Protectors (8 page)

Protectors

57

“Wow. It sounds like you stay busy. No wonder you guys are in

such great shape.”

Gage chuckled. “Yeah, well, Ty would be upset if I developed a

beer gut. He’s always threatening to cut me off if I get lazy on him.”

Sara smiled. She found it hard to believe that Tyler would ever

threaten Gage in any way. She was pretty sure that Gage was the one

whipping them both into shape.

A moment later, Gage declared the water to be warm enough, and

pulled her in with him. The spray still stung her swollen face and

scraped knees, but also felt fantastic, and it hurt less than it had

yesterday. Her muscles ached from the stress and the fantastic

workout that the men had put her through.

Gage lathered his big hands with soap, and then caressed her from

behind, gently washing her stomach and moving over her hips. Sara

relaxed and let him have control of her body. Closing her eyes, she

leaned back against his solid chest.

She was so relaxed that she jumped when the bathroom door

opened a few seconds later. Tyler poked his head into the shower and

smiled at them.

“I bought you some shampoo and conditioner yesterday and

forgot to give it to you before your shower. Gage and I both use stuff that I thought would be too hard on your hair.” He offered the bottles of Pantene up to her.

“You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble,” Sara protested.

“Shhh,” Gage interrupted her, taking the bottles from Tyler. “I

told you there are some things that you just can’t argue about. Tyler and I take care of our own.”

He pulled her back into his arms and began wetting her hair. Tyler

took one last long look, as if he was contemplating jumping into the

shower, clothes and all, before pushing the shower door closed.

* * * *

58

Samantha Blair

Sara was washed, dried, and dressed in a brand new pair of jeans

and tank top not fifteen minutes later. The clothes, just like those from the day before, fit perfectly.

“I took your size from the dress that you were wearing the first

night, but I had to guess at the size for the jeans,” Tyler confessed. “I hoped they would fit.”

“Thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it,” Sara said.

“I had expected the top to fit a little tighter.” Tyler laughed,

pulling her into his arms and kissing the top of her head. “I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing a little more of that gorgeous cleavage.”

Sara playfully punched him in the arm before sitting down with

her plate. She seemed pleased with the fresh vegetables that he had

prepared, and it made him happy to think that she might enjoy his

cooking.

“Not that I really want to bring up the depressing subject,” Sara

started, “but I do need to go home soon. I shudder to think what

Jeremy might have done to my things, not to mention my car. I’d

really like it get it back, if it’s still running. Maybe he took the truck to work today.”

Both men looked at her solemnly, but it was Tyler who spoke

first. “You’re not really planning to leave, are you?” He couldn’t

fathom why she would want to go home to that monster when she so

obviously belonged with them.

“Well, I can’t stay here forever…”

“Sure you can,” Gage said sternly. “Tyler and I will take you to

get your things, if you want them, but you’re coming right back here

when we’re done. You don’t even have to go back at all if you don’t

want to. We’d be happy to get you whatever you need. We have two

vehicles. We’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

Sara stared wide-eyed. “No. You can’t drive me all over the place

or spend any more money on me.”

Tyler chuckled. “I wouldn’t try to tell him what he can and can’t

do, honey.”

Protectors

59

“Well, at the very least we should go see if my own car is okay.

It’s already paid off. I would like to have my own clothes and a few

of my mother’s things as well. It’s not very much...”

“Your mother’s things?” Tyler asked curiously.

“Yes, she died about a year ago, and Jeremy sold a lot of what she

had in the house, but there are still a few things, like my

grandmother’s quilt, that I would like to have to remember her by.”

“Why were your mother’s things in Jeremy’s house?” Gage asked.

“Did she live with you?”

“Well, technically we lived with her,” Sara explained. “It’s my

family’s house. The Effeses have owned it and the land for three

generations. My father passed away when I was young, but my mom

and I lived there alone until she got sick. I was working as a teller at the bank, and just occasionally dating Jeremy, but then she got

stomach cancer, and he thought that it would be a good idea if I quit my job and stayed home with her.”

“So he moved in with the two of you?”

“Yes. It was great at first. He made sure that the bills were paid,

and I was able to be with my mom when she really needed me.

Eventually though, he started suggesting that we merge our bank

accounts. It seemed reasonable because he was managing the

household and had the only income. It wasn’t until months later that I discovered that he was spending our savings. We weren’t really well

off, but my mother was careful, and she had saved little by little her whole life. Jeremy was drinking and getting into some pretty bad

poker debt.”

“Bastard,” Gage growled. Tyler sympathized with him. If Jeremy

ever went near her again, there was going to be trouble.

“By the time he started to get violent, my mother was really sick,

and I couldn’t take her away from her own home, so I tried to throw

him out instead. The first time that we had
that
discussion he put me in the hospital with a broken nose and dislocated shoulder. When I got home from the hospital, my mother was screaming in pain. He’d

60

Samantha Blair

refused to give her any pain medication while I was away, and she

was in agony. He told me that if I ever suggested anything so stupid

as asking him leave again, he would kill her.”

Tyler’s hands clenched into fists on the table, and Sara reached

across to calm him. He took her hand between both of his, and let her continue her story. For now, there was nothing he could do but be

supportive.

“But she died anyway, of course. The doctors had given her less

than six months when they first discovered the cancer, and she held

on for almost nine. She begged me all the time to leave Jeremy, but

there was just no way that I could take her with me, so I stayed and

tried not to make him angry.”

“When she died, Jeremy wouldn’t even help me to pay for the

funeral. I didn’t have any of my own money at that point because I

hadn’t been working for more than six months, and he had control of

most of the accounts. Luckily, I had managed to keep one savings

account hidden from him. It was supposed to be my escape money,

but in the end, it barely covered the cost of burying her.”

“So he trapped you in your own home with no money and abused

you while he drank and gambled away your inheritance? I’m tempted

to march down to the station right now and explain to him the proper

treatment of a lady.” Gage’s face was covered in rage, and Sara’s

posture stiffened when she saw it. Tyler squeezed her hand

reassuringly. Gage might get mad, but he’d never do anything to hurt

her.

“No, you can’t do that,” Sara protested. “It’s better to let it go.”

“And watch you give up your family home and all of your

possessions to an abusive bully? I don’t think so. You’re not leaving.

He is. It’s your house, and he doesn’t belong there.”

“But he does. He and this crooked lawyer buddy that he plays

poker with forced my mother into changing everything legally before

she died. She even signed the deed for the house over to him. He

owns it now. Everything. He threatened to hurt me if she didn’t do

Protectors

61

what he wanted, and she was too sick to fight back. He used me

against her, always threatening to hit me, and she eventually gave in.

He has a legal right to everything that was hers now. It’s all his

property, except for my car. The car was the only thing in my name,

and I refused to transfer the title no matter what he did to me.”

“We’re going to straighten this out,” Tyler promised. “I know

some very good lawyers. He isn’t going to know what hit him.”

* * * *

Despite her protests, the men spent the next forty-five minutes

making phone calls. Tyler did indeed seem to know a lot of powerful

people. For two men that mostly kept to themselves, it seemed odd.

“How does Tyler know all these people?” Sara whispered to Gage

as Tyler got on the phone with yet another lawyer.

“His father is a retired senator. He knows a lot of people from

helping with the campaigns. The others he knows from Yale.”

“Yale? Like Yale, the Ivy League university, Yale?”

Gage chuckled. “Yep. That’s the one. Our boy is sharp as a tack.

It’s one of the things that I love about him.”

Sara rolled that one around in her head for a while. He was a

brilliant, wealthy, powerful, and unbelievably attractive man. She

understood his attraction to the masculine and talented Gage, but what on earth did he see in her?

“What’s the story?” Gage asked as Tyler rejoined them in the

living room.

“I’ve got it all taken care of,” Tyler announced. “Martel called

two state cops he knows well, with me on the phone. I told them your

story, and they are going to come out here to get an official statement later this afternoon. I also spoke with my family lawyer who said that he would be happy to help with the criminal case. He referred me to

an expert in inheritance law as well. They think that you have a strong case because all of the paperwork that your mother processed was

62

Samantha Blair

signed under duress. It will be harder to win because she’s no longer living, but if we win the criminal case, he’s confident that he’ll be able to recover the house and whatever remains of your mother’s

savings.”

Tears filled Sara’s eyes. She was overwhelmed by the possibility

that she might not only be safe from Jeremy, but she might regain

ownership of the house that she had long ago thought lost forever.

Tyler pulled her onto his lap and held her. “We’re going to take

care of everything, baby. Don’t worry. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Protectors

63

Chapter 7

The state police were very nice, Sara admitted to herself as she

watched their unmarked car disappear down the long drive. They’d

sent two detectives by the names Ryder and Filley.

She’d given her statement with confidence, even though she was

trembling on the inside. Tyler sat beside her the whole time and held her hand. She had gone over every detail that she could think of from the last two years and provided as much evidence as she could

regarding her sick mother, the sale of the house, and everyone who

was involved in Jeremy’s gambling. Tyler insisted that the bruise on

her cheek should be evidence enough, and amazingly, the officers

seemed to agree with him.

Sara hadn’t known it, but her complaint was not the first against

Jeremy. Apparently the state cops had been involved twice before.

The first incident was with a tourist who had gotten a speeding ticket while passing through town. The speeding woman had reported him

for inappropriate conduct saying that he had made suggestive remarks

and been overly aggressive toward her. The event was investigated

and noted in Jeremy’s file but ultimately swept under the rug.

The second incident had been a bar fight. Jeremy had been off

duty and drinking when the fight had broken out. A fellow officer,

who remained anonymous, had placed a call suggesting that Jeremy

had been involved in the beating of a young man who was

hospitalized as a result of the occurrence. Dutifully, this incident had also been investigated, but an anonymous phone call from someone

claiming to be a police officer and an absent testimony from the kid in
64

Samantha Blair

the hospital, who refused to press charges, were hardly even worth

noting.

Jeremy’s file was not enough to convict him of anything, but it

was enough to make the detectives believe what Sara was saying. The

man was clearly an aggressor.

The detectives were going to check in with the bank and the

hospital to make sure that the evidence corroborated her story. In

order to file for a restraining order against Jeremy, they needed proof that he was responsible for her previous hospitalization, and they

wanted at least one or two more witnesses to testify to his gambling

and drinking habits. If Jeremy was really as volatile as she described, someone else in town would know about it.

They recommended that she stay away from the property in

question until they had Jeremy in custody, which meant that she was

staying put for a while longer.

* * * *

Gage handed her a cup of herbal tea, sat down, and pulled her feet

into his lap. “Since we can’t take you home yet, was there anything