32
Kendra
I reached for my phone with shaking hands.
Putting it to my ear, I listened to it ring several times on the other end before going to voicemail. “Alex, baby. You’re probably working but I just met with my uncle. Call me back, ASAP. We need to talk.”
Ending the call, I turned my focus outside. Peering out the window, deep inside I knew that it wasn’t good to have my uncle come back into my life. Nothing good could come of it. And I doubted that my parents were in any kind of real trouble, rather it was just a way for him to get my attention—which he did. Mission accomplished.
Sinking further back into my seat, I dropped my head and pinched my brow, fighting back the tears I felt swelling behind my lids.
I hadn’t spoken with Mom and Dad in what felt like forever. Once I was awarded my grandparents’ inheritance, we all kind of went our own ways. It was for the best. Though despite their resentment for my unwillingness to share any of the money with them, I was certain that was the reason my uncle was also here. He wanted a piece of the pie—a slice he felt he obviously deserved.
Hugging myself, I rubbed my arms in an attempt to smooth down the goosebumps covering my skin. I still couldn’t believe my uncle grabbed my arm the way he did. The feeling of his hand on my arm left my hairs standing on end. My entire body shivered knowing that he now lived in LA. I didn’t know for how long he’d been here and that made me nauseous, unsure of how much of my life—and in what detail—he knew about.
Lifting my head, I found the driver with both his hands on the wheel staring ahead.
“Hey, do you know Lucky?” I asked.
He glanced at me, and with the rearview mirror framing his eyes he shook his head. “Sorry. Does he also drive for Uber?”
“Yeah,” I breathed out.
Wishing it was Lucky driving me, I turned to look out the window, knowing that he would have found a clever way to lighten my mood. I guess I couldn’t have it all. I should be thankful that I managed to hide my request for a lift from my uncle without him seeing. I hadn’t planned it and hadn’t thought I’d have to leave so suddenly, but once I saw his eyes go from worry about how our reunion would play out to sparkling with an all too familiar dangerous confidence, I knew that I shouldn’t have ever agreed to meet with him.
I sighed and glanced at my phone.
Praying for Alex to return my call, I didn’t know where I was going or where I would end up. All I knew was that I didn’t want to be alone. And because of that, I was left with very few options. I couldn’t go to Alex’s or back to my apartment. Both places I would be by myself but, more importantly, my place would be the first destination my uncle would seek if he had the urge to come after me. He wasn’t going to like me leaving without learning what kind of trouble he said my parents were in. It was only a matter of time before we met again.
My cell vibrated and I glanced down at my lap to see who the incoming call was from. The corners of my lips curled upward and my insides danced when I saw that it was the one person I had hoped to be hearing from. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey.”
Just hearing Alex’s voice dropped my shoulders. Relief washed over me, knowing that as long as I could speak with her I was safe.
“How did lunch with your uncle go?”
I exhaled heavily before answering. “Not great.”
“I’m sorry.”
I knew by her tone that Alex was frowning. “He lives in LA.”
“Are you kidding?” Her voice screeched in surprise.
“I wish I was. But, you know what? I’m not that surprised. I knew he did, I just refused to believe it.”
“What are you talking about?” Alex spat. “You knew he was in LA?”
“Yeah.” My lids fell as I sighed.
“For how long? And why is he just reaching out to you now?”
Flicking my lids open, I glanced outside but was blind to what was actually in front of me. “He said my parents were asking about me,” I paused to wet my lips, “and that they’re in trouble.”
I could hear Alex’s fingers tapping away on her keyboard as we talked. “Trouble, like how?”
Touching my arm with my free hand I could feel the bruise forming from where my uncle’s fingers had dug into me. “I don’t know.”
“He didn’t say?”
“I didn’t stick around to hear him out.” The line went silent and I knew that Alex had put her work on pause to consider my decision not to hear my uncle out. “He’s not here for my parents.”
“I wish I could understand,” she said in a soothing tone.
“Trust me, you don’t. These people aren’t the family you have.” I felt the muscles in my face tighten as my body heated with anger. “My uncle was here for himself. Just like everyone else in my family, he’s looking for the easy route—”
“Easy route to what?”
Looking at the bracelet my grandmother had given me, I said, “To next month’s paycheck.”
“Really? I mean, I don’t know much about that money you received in the inheritance other than you have a lot of it, but I thought that was settled a long time ago.”
Leaning forward, I tapped the driver on the shoulder motioned for him to pull over at the next corner. He nodded as I fell back into my corner. “It’s never finished with my family when it comes to money,” I said in a harsh tone filled with resentment.
The vehicle slowed before pulling over. Once it was stopped, I stepped out and glanced over my shoulder. An underlying fear knotted my belly into thinking that my uncle had followed me and would want to pick up the conversation where we’d left off. Because that was my family—never seeming to let go of things.
“Kendra, baby, I know you don’t want to, but have you considered that maybe he’s actually telling you the truth?”
My eyes rolled. I knew Alex was only trying to talk some sense into me, but she wouldn’t understand. Even with her parents dead, her family troubles were so much different than my own. Even the family members she had left—and was still in contact with—were solid individuals. Mine, not so much.
“My parents deserve to burn in hell,” I murmured as I gave a hard glance over my shoulder. “Along with my uncle for what they all did to me.” I swallowed hard, still unable to wrap my head around how none of them did a damn thing to stop any of it from happening. I knew they knew. What they did to me was unthinkable. And no little girl should have had to experience the nightmares that I had to go through.
“Well, that’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?”
“You don’t know them the way I do,” I said, pushing open the front doors of a small boutique and stepping inside.
The lady standing by the front counter smiled. I acknowledged her and began browsing the many racks of clothes. My skin was still sensitive to the touch and my conversation with Alex was having the opposite effect as I had hoped. Instead of making me feel better, it only made me feel worse. And with it, all my suppressed emotions threatened to surface with just one wrong word.
“I better let you get back to work,” I mumbled.
Alex was reluctant to end our call but I knew she had a desk full of work that needed attending to. “Talk to you later,” she said, ending our conversation just as I was pulling a cute blouse off the rack.
I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that the woman I was today was because of me leaving the family bullshit behind. I didn’t know why my grandparents chose me for the inheritance over the others. I didn’t ask for it and they didn’t tell me it was coming before they were both gone. Maybe they saw something in me that wasn’t seen in anybody else. It wasn’t like I was the only one they could have singled out. My family was large, yet for some reason I was the chosen one.
Checking the price tag, the blouse was more than I wanted to spend.
Who knew where I would have ended up without my grandparents’ money. The inheritance paid for my schooling, allowed me to get out with a degree debt free, and opened up opportunities I wouldn’t have otherwise had. I wasn’t entirely convinced that any member of my family knew any of that about me but, if they did, I could see how they could be jealous of what I’d worked so hard to achieve.
Slowly, my feet scooted across the floor as I continued browsing the clothes I wished I had but didn’t.
I could only imagine how quickly the money would have disappeared—spending it on worthless shit—if my uncle would have gotten his hands on it.
I trailed my fingers over the assorted colors of cotton and thought how his assumption that any of the money was even left over was a rather bold one to make. Maybe he was just hopeful there was. And as far as my parents were concerned, I wasn’t going to completely disregard the fact that they very well might be in trouble. Anything was possible. I just didn’t want to hear it from him.
I stepped forward and was quickly jerked back when I felt several strong fingers wrap around my elbow.
The hold slowly tightened as my heart raced with fear.
Terror widened my eyes as I snapped around, ready to fight him off.
But as soon as the flat of my hand came into contact with a solid, muscular chest, I blinked and was wrapped into familiar arms. “Jesus, Kelly, what are you doing sneaking up on me like that?”
His hand smoothed over the back of my skull as he kissed the top of my head.
My arms snaked around his waist and I held him tight, closing my eyes, taking a minute to soak it all in. When I finally pulled away, I found myself smiling at his tussled hair. His dark eyes matched his stealth black suit and danced with mine for a silent moment before he said, “You had Maxwell worried.”
His dark gaze raked over me and caused my nipples to harden. “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
“Courtesy goes a long way, you know.”
His husky deep voice was reassuring as it warmed my insides from the cold fear of having my family know exactly where I was and what I was doing. I could listen to Kelly all day long.
Taking his hand inside of mine I asked, “How did you know where to find me?”
Threading his fingers through mine, he turned me around and led me swiftly through the racks of clothes until we found ourselves standing outside. “Despite you leaving him, he never left you.” Kelly pointed at Maxwell sitting behind the wheel of his tinted windowed black SUV.
I wasn’t sure I liked the thought of Maxwell following me throughout the day. From Alex’s to my lunch with my uncle, all the way here. Maxwell was there, always one step behind. Fighting down a parched swallow, I was afraid that Kelly would discover my secret before I had a chance to tell him myself. I didn’t want that to happen. He had to hear it from me first. “You had him spy on me?”
“You did that to yourself,” he said, spinning me around and pushing me into his car.
He opened the door for me and I didn’t put up any kind of protest to get inside. As long as I was with Kelly I was untouchable. And even though I wasn’t about to admit it, the fact that Maxwell stayed within reach today somehow made me feel better about the dangers that may have been swirling around me.
Kelly glanced at me out of the corner of his eye as soon as he settled in behind the wheel. His head slowly shook and I knew he was disappointed in me. How could he not be? I’d ditched his driver, the one man who would ensure my safety, and tried to sneak off to have a private meeting with someone I didn’t want either of them to know more about than what they already did.
“I didn’t ditch Maxwell,” I said, buckling myself in.
He flashed me an arched look.
Pulling down the mirror, I smoothed out my eyebrows and checked my makeup. “I just didn’t want to bother him with having to wait for me.”
“That’s what I pay him to do.” His voice floated through his lips, firm yet sexy.
“Then you must also know that I had lunch with a man.” My brows raised.
Kelly didn’t respond, only looked on with unwavering eyes and a thin-lipped expression that told me nothing about what he was thinking. He did this often and, still, I didn’t know him well enough to be able to read it any better than before.
“Okay, I’ll take your silence as a yes. And it’s true.” I looked away but only for a second. “I had lunch with another man.”
His chest expanded and there was a mild nostril flare. But other than that he hid his thoughts well.
“You’re pissed. I get it.” Reaching over, I settled my hand over his. “But what are you most pissed about?”
He turned his head forward and was clearly thinking how best to respond.
“Me having lunch with another man or me ditching your spying driver?”
Kelly’s jaw ticked and I knew I was pressing his buttons. But I wanted him to explode, tell me that I couldn’t do what I did today, that I was putting myself in danger and that I shouldn’t do anything to jeopardize our relationship. I needed him to say something. I wanted him to tell me all those things but before he had the chance my cell started ringing.
Kelly glanced at my purse but I let it go to voicemail.
Then, when it started ringing again, Kelly demanded I answer it.
“No,” I said as strong as I could.
His eyes flickered across my face.
“Not until you tell me what you’re most angry about.”
The phone continued to ring and we both knew that it would soon go to voicemail if I didn’t answer it. I didn’t care but he seemed to want me to answer it. “Both,” he barked. “I’m angry you did both. Now answer your damn phone,” he growled.
Pulling it out, I glanced at the screen.
“Who is it?” His eyes fell to the screen.
In any other circumstance it wasn’t any of his damn business who was calling but I knew this one was both our business. “The Madam,” I whispered.
“Answer it.” He pointed his finger at the phone securely tucked inside my right hand.
I blinked. Still staring at the screen, I said, “I don’t want to talk to her.”
“Kendra, answer the fucking phone!”
Fire burned in his eyes when I turned to look at him. He wasn’t messing around and I dreaded to learn the reason Madam was calling me now. “Fine,” I conceded.
Kelly watched me lift the device to my ear with dark eyes, and just as I was about to answer my call with the Madam, he snatched it out of my hand. “You may not want to talk to her, but I do.”