem with being in the public eye, his every single movement was monitored. He couldn’t go to the club, nor could he go out on a quiet picnic with his woman. Even Mandy couldn’t go anywhere. Everything had gone completely crazy in his world. The only thing that had changed, and gone back to normal, was his work for the Billionaire Bikers. He monitored a ten-mile radius of the city. He checked for girls being taken or reported missing.
It was extra work with running his business, but he liked it. Mandy was also good at helping to find the ones that could be high risk.
Late one evening after making them both pasta with pesto, Lewis broached the subject with Mandy of what he wanted to do.
“I’ve been thinking about opening a shelter of some kind,” he said.
“For the homeless?”
He’d purchased multiple warehouses that were in different states of repair. He could have them fixed and ready to be used in no time.
“Not just for the homeless. I was thinking for the women we rescue who don’t have a family to go to, and also for kids who run away.”
“How do you think that will work?” she asked.
“They’re running away for a reason, right?” She nodded. “It can be problems at home, or feeling like they’re not being listened to. They’re easily preyed upon. I want to create a sanctuary they can go to. They’re protected. They can have food, a warm bed, a place to stay, and I can employ someone, or a lot of people, who can help to figure out their problems.”
“It sounds like a great idea,” she said.
“But?”
“Isn’t that why they have foster homes and child protection?”
“They fail. We know that. We don’t like to admit it, but they do. This could help boys and girls make that fresh start. I want to give it a try. I think it is something that could really work.”
“I’m with you a hundred percent.” She leaned over and kissed his lips.
“Have you seen the girls that run away? The boys?” he asked.
She chewed her food and finally nodded. “Yes. Even though they were … guarded, they were at times the easiest to fool.”
“The offer of food, warmth, love?”
“Yes. Something that is easier than what they’ve experienced so far. I didn’t say any of this was pretty.” He watched as she bit her lip. “There was something I wanted to give to you. I finally finished it, and I wanted you to have it.”
She lifted six full-length notebooks. He had watched her write in them a lot over the past couple of years.
“What is this?” he asked.
“This is my story. It’s not always pretty or nice, but it’s my story. I wanted you to have it, and before we get married, I want you to read it. I want to see if you still wish to marry me afterward.” There were tears in her eyes.
“This won’t change my view of you, Mandy.”
“It hurts at times.” She took a deep breath. “I feel like the pain won’t stop, and then I can’t breathe. I want you to read my story.” She stood up, and took their plates. “I’ve numbered the notebooks so you know the first one.”
Lewis watched as she left the kitchen, and his heart felt heavy. He was saddened that she thought he would care about that.
Everything she had been through was at the hands of monsters.
Picking up the book, he flicked open the first page.
I’ve been wondering how I should do this. One of the therapists I was with said that it would be good for me to talk to someone, or write it down. How do you write down multiple years of being a girl and then a woman of trafficking? For ten years I knew love. I knew laughter, joy, and a crush that stayed with me throughout every single second of pain.
Those ten years helped to define who I was. During the worst part of my life, I remembered my upbringing. The strength in my character was because of that. I’ve not spoken to my parents since I got out. For as much strength they gave me in ten years, they abandoned me so easily. I couldn’t … I don’t want to talk to them.
My life changed forever one sunny July morning. My parents had to take my brother to some kind of appointment, but I didn’t want to go. I begged, pleaded, and acted like a complete child until Lewis Cox, my sexy-as-sin neighbor, offered to keep an eye on me.
In that moment, neither of us realized that our lives would be changed forever.
He was mowing the lawn, and I was watching him. He was so pretty. So strong. So handsome. I didn’t even think about anything as a car pulled up close to the curb near where I was skipping.
“Hey, girly, can you tell us where the gas station is?”
I was so busy in my fantasy that I didn’t think of all the warnings. I was at home. I wasn’t in any danger, and yet I was.
I moved toward that car, and the door opened. A kind-looking man got out, and he offered me a lollipop. It was a multicolored one. Really sweet, and my favorite. He leaned down as I pointed in the direction. I never got to tell him directions.
I was grabbed around the waist, and I screamed. I was shocked, and before I knew what was happening, he was pulling me into the car.
I was screaming, trying to get away, and the car was pulling away.
Lewis stopped reading. He knew what happened. He took a deep breath and moved from the table, and made his way into the bedroom.
Mandy wasn’t anywhere in sight, and he sat down on the bed, flicking past the couple of pages that described the chase.
When I woke up I was in a strange bed. There was a man there, smiling. It was the same man that had taken me. I tried to sit up, but he pushed me back down.
“You’re mine now.”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve got to go home.”
When I went to move again, he grabbed me around the throat and pushed me back on the bed. He squeezed my throat, cutting off my air. I panicked and tried to claw at his hands.
“You don’t need to cry,” Mandy said.
Lewis looked up at her. “How can I not?”
“I’m alive.” She cupped his cheek. “This is not to torture you.”
“I don’t care what things you’ve done. Everything you did was because of what you’d been told to do.”
“Does that make it right?” she asked. “I helped them get girls. I was a monster.”
They had been through this. He stared at the books. “I think your words should be made available for the world to see.”
“Please, for me, read it,” she said. She held his hand, and then kissed his lips. “That is my story. That is the woman you want to marry, and I need to know above everything else that you’ll be happy with me.”
Lewis agreed, even though he knew deep down that no matter what he read, or what he had to do, he would love her for the rest of his life. She was a fighter. The love of his life, and there was no way he was ever going to let her go.
****
Mandy knew her story well. She had lived through the years of abuse and torture. There had been manipulation from the beginning, and rape. Her life hadn’t been pretty. Since seeing Elijah and writing down her last words, she felt … at peace. She didn’t think it was possible to feel that way after everything, but she did.
For an entire week, she left Lewis in peace so that he could read her diaries, her memories. She had glossed over some points and detailed others. She recalled the parties where she was passed around and used. The way they made an example of her. The beatings that would leave her broken. There was one point she always made during the worst of it. The memory of Lewis. Thinking about him made her fight.
She hoped that as he read, he’d see a change within her. Knowing he’d been so close to her, seeing the evidence of his love, and his persistence had helped her to fight back. Her biggest regret, and her largest guilt, came when she’d been ordered to get the girls herself. To help lure them back into the nest. That had been one of the hardest things in the world she had ever had to do. She, of course, refused at first and got a beating for it, but in the end she’d done it, as she couldn’t keep taking the hits.
It was that very first outing that she’d seen Lewis’s name with a picture of herself. After that, she had known there was a way to save the women she had to lure. However, when she came home with nothing, Elijah held a gun to her head.
Looking back, she hadn’t realized it at the time, but it had been the first change in their relationship. She’d not begged him to save her. Mandy remembered looking into his eyes and begging him to pull the trigger, almost daring him with the look in her eye.
He’d not.
After a second week, she was sitting in the penthouse apartment, looking through wedding magazines for ideas of her upcoming wedding.
Jamie had informed her that it had to be this big, lavish event. The world was abuzz with the love of Lewis’s and her budding relationship.
She wished they could go back to the island and shut everything out, but that wasn’t an option. At least not for some time. She missed being there, but she also knew the club was onto another collection of women.
Several had been reported missing in the news, and even the club’s contact had asked for her help. Mandy had given them everything she knew, but had also warned them that they may do something different seeing as they now knew she was working for the club.
Lewis had told her what Robert had said. It didn’t surprise her.
Mandy had also warned him that just because the two men had been seen, there were a lot more who did the actual work, the luring, the capturing, the kidnapping. They wouldn’t catch Robert or Elijah in the actual act.
The police had nothing to work on.
They all had nothing but to wait until they slipped up.
She had expected Elijah to reach out again. He’d not.
Thinking about that moment in the ladies’ room made her smile. She had stood up to him, and no one, not even Elijah, could take that away from her.
The sound of the door opening filled her with happiness, especially as Lewis entered. Getting off the sofa, she rushed toward him, throwing her arms around him. Slamming her lips down on his, she kissed him deeply.
He had finished reading the last of her diaries, and before he made his final judgment of her, she had needed one kiss. Something to keep her sane.
Cupping his face, she kissed his lips again, knowing she would do anything for his love. “I love you, Lewis. I love you so much.”
Lewis chuckled. “You’ve never reacted like this when I’ve come home before.” His hands rested on her hips. “Why now?”
She closed her eyes, resting her head against his. I’m totally in love with you, and I’m scared you’re going to hate me.
Mandy didn’t say that. She placed her hand on his chest. The jacket was a little rumpled, and she went to step back.
He wouldn’t let her. His hands were still on her hips, and he wouldn’t budge. “That was some welcome. What’s going on, Mandy?”
Just talk to him.
Get it over with.
“I know you finished my diaries. The last one was on the pile, and I saw your bookmark at the end.”
“Ah, and you’re worried.”
“Everything I wrote was true. There’s nothing made up there. It’s all from the heart.”
He stroked her cheek with the backs of his knuckles. “I have no doubt at all. Did you expect me to fall out of love with you?”
Tears flooded her eyes. She had cried more in the past few months than throughout her entire life. Her emotions were riding high, and she couldn’t keep them in check.
“Erm, don’t you hate me?” The tears fell down her cheeks, and all she wanted to do was growl and dash them away. She didn’t do that. Instead, she stood, waiting for whatever he was going to say.
Lewis was her reason for living, the only reason she hadn’t taken her life, and then he’d given her a purpose in helping him. She needed redemption from her past, for the part she’d played.
“Mandy, I could never hate you. It’s not even possible for me to get angry with you.” He tucked some of her hair behind her ear. “You’re my angel. My reason for fighting all these years, and you will be my reason to keep on fighting. To help others. You think I don’t look back to that day and wish I hadn’t done things differently? I was mowing a lawn. You know, I’ve not mowed a lawn since that day.”
“What?”
He shook his head. “I guess the last time was enough of a punishment for me. There’s nothing worth it.”
“You weren’t to blame.”
“But that was what I was doing. I was mowing the lawn, thinking about football, and having a drink. I wasn’t even thinking about you, Mandy. I was taking care of you because I figured it would be easy. You were always trying to impress me, so you were an easy kid to look after.”
Now he was crying, and she felt like the worst woman in the world for making him. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“Your family blames me. I’ve not spoken to your brother in years because of it. I was asked to take care of you. I didn’t do that.”
“I helped them. I went to the car that day! Not only that, but throughout the years, I helped to lure girls, Lewis.”
“I know. I read everything you wrote, Mandy. Your story, it breaks my heart to know all that you went through. There’s no way I could have ever fallen out of love with you. It’s not possible for me to feel that way.” He cupped her chin and smiled. “I love you, Mandy. I’ll love you for the rest of my life, and that is never going to change.”
He pulled her into his arms, and Mandy sobbed as she finally felt happy. She couldn’t believe that he still loved her. The diary had been part of her soul where she had admitted everything. Lewis loved her, her savior, her hero, the man who hadn’t given up on her.
They sat down on her sofa and she snuggled up against him, closing her eyes as peace settled over her.
Lewis reached out, taking the magazine she’d been looking at. “Is Jamie forcing you to do all the details?”
“He wants me to put my spin on everything, but I don’t know. I struggle to make these kinds of decisions. I’d dress in jeans if it meant I got to be with you for the rest of my life.”
“Then how about we cancel all this and head out right now? We go to Vegas, and I’ll marry you.”
Mandy smiled. “Are you being real right now?”
“As real as I can be. I don’t need all that fancy shit. It’ll piss Jamie off, but this is about what we want. I didn’t know if you wanted the big white wedding, with the guests, the cake, and everything else.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want that. I just want you, Lewis. I will only ever want you.”
She straddled his hips, sank her fingers into his hair, and kissed him deeply. No one could take this away from her, and what was more, she wouldn’t let them do it either.