Page 14 of Challenging Her Protector

“Talk to me.” The weight of Iron’s hand was on her shoulder, but she could barely process his words. Her heart was pounding. Mind racing with the possibility that every single cent she’d made through her modeling and social media network was simply gone.

“My bank account. My parents can withdraw money…” she trailed off.

“Are you able to check your account from your phone?”

“Yes.”

He handed the device back to her just as Silver was getting back into the vehicle. “What’s going on?” She ignored his question and tapped in her account password with shaky hands.

“Her parents are co-owners of her bank account.”

She vaguely registered that they were talking. If they took everything, she’d have enough money in her secret account to support herself for a little time at least, but not long. By the time she purchased and furnished a place to live, she’d need to find a full-time job. She took a deep breath before opening the financial institution’s mobile banking app. Her heart sank. “The bank has frozen this account due to a fraud alert.” She stared at the inaccessible funds. Her parents had thought ahead, freezing her assets so they couldn’t be used or moved. It looked far less suspicious to report a missing debit card or flag a charge as fraudulent than moving huge amounts of money.

“They’re not going to win this,” Iron practically growled beside her.

“Even if the shared account was still open, I have a cap of ten thousand that I can withdraw per day. Once my parents got the alerts about money being withdrawn, they’d start removing it too.”

“An account hemorrhaging money is likely to get reported.” Silver pressed a button on the console and the engine hummed.

“I don’t know what to do.” She shook her head, continuing to stare down at her phone.

“I do.” Iron leaned back to reach into his pocket and pulled out his own phone. He swiped the screen and started typing. “Ransom has a top-notch legal firm.”

“So do my parents. That’s their typical style. Throw money at a problem and it will go away.”

“The Godfreys are the Boston equivalent of the Days. Not quite as disgraced, but close. I asked Ransom to connect you. In the meantime, you don’t have to worry about money. Silver and I might not be sitting on millions, but we have enough to comfortably take care of things.”

Maybe watching the way these men lived would help her make the most of that money and spend it wisely, or at least slowly.

Over the next five hours, they covered miles of highway and roads, ending up in Tennessee. Dark trees and flat surfaces lined the roadways as they all kept their eyes trained for a hotel. The sun had sunk below what Iron had pointed out as the Blue Ridge Mountains. Iron had been otherwise occupied transferring the messages and texts she was still continuously receiving from her parents and Scott. The messages had started out with apologies and remorse, but quickly deteriorated, accusing her of ruining Scott’s life, the family, and everything in between. Every so often Iron would stiffen or mutter a curse under his breath when her phone chimed, so she could only assume the messages were getting increasingly aggressive. They changed routes as well after Iron had removed two tracking apps from her phone.

“There up ahead. Let’s stop there.” She had spotted a hotel in the distance. Even though the men would have inevitably noticed the signs for overnight accommodations, being somewhat useful made her feel more like part of the team. At the front desk she insisted on paying for the rooms. Despite their protests, it made her feel like she was contributing something. There was a comfortable amount in her private account, especially if they weren’t frequenting five-star hotels and restaurants.

She’d gotten two rooms, wondering if the men would be more comfortable with her in another space. Silver and Iron would share a connecting door with her. She hated to admit it, but there was a sense of camaraderie and safety with them that she didn’t currently feel on her own. Logically she knew they were right on the other side of the door but that didn’t stop her from jolting at every little sound. She closed the shades tightly and triple-checked the door locks. A knock on the door made her heart leap into action, pounding furiously. She tiptoed over to the door, not only because her feet were killing her, but she wanted to be as quiet as possible moving across the room. She looked through the peephole to find Iron standing in the hallway. Her shoulders instantly relaxed and she quickly undid the locks to let him in.

“May I come in?”

“You don’t have to ask, Iron.”

“We need to talk about some of the messages you’re receiving.” Iron passed through the room to the couch and sat. His legs were planted wide, and his lips were downturned into a grim expression. She sat next to him, curling her legs up and under her.

“I don’t see any reason you have to read every nasty text or listen to the messages they’re leaving, but I do have some questions for you. My priority is keeping you safe, not prying into your private life.”

“Fire away. I trust you, and if you need me to talk about how things were before, I’ll do it. You’re the ones rescuing me, remember?”

“You rescued yourself, Vee. If you didn’t have the courage to leave the rehearsal dinner, then we wouldn’t have been able to help you.”

“I was scared.”

“That doesn’t mean you weren’t brave. You were more so because youwereafraid.” He held her gaze for a moment before resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together. “One of Scott’s texts references a charity gala. He wrote,If you return, what happened after the charity gala will never happen again. You can live your life, and I’ll live mine, but you need to come back and fulfill your obligations to your family.What is he referring to when he says after the charity gala? What won’t happen again?”

Her heart hammered and bile rose in her throat. This wasn’t something she’d even told Thalia, afraid her friend would react and get in trouble. “You asked me if Scott made me feel dependent.” She threaded her fingers together. “I confronted him the first time I caught him cheating. He said what he did in his spare time was none of my business and although I was wife material, I wasn’t enough to satisfy him, both intellectually and physically. He told me to expect him to have other women around and if I ever breathed a word of his infidelity, he’d ruin me. After that, he didn’t seem to care who I saw him with. We didn’t live together. Mostly we came together for social engagements where we needed to be seen together to uphold an image. When I did go to his place, he’d flaunt the fact that a woman’s bra was hanging in his bathroom and make a point to tell me all the ways she was better than me. Most of that included the bedroom.”

“Asshole. Did you have sex with him after you found out he was cheating?” He frowned. “Shit. That’s none of my business.”

“There were a couple times after. I know that makes me seem so cowardly. I didn’t want to even more than I usually didn’t want to. He said he owned me and therefore I owed him.”

“He forced you?”

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