Chapter Three
Melissa
He’d come.
My Viking man had come to claim me as his. I hadn’t believed him at the time because every man in my life had either been a prick or up and left without looking back or giving me a reason.
Forgetting me.
Even Julian had forgotten for a while. Of course I understood it, but it didn’t mean it hurt less.
Yet, there was one who’d picked me.
Who’d come for me.
Followed me.
Wanted me.
It was the man cradling me to him while I tried to get myself under control. He held me even though I knew, from his stiff posture, he wasn’t comfortable being around a woman who showed their emotions.
He was there and doing something he hated for me.
I couldn’t have been happier. Even though my face hurt like a bitch, I was content because I was in Dallas’s arms. I’d lost count of the times my thoughts had strayed to him. Wondering what he was doing, who he was doing it with, and where he was.
At first, I thought I had been dreaming his voice. The caress of it across my skin had relaxed me. I’d kept my eyes closed and prayed to hear it again, and when I did, a shiver had tingled over my body.
Seeing and feeling him helped me deal with what was happening. He gave me hope to stay strong for me and Della.
Then again, with hope, there was also dread for Dallas being there. It meant he could get caught up in everything, and I didn’t want him to.
It was my problem, and Dallas would be dragged down from being around me. Jimmy would haul Dallas down because of me, and I couldn’t let another person be touched in any way by Jimmy.
“Tiny, we don’t have much time. I have to get out of here before that fucker wakes for any reason, and I need to know if I’m taking you with me or not?”
Sniffing, I lifted my sleeve and wiped at my nose. “Why would you ask?” I was surprised he was giving me a choice. Then again, he didn’t know I would pay anything to be out of the situation I was in if it meant Della and I would stay safe.
He grunted. “I know you don’t want to stay. Fuck, your bruises and tears are enough to tell me. So if you’d said no, I’d lug you outta here by your hair if I had to. This situation is poisonous. However, I know something else is at play here. I know you wouldn’t stay if you didn’t have a good reason.”
Shit.
He knew me.
But how?
How did he know I stayed because I had no choice? If I was to save Della, I had to stay and do as I was told.
Della, who had been doing her own undercover work at one of Jimmy’s strip clubs, had contacted me through a mutual acquaintance because she wasn’t getting what she needed. She sought out my services of digging up all the information I could find on Jimmy Vanclove.
Modella Kent, or Della for short, wanted dirt on Jimmy so she could send him away for a long time. She believed he was the one who’d killed her sister.
At first, I was doing it for a job and for the money. It wasn’t until I found things out about Jimmy that I made it my own personal mission to put the sick dick away.
Jimmy was well known in Sydney. He owned many businesses in the city, which in turn, told me he owned many people as well. I didn’t know how deep it went until the detective I went to handed me right on over to Jimmy.
Jimmy had been watching me watch him.
He liked what I could do with a computer. He liked I could get into places without being noticed.
He also knew it had been my friend Della who had contacted me in the first place because her little sister had gone missing. In the end, when the police had come up with nothing, she’d decided it was up to her to find the truth, which was how she’d become one of his strippers.
Somehow Della’s sister had caught Jimmy’s attention.
Jimmy liked little girls. Ashley, Della’s sister, was a beautiful, sweet girl and only fifteen when she went missing. She was fifteen when he took her from the shopping centre and raped her. She was fifteen when he kept her with him for over six months, using and abusing her.
She was only fifteen when he killed her.
Drowned her.
He made it look like an accident. But I knew, from the footage I found on Jimmy’s own personal computer, what had happened.
It was that footage, along with two more I’d found, that I took to the detective over two months ago. I’d been stupid to think Jimmy’s hands didn’t reach that far. The detective had asked me to take a drive with him. He’d wanted to show me some cases he had and I’d foolishly followed without another thought. We’d stopped at the house I currently lived in, and when the front door opened with Jimmy standing in it with a smile on his face, I’d tried to make a run for it. I didn’t get far. Jimmy had too many men working for him.
As soon as I was in the house and sitting in the living room, Jimmy offered me a job. After I had finished laughing in his face, he smiled a knowing smile, and at the time I didn’t know why. I didn’t know until he’d explained they had Della, and if I didn’t work for him, doing anything he wished, she would end up dead, and it would be all my fault. Then if I did choose to be smart, he would leave her alone, only have her doing what she was paid for, working at his strip joint.
I had to protect Della in any way I could, at least until I had more on Jimmy. He’d already destroyed everything I had, including my laptop.
So I picked door number two. I worked in his computer company doing illegal shit for him by finding out everything I could on businesses he wanted to take over.
At first, I had my own place and his men followed me everywhere. Until I had tried to run, to grab Della, and get away from him. It didn’t work. Which was how I had become married to Jimmy. He wanted me living under his roof and under his thumb even more.
I was valuable to him.
When he showed me a video of a man beating and raping Della, I had no choice but to follow through with what he wanted. So I said those vows as he slid his ring on my finger, since he once again promised me Della would stay safe if I did everything he wanted. And if I ran again, it wouldn’t be Della receiving the fists or being raped. She’d be dead, and it would be me being used by his men.
However, when Julian rang and I heard his fear, I’d had to do something. It was Julian.
He’d needed my help, and he was one person I would risk my own life for.
Still, I played it smart and went to Jimmy asking him for some time away. Stating that if I didn’t help Julian, he would know something was up and he’d come looking for me, which wouldn’t be good for Jimmy. I promised to be back in a certain amount of time. At first, I was shocked when he said I could go. But he was smart because he knew I’d come back for Della.
The weeks I’d been away were the best I’d had in a long time.
The best.
Meeting Dallas, my Viking man, and teasing him taught me, no matter who I had to go back to, I was still myself on the inside. The thought to tell not only the Hawks men, but also Mason, about what I was dealing with had crossed my mind. But it had quickly fled. It was my mess to clean up and I didn’t want trouble to be dropped on either clubs. God, they had their own crap to deal with. I wasn’t going to add to it.
So I’d enjoyed my time. I’d smiled, had fun, and instantly fell in like with a certain someone.
When I got back, a day late, Jimmy wanted me to learn my lesson for having him worry. He gave me to one of his men, Tate. I was lucky enough that Tate was the only man I could stand. He wasn’t bad like the others. So when he took me into my room, he asked me to pretend. I did, because the fear of my lack of acting weighed down on me, and if I didn’t pull it off, I knew worse would come. I also knew Tate would be allowed to live.
It was only the previous night that I felt the pain of his fists for the first time. We’d been out to dinner and Jimmy had taken a liking to a girl who looked about sixteen. When I refused to steer her away from her family so he could take her, and after I gave him some not so pleasant words in return, he beat me for disobeying him and for also making a scene in front of people.
I didn’t care.
I’d take all the pain in the world if it meant I could save a young girl from Jimmy.
“Tiny,” Dallas whispered into the room, causing my body to shiver. “Tell me.”
Sighing, I gripped his tee to me and I told him. Well, at least the CliffsNotes of what had happened, about the mess I was in along with Della. I told him because I didn’t want him to leave and think I’d picked that life for me willingly. I told him because I was scared.
I’d tried to get a way out, a way to find leverage over Jimmy. It took time and I was still looking, only coming up with a small amount of crimes, but nothing solid.
So I told him all of it because I cared what he thought of me. He was the first man in many years I wanted in my life but couldn’t keep.
“Now do you see why I can’t leave? Not until I know Della is safe. Not until I can find someone who isn’t under his thumb in the police force and take him down for all the crimes he’s committed. I have to stay and slowly work my way through the fog to end him.”
Throughout my explanation I felt Dallas tense, his arms tightened around me, and if I moved, I was certain they would shatter from the force he was keeping them so stiff.
Suddenly the door came open. I gasped and tried to jump from the bed to take on whoever was coming through so Dallas could run. But his arms held me to him, and when I saw Beast, a member of the Hawks MC, my rapidly beating heart started to slow.
Beast communicated something to Dallas, which caused Dallas to stand and place me next to him on the floor.
“Someone’s coming, we need to leave.”
“I can’t,” I whispered urgently.
His jaw clenched, his eyes closed tightly for a second and when he opened them, his gaze was hard. “I know. But I’m not fuckin’ leaving, Tiny. I’ll do what I can to get you and that woman out and away from him.”
“No, you have to leave. He—”
“Enough!” he clipped low and harsh; it hurt to hear him say it like that, but I knew he used that tone because he cared about me. He drew me against him and softened his tone when he said, “I’m here, you’re mine. No one fucks with what’s mine. I plan to take the motherfucker down, and I’ll do it smiling knowing what he did to you.”
I worried my bottom lip with my teeth and noticed Beast at my window doing something to it before it slid open without the alarm going off.
Shifting back, I glanced up to Dallas and whispered in a pained voice, my fear for him palpable, “Viking man.” I reached up and cupped his cheek.
“You’ll be free, and soon.” He nodded more to himself than me. He ran his thumb over my bottom lip before spinning and bolting for the window; Beast was already out.
He climbed through, and my eyes landed on his backside. My nerves momentarily fled, which was how I found myself saying, “Nice arse, Viking man. I’d tap it.”
Once his feet were planted, he spun around and growled low, “Jesus, woman.” Though, I saw the smirk playing on his lips before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
What were they teaching those biker men?
My door crashed opened just after I got the window closed. Jumping, I spun around to find one of Jimmy’s new men standing there. His eyes flicked around the room with suspicion.
Pointing to the window, I said, “There was scratching outside. I just saw a dog. Did Jimmy get some dogs? I like dogs. I’ve always wanted one when I was younger, but I never got one, so I was so excited to see—”
The door slammed as he exited. I had wondered why he’d shown in the first place, but I hoped whatever it had been was lost from his mind.
Moving to the window, I looked out.
Only I did it smiling.
Dallas was in Sydney.
He was there for me.
“He’ll help. Even when I said not to because he’s stubbornly a pain in my butt.”
My regret from not saying anything to him, to the Hawks members and Mason back in Melbourne would always, always be present.
But still, hope flared to life.
The heaviness from deep inside of me started to ease, and it was all because of a certain Viking man.