Chapter Three
Chloe took a quick shower and changed her clothes before she allowed herself to dwell on seeing Brad again for the first time in nearly a year. Why had he come back? This was her safe place. If he could simply pay his cover charge at the door, flash a fake or real ID, and walk in, what would stop him from trying to hurt her?
All the Brothers, that’s who.
But they weren’t with her all day, every day. What was she supposed to do when she went out shopping, or to the doctor and dentist? She didn’t want Gorgon to have to escort her everywhere. He had things to do here.
A soft knock on the door startled her, which was ridiculous. This had to stop. She had work to do here, too, and if she was hiding and jumping at everything, she could hardly get it done. “Come in.”
Rai poked her head inside. “Hey, Gorgon said you were looking for me.”
“Oh, I’m so glad it’s you. Come in and close the door.”
“Are you all right?” Rai stepped inside, carrying two large tumblers. “He said you weren’t feeling well, so I brought up some soup.”
“Rai, you are so sweet!” Chloe rose and helped pour the soup from the tumblers into mugs before taking a seat on her bed again. “I brought you soup that first night you were here.”
“Yeah, I remember.” Rai smiled. “It wasn’t that long ago, although a lot sure has happened since then.”
Chloe sipped the soup from one of the spoons Rai had also brought. “Mmmm. This is good.” She took another sip. “You have no idea how much has happened. I needed this.”
Rai sat down next to her.
“Although I wish we had some whiskey to add to it.”
“That bad, eh? Anything you want to talk about?”
It would be so easy to tell her. Gorgon was the only person who knew the entire story of what Brad had done to her, and he’d never told anyone the parts Chloe had begged him to keep between them. But would he be upset if she told Rai?
“If you’re serious about the whiskey, I could go and get some.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s…”
“It’s something you can’t talk about. I understand.”
Gorgon had told Chloe the things that Vito had tried to do to Rai, but Rai didn’t know that. Rai had been given no choice that first night to tell her entire story to Gorgon and Tannin, but that didn’t mean she wanted everyone in the building knowing the details.
“You sure you don’t want the booze?”
And although Gorgon had assured her that Donny did not now own Rai, sexually, Chloe wanted to confirm the lie Tarot had told, more than she needed to confirm Gorgon’s version of the truth. She already knew Gorgon would never lie to her.
“Rai, can I ask you something personal?”
“Of course.”
“This work you’re doing for Donny … it’s just work, correct?”
“We’re still ironing out the details, but it looks like he’ll have me compiling spreadsheets, following up on any media questions, things like that. Why do you ask?”
“I heard a rumor.”
“Okay.”
“From Tarot.”
“Oh. Her.” Rai rolled her eyes. “I’m not exactly her favorite person right now. What did she tell you?”
“That you also have to have sex with Donny as part of the bargain.”
Rai laughed so hard she dropped her spoon. As she bent over to pick it up, she almost spilled her soup from the mug. “Chloe, I swear to you on all that’s holy, I am not obligated to fuck Donny. Do you know what we talked about, after he explained what he needed me to do for him? Nuns. And not in the kinky way you’re imagining right now. He told me his twin daughters, who just turned eighteen, want to be nuns. Both of them.”
“I didn’t realize he had twins.”
“He has two sets. The boys are ten. And, they have three other kids. This is a family man, although I realize the irony of that, considering what he does. But what I mean is that he adores his wife and kids. They mean everything to him. He’d never fuck another woman. I am absolutely positive of that.”
Chloe smiled. “Thanks. I feel better.”
“Don’t listen to anything Tarot tells you. I think she loves to stir up trouble simply to see the reactions.”
“You’re right. She’s such a bitch.”
“Why is she still here?”
“I don’t know. I stay out of stuff like that.”
The two finished their soup, and Rai asked if she wanted anything else.
“No. I’m fine now. Thanks for this.” She should tell her. Why not? “Rai, if someone told you something in confidence about me, because that person was very close to you, would you tell me that he told it to you, or would you keep it to yourself?”
Rai frowned in confusion. “What?”
Chloe laughed. “I guess that makes no sense, does it?”
“Um, I’m sure it does on some level. Look, why don’t you just tell me what’s on your mind? We’ve proven to each other already that we can keep secrets.”
“That’s so true.” It would be okay. Gorgon wouldn’t be upset if he found out. “The first night you were here and told your story to Gorgon and Tannin … um, he told me what you said. About what Vito tried to do to you, and about the three clients of yours who were running dummy companies for Vito.”
“Okay.”
Not even a flicker of reaction crossed her face. “You’re not upset he told me?”
“All the officers know, Chloe. And so does Donny.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess that would make sense.” Duh. How could she have been so dense? Of course Rai would have had to tell them all the story.
“Is that what has you feeling ill tonight, or is it what Tarot said?”
Chloe shook her head. “Neither one. Something happened tonight.” Maybe she should have taken Rai up on the offer of whiskey? This would be a whole lot easier with it. “I’m pretty sure my ex-boyfriend came in here tonight.”
“The one you were with before you came here?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s a bad thing, correct? I guess it’s my turn to tell a secret. Tannin told me a sketchy history between you and Brad. He said the guy abused you emotionally and physically.”
She nodded. “Yeah. That’s what he did. And I’m not upset Tannin told you.”
“Does Gorgon know you saw him in here tonight?”
“Yes. That’s why he asked Honey to take my second set.”
“Did they find him in the club?”
“No. I saw him, and then he was gone. There’s a big crowd out there.”
“They’ll find him if he’s here. And if he left, they’ll make sure he doesn’t come back in.”
Chloe sighed. “You don’t know the whole story.”
“Is this something Gorgon doesn’t want you to tell me?”
“I don’t know. I never asked him that. But I don’t think he’d be upset if I did.”
“Okay.” Rai crossed her legs. “I’m listening.”
This might take a while. Chloe resettled herself, too, so she was comfortable.
“After I graduated from high school, I was still dating someone who went away to college in the fall. Ohio State. But we hardly saw each other, and we grew apart because he was in school and I was, well, home. You know.”
“Was there any way you could have gone with him?”
“Rai, I’m not like you. I never saw college as an option for me. Some day I want to go, but back then, not so much. So anyway, when he came home for Christmas his sophomore year, he broke up with me. He actually brought his girlfriend home and introduced us. They had just gotten engaged.”
“Holy shit. What an asshole!”
“Yeah, it wasn’t one of the best Christmases I ever had, that’s for sure. I met Brad two months later, when he came over to give my parents an estimate for some work they wanted done outside once the weather broke. He ran a landscaping business, and they did patio work, too. We really hit it off, and he was dressed nice, and had his own business…”
“So you figured he was a stable guy.”
“Yeah. Exactly.” This was easier than she’d expected. Rai understood so much about people.
“We dated for about three months before he asked me to move in with him. My parents weren’t crazy about the idea, but they didn’t try to stop me. It’s not like I had a great job or anything that would interfere with me moving out. I did babysitting for people we’d known all our lives, and I helped a lot around the house, but I had no real direction. I figured this was a grown-up thing to do.”
Chloe closed her eyes for a few seconds and took some deep breaths. “The first time he hit me, I was more shocked than anything. He’d never done anything like that. He barely raised his voice to me. He was so sorry, and swore to me he’d never do it again. He bought me flowers and took me out to dinner, and the sex was so tender and loving afterward.”
A hard line formed at the corners of Rai’s mouth, and her dark eyes filled with anger.
“It was probably three months before it happened again.”
“And he did the same thing, right? Apologized, showered you with gifts and attention, blah, blah, blah.”
“Yes. Only this time he told me it was my fault because I was hanging out with my friends so much. He told me I should pay more attention to him.”
“You do know that this is typical abusive behavior, right?”
“I do now, but at the time, I didn’t know what to think. I was afraid to tell my parents. I didn’t want them to conclude I’d failed at my first real grown-up relationship. I mean, my high school boyfriend got engaged to someone else, and now I’d fucked up this relationship, too.”
“How was that your fault? Your high school boyfriend, I mean?”
“If I’d been there for him, maybe it wouldn’t have happened?”
“Chloe, does Gorgon know all this?”
“Yes. And he’s told me the same things you’re saying now.”
“You’re not at fault for any of this. Not one bit. If that jerk you dated in high school didn’t want to commit, he should have told you that. Not bring home his fiancée for Christmas dinner!”
“You’re right. I know you are. But I’ve always believed that if a man wanted to be with me, wanted to have sex with me, that meant he loved me. It meant I was worthy in his eyes. Brad knew that about me. I told him I felt that way. But he used sex as a weapon against me. If I did what he said, we’d have sex. If I didn’t, we wouldn’t. And he’d tell me it was my fault we weren’t having it.”
“I’m so sorry. He is a total ass.”
Chloe took the empty tumblers, spoons, and mugs, and placed them on a table. She stood in front of her windows, overlooking the south parking lot. It was packed tonight. She’d given up some nice money in not doing that second set, but what if Brad was still in the club, waiting until she went on stage again?
“Am I upsetting you?” asked Rai. “I might not be the best person to talk to about this.”
“No, I’m fine.” Chloe turned around and crossed her arms. “You’re the only other person I trust enough to tell this to. I’d been living with Brad about eighteen months the first time he hit me hard enough to leave bruises. By then, his emotional and verbal abuse was almost constant. I couldn’t do anything right in his eyes. I wanted to work, but he wouldn’t let me. I was financially dependent on him.”
“Couldn’t you have gone back home?”
“I was trying to protect them. Remember that work his company was supposed to do for my parents? It never happened. They found someone who would do it cheaper, so he resented them after that. He said terrible things about them all the time, so I knew if I went home, he’d harass them.”
“Chloe, this is horrible.”
“I know. Things got really bad after he left the bruises on my arms. Everything escalated. I was afraid all the time. I used to shake if I knew dinner would be late, or if he called and said he’d be home early and I had nothing started yet.”
Rai shook her head and stood, pacing the room.
“The day I ended up in the hospital, I thought he had broken my arm. He twisted it really hard. He refused to take me to the ER, so I tried to call 911. That’s when he pushed me down the stairs. I woke up in the hospital. Nothing was broken, which they told me was a miracle. The doctors and nurses all asked me what happened. I lied to them.”
She swiped at the tears trickling down her cheeks. “I told them I fell. Brad was there, too, babbling a bullshit story that made me sound like a clumsy fool. When they got him out of the room for some excuse that I’m pretty sure one of the doctors made up, they asked me again without him there. I still lied. I backed up his stupid story.”
“You were afraid not to.”
“Yes. That’s exactly right. But I also knew I couldn’t go back home with him. I knew next time I might not be so lucky.”
“The cops would have helped you get away. Why didn’t you call them?”
“I was afraid of what Brad would do if I called them, and then nothing happened. It was my word against his, and he’d already told a convincing story to the nurses and doctors. A story I backed up. If I called the cops and told them a different story, but Brad wasn’t sent to jail because the cops didn’t believe me…” She couldn’t finish the thought.
“So how did you get away?”
“Brad had to leave. He said he had to check on a project they were doing in Lorain, and would come back for me later that evening. I called my mom. She and my dad came to the hospital and they discharged me. But I couldn’t stay with my parents. That’s the first place he’d look.”
“Why didn’t your parents call the cops?”
Chloe averted her gaze. “I didn’t tell them the truth. I told them the same lie I told the doctors and nurses. That I fell.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want Brad to have any ammunition to use against my parents. If I never told them the truth, they could say all they knew was that I had fallen down the stairs.”
Rai said nothing.
“I had them take me home. I felt so horrible lying to them, but it was to protect them. This way, they could honestly say they left me at the house and didn’t know anything else.”
“How did you end up here?”
“I called one of my friends and asked if she knew someplace I could stay where Brad wouldn’t find me. I didn’t tell her anything about what had happened. I only told her I was leaving him. She told me to give her an hour and she’d call me back. I was so nervous, because I knew if Brad called the hospital and found out I’d been discharged, but hadn’t called him, he’d blow off work and come home.”
“I can’t even imagine what you were going through.”
“My friend called back in half an hour and told me she was on her way to pick me up. Meghan is her cousin, and she’d asked Gorgon if they could give me a job. But she said Gorgon wanted the whole story as soon as I got here, before they decided if I could stay.”
“Sure. He wanted to be certain he wasn’t putting the others at risk.”
Chloe nodded. “So my friend came and got me. I packed as many clothes as I could. I had no money or even a credit card. I broke my cell phone in half, and we tossed it into a dumpster. I didn’t want him looking for numbers in it to call and harass my friends.”
“What did the person who drove you here think of that?”
“I told her he paid the bill, which was true, but I didn’t want him to have the phone. When I got here, I told Gorgon the whole story.”
She walked toward the sofa and took a seat. “But Brad found me. Not for a few months, though. I found out later that my friend ended up telling him where she’d taken me, because he told her some bullshit story about how much he missed me and wanted me back.”
“What about your parents? Did he harass them?”
“He tried to. My father filed a retraining order against him.”
“Did you finally tell your parents the truth?”
“Yes. They were so upset for me, but I begged them to stay out of it. I didn’t know what Brad might do to them.”
“So Brad came here looking for you?”
“He tried to. He got as far as the parking lot before Gorgon, Tannin, and Rahab went out there and had a little talk with him. Brad ended up in the ER, and that’s when Gorgon heard through Donny’s contacts in the sheriff’s office that he had arrest warrants pending.”
“For what?”
“Some of those homes where he’d done work? He went back after the jobs were done and broke in to steal things from the owners. He’d wait until the jobs were over for a while, and then try to stage it to make it look like a random burglary.”
“Oh … wonderful.”
“Yeah. Nice guy, right? But the homeowners weren’t idiots. The cops eventually got enough evidence to issue warrants for his arrest, but he’d taken off for California by then. He had friends living there, I think.”
“And now he’s here again?”
Chloe nodded.
Rai crossed the room and gave her a tight hug. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic.”
“You don’t. I understand you’re angry at him, not at me.”
“Absolutely. How can anyone be angry with you? He was the abuser, not you. And women in those situations are too afraid to leave, and too afraid to report it. You did a brave thing calling your friend and coming here.”
“That’s what Gorgon said.”
“He’s right, but it’s still bullshit that Brad came here tonight. This guy can’t simply show up and harass you. I’m going downstairs to find Tannin.”
Before Chloe had a chance to say anything else, Rai left the room. Chloe didn’t follow her. Instead, she called down to the kitchen and asked Connie if she’d mind coming up to get the mugs, spoons, and tumblers. Then she went into Gorgon’s room and curled up in bed to watch TV and wait for him.
Once she was in his arms later, all would be well. That was the only place she felt truly safe.