Page 14 of Deny Me
King cleared his throat, waiting until Becky lifted her head. “Sweetheart, we need you to tell everyone what happened yesterday, okay?”
The girl’s tear-reddened face twisted with fear.
“It’s all right, Becky,” Charlotte murmured, holding her tight to her side. King could see the strain on Charlotte’s face, the gray cast to her complexion—she was in pain, but she didn’t let go of Becky. “We’re going to keep you safe, I promise. Dain needs to know what happened so he can help us do that.”
Becky bit her lip, then nodded. With a deep breath, she said, “Charlotte came to see me, to make sure I was all right.”
“Richard threatened me,” Charlotte added. “I wanted to take Becky with me, but…” She brushed the hair back from Becky’s forehead. “I was coming back; I just needed help. I didn’t want to leave you there.”
“I know.” Twin tears tracked down Becky’s cheeks again. She cleared her throat, glanced toward Dain. “After Charlotte left, he kept yelling, arguing with me like I had asked her to come. I didn’t, I promise! I wouldn’t put her in danger.
“I heard him on the phone, saying something about Charlotte, about getting rid of her. He was getting more and more angry. Drinking too. Then he left.” She worried her lip between her teeth. “I figured he’d find a bar, so I hid in the closet like I normally do. But he wasn’t gone long enough. A couple of hours maybe.”
King’s gut clenched at the mental image of Becky, eight months pregnant, folded into a tiny trailer closet to hide from her drunk, abusive father. The looks on Dain’s and Saint’s faces told him they felt the same.
“He banged around for a while, but I didn’t want to see what he was doing. Didn’t want him to see me. When I came out this morning…everything was gone. His stuff. The bike and money. The truck. Everything.”
The bastard had left his daughter with nothing. With no protection. At that moment King could’ve killed the man with his bare hands.
“You don’t have to worry about him anymore,” Charlotte said. “You’re safe here, with me.”
Except that wasn’t totally true.
“Here’s the problem,” King said. He rounded the furniture until he was looking straight at Dain, not wanting to see the blow he was about to deliver to Charlotte’s already fragile state. “If Richard took what these people gave him and ran before he delivered what he owed in return…”
Dain’s jaw went tight. “They are still expecting a baby.”
A muffled sound of rage left Charlotte, her arm tightening along Becky’s shoulders. “We can’t give them Becky’s baby!”
“No, we can’t,” Dain assured her. “We also don’t have Richard to hand over the money he took. And…” He glanced from King to Saint. “If Becky did in fact overhear Richard talking to these people, they know who you are, Charlotte. They’ll come after you.”
“Because they want what they paid for.” King’s words felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each as they left his mouth. “And the best way to get it back, to get to Becky, is through you.”
“So what do we do?” Charlotte asked. Her voice shook the slightest bit, but she didn’t back down. A trickle of pride that he shouldn’t feel pulled at him.
Dain’s brown eyes were nearly black with worry. “Their timeline is tight,” he said, glancing toward Becky’s stomach. “I’m assuming you want her here.”
Charlotte tightened her grip on Becky’s hand again. “I wouldn’t have her anywhere else.”
Dain nodded.
“We’ll keep you both safe,” King said, looking down at the black and blondish-brown heads resting against each other. He felt more than saw Ben going stiff at the assumption that King would be allowed to help, and chose to ignore it. Dain could fight that battle if and when the time came. Now was all that mattered.
The sudden slump of Charlotte’s shoulders told him exactly how tired she was. She didn’t look at him, more tilted her head in his general direction. “How?”
Dain leaned forward and laid his hand on hers where it covered Becky’s. “Leave that to us.”
Chapter Seven
Kim insisted on both Becky and Charlotte taking a nap. Considering how gray Charlotte’s complexion had grown and the exhaustion in Becky’s eyes, sleep was an absolute necessity for them both. King and Saint followed Ruth to a back room off the kitchen where they could set up a headquarters for the team. It was the staff dining room, although King knew Ruth ate in the kitchen unless her family came over. He knew the layout of the house and the staff’s routine, at least their routine as it had been ten years ago. But he kept his mouth shut and followed the housekeeper’s stiff back to their assigned space.
It didn’t take long for his best friend to comment on the freezing atmosphere after the door closed behind Ruth. Seconds, really. “Jeez, everyone here has a beef with you, even her.”
King glanced toward the exit. “Yeah.”
“I take it I’m still not going to get the full story?”
“It’s something I’d rather not get into right now.” Or ever. That worked even better. A minute later when Dain and Ben Alexander walked through the door, he knew he wasn’t getting his wish.
