Page 72 of Never Again

He’d noticed her.

But he had no idea why.

He’d noticed the way that she stood off by herself, but there was just something in her gaze that struck him as odd, something told him that the woman that couldn’t seem to get out of her own way didn’t miss a fucking thing. He’d shrugged it off, not really caring about his sister’s latest charity project, but when she stood next to him in the elevator or brushed against him as she scurried to get out of the room before anyone noticed her, Nathan couldn’t help but notice just how fucking soft her skin was and-

He really needed to get fucking laid, Nathan thought, once again wondering why he never took Jess up on any of her offers to spend the night. She was his type, incredibly beautiful, a perfect body, and there was no doubt in his mind that she was just looking for the same thing that he was, an escape from all the bullshit. Every time she offered, he reminded himself that she was an employee and that wasn’t a line that he was willing to cross, but now…

She wasn’t the one that he was thinking about.

“What was Bailey like growing up?” Casey asked as she stared up at the ceiling, looking lost in thought.

Sighing heavily, Nathan rolled onto his back as he said, “A pain in the ass,” with a fond smile.

“Like…”

“She had my father wrapped around her little finger,” Nathan said, chuckling at the memory of his father looking absolutely fucking lost the first time that Bailey cried.

He couldn’t remember all the details, but he knew that caffeine, the front step, and a video game were involved. She ended up skinning her knee pretty badly, enough that they ended up having to bring her to the emergency room and his father lost his fucking mind. She just sat there, quietly crying with a sniffle here and there and his father, the man that he couldn’t remember ever letting anything get to him, had spent the entire time fidgeting, worrying his hands together, and looking like he was about to fucking lose it every time Bailey sniffled.

She was definitely a daddy’s girl, Nathan thought, smiling as he thought about the way that Bailey managed to wrap the man around her little finger. The shit she could get away with…

“He loved her?” came the hesitant question that had Nathan turning his head to find Casey watching him.

“He adores her,” Nathan promised her, watching the way that she looked lost in thought as she went back to staring up at the ceiling.

“And your mom?”

“Would lose her fucking mind if she knew what was going on,” Nathan said, biting back a sigh as he thought about his parents.

He should have told them what was going on, but he’d promised Bailey that he wouldn’t say anything. She didn’t want them to worry. If he’d told their father what was going on, they would have taken her to the reservation and locked her in their grandparents’ house and kept her there until they figured this out, and knowing his sister, she would have pouted every fucking minute, but she would have been safe.

Maybe that’s what he should do, Nathan thought, go find his sister, tie the little brat up and throw her in the back of his car and bring her to their grandparents’ house so that their cousins could keep an eye on her, but it was already too late. Whatever this was, he couldn’t risk putting their family in danger. He needed to put a stop to this before it was too late and he-

“Did she ever mention me?” came the softy whispered question that had him frowning as he once again found himself watching her. He noted the way that she stared at the ceiling, the way that she tried to act like the answer didn’t bother her, but there was no mistaking the pain in her voice.

“What happened?” Nathan asked, turning over onto his side while he waited for an answer.

“I didn’t heal fast enough,” Casey said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as he watched her chin begin to wobble as her eyes teared up before she reached up and angrily wiped at her face. “They promised that we would be back together after I left the hospital. Before every surgery, they promised that I would see her again, every time the pain became too much, they promised that everything would be okay and that I would be with my sister again, but they lied.”

“They kept lying even after they transferred me to another hospital out of state, and then another, and kept lying until finally, there was no reason for them to lie anymore. They…” Casey said, her voice breaking as she moved to climb off the bed. “I can’t do this.”

Before the first sob broke free, Nathan was pulling her into his arms and pressing his lips against her forehead. When she moved to push him away, he tightened his hold around her and felt his heart break for her. He couldn’t imagine losing Bailey. That first year after she came to live with him had been fucking brutal. Every time the social worker came, it had taken everything he had not to sneak Bailey out the back door and hide her, terrified that they were going to take her way.

And now…

He would never survive it.

He couldn’t imagine what Casey went through, losing her mother and her sister in the blink of an eye. He knew about the crash, but he never knew about Casey. From what his father said after he’d read the file that social services gave them, it had been a miracle that Bailey had survived and now Nathan had a pretty good idea why.

“You protected her in that crash, didn’t you?” Nathan asked, only to swallow hard when Casey said, “I promised I would never let her go.”

CHAPTER44

Emerald Bay, Florida

“I’m a good girl,” Bailey reminded herself as she lay there with her forehead pressed against Quinn’s shoulder while she struggled to ignore the incredibly thick-

Okay, so thinking about the incredibly thick tip that was currently stretching her in a way that made it impossible to think straight was definitely not helping, Bailey decided as she slowly exhaled. That was followed by deciding that she should probably be dealing with this inner turmoil issue somewhere else.

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