He could hear the disgust in his voice, could feel the clench of his jaw as he relived that nightmare. “There were so many times I cried and begged her not to take me, to leave me home. I told her how afraid I was, and there were a few times when I even had a panic attack, but she didn’t care. And then I made the mistake of telling her that I was going to tell Clay about her ‘errands,’ and she completely flipped out on me and went into a rage. She told me to shut the fuck up, that if I said anything to anyone about where we went or what she did, I’d be taken away. I’d never see Mason or Clay ever again.”
The heartless bitch had played on his worst fears as a kid, because his older brothers were everything to him, and the only two people in his life he cared about and he knew would make him feel safe. But his own mother had denied him that sense of security. She’d forced him to endure her sordid lifestyle and keep her secrets because he’d been terrified of losing Clay and Mason, of never seeing them again.
Beside him, Sarah had stiffened, her body language letting him know that, yeah, he’d shocked her, after all. And when she lifted her head once again, the pain shimmering in her eyes made his heart tighten in his chest.
“So, in order to cope and control your fears, you shut down in the only way you knew how,” she said.
He realized why she understood him so well. Probably because she’d done the same thing after that foster family had left her behind. “Yeah. I had to stuff all those emotions deep inside and keep them buried. It all ended when I was finally old enough to go to school at the same time as my brothers, but when my mother passed away when I was eight, everything changed drastically once again.”
“That’s when your brother Clay started raising you and Mason, right?” she asked, remembering some of the details he’d shared with her.
He nodded. “Yes. And since Clay was always worrying that we’d be separated or taken away if social services ever found out about our situation, he’d always tell me and Mason that we needed to be good and stay out of trouble and not say a word to anyone about our situation. Behaving and doing what Clay said was easy for me, because by then I’d already learned how to control my emotions and keep everything inside. I was straight-laced and disciplined, which was a good thing since Mason was constantly testing Clay’s patience and authority.”
She reached up and touched his cheek, her fingers warm and soft and soothing. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all that.”
He shrugged and gently grabbed her hand, placing it back on his chest, right over his beating heart. “Last night, when I took you back to the motel, it reminded me of the places my mother would take me, and it made me physically ill to think of you staying there.” Which reminded him . . . “By the way, when I was getting your money back today, the front desk clerk mentioned that some guy had been asking around about you. He wanted your room number, and the asshole gave it to him without getting his name. Not sure if this guy is connected to the break-in, but would you happen to know who this person might be?”
With every word he spoke, Sarah’s eyes got bigger and bigger. He saw panic and fear collide in the depths as she stared up at him and whispered, “Oh, God,” in a strangled voice. “What if I’d been there last night?”
She abruptly sat up, holding the blanket to her chest as she tried to move away from him. He quickly scrambled upright, too, and caught her arm, refusing to let her go until he had some answers because something was wrong. Very wrong.
“Sarah?” Her name was a soft demand for her attention, to snap her out of her haze of distress, but it didn’t seem to work. “Who was it?”
Her face was pale, her breathing labored as she ran a trembling hand through her hair. “I knew it was just a matter of time,” she mumbled, more to herself than him.
“Before what?” he asked impatiently, wanting to shake the answers out of her but trying like hell not to spook her further.
She turned dread-filled eyes to him. “Before he found me.”
Jesus Christ. Someone was stalking her, Levi realized, and felt as though he’d been punched in the gut. “Who, Sarah?” He clasped her hand in his, trying not to roar in frustration. “Before who found you?”
“My ex,” she finally revealed in a small voice. “A guy I’d been dating for a few months.”
And with that revelation, so many other things now made sense to Levi. Where she’d worked, the off-the-beaten-path motel she’d been staying at, the cash she’d kept on hand, and her insistence that she was leaving Chicago. His intuition had been right, and he was relieved that he had a few answers, though he suspected there was a lot more she needed to tell him. It didn’t seem as simple as a bad breakup with an ex-boyfriend.
He forced himself to relax, hoping it would calm her down, as well. He sat back on the couch and drew her to him. “Come here,” he said gently, and guided her so she was sitting sideways on his lap. She now had all of the blanket wrapped around her body, which was a good thing considering they were both still naked and it would be a helluva distraction having her ass pressed against his dick.
She was staring straight ahead, her vulnerable expression revealing all of her worries. He touched her chin and turned her face toward his so she was looking at him. “You need to tell me what’s going on. Straight up, Sarah. No more evading my questions or making excuses.” He needed facts and details in order to help her and understand what he was up against. “Are you running from this guy?”
“Yes,” she said in a barely audible voice.
He’d expected as much, but hearing her confirm it made his protective instincts skyrocket into overdrive. “Tell me why.”
She shook her head stubbornly. “This isn’t your problem.”
He knew she was used to being alone and handling things by herself, but there was no way he was going to let any other man put his hands on her. Ever. “Sweetheart, I’m making it my problem. As of right now. You’re going to start at the beginning, and you’re going to tell me everything. All of it.”
He could see her reluctance, but she finally spoke. “His name is Dylan Harper. I met him a few months ago when I was waitressing at a diner. He’d come in every day for coffee and a piece of pie, and he always sat in my section. He seemed like a nice guy, so when he asked me out, I said yes.”
She picked at a piece of lint on the blanket, averting her gaze as she continued. “We dated for about a month, then one day he told me we were going to a friend’s place for a barbeque about an hour and a half away from Chicago in Fairdale. It was a rural area, in the middle of nowhere. It was this small gated community called Sacrosanct, which Dylan told me meant blessed. When we arrived, the only reason we gained entrance was because of a tattoo on the inside of Dylan’s wrist that he showed the guy at the security gate. I thought that was odd, but once we were inside, everything seemed normal. At first.”
She stopped talking, and Levi gently brushed a few strands of hair from her cheek and prompted her to continue. “What do you mean, at first?”
“There was this huge main house that was beautifully maintained, and around it were clusters of smaller cabins where other people lived. Well over a hundred, I later found out. The community was fully sustainable, with fields of organic fruits and vegetables, a stable of pigs and cows and chickens, and well water. Everything ran on solar power, so nobody had to leave for anything, but I didn’t realize the implications of any of that until I was ready to go, and Dylan told me that this was our new home.”
Levi’s gut twisted with unease. “Couldn’t you just leave?”
“I thought I could,” she said quietly as she pulled the blanket tighter around her body. “But the main gate was always locked with a guard who had strict orders on who could come and go, and there was a ten-foot-high block fence around the entire community. It didn’t take me long to realize that this place was a cult, and I was being held against my will.”