Sanctuary Found (Pelican Bay 2)

“I’m sorry, Isaac.”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t about me,” he said firmly. “Since Newt was underage, he needed a guardian. Gary was his father, so he got custody. But the money was in a trust, so he could only use a set amount every month and it was meant to care for Newt. There was even a trustee overseeing the account. It was a lot of money. Almost two million dollars. So the monthly amount was pretty sizeable.”

“I’m assuming very little, if any, of the money went to caring for Newt?” I said.

“Enough just to satisfy the trustee. The trustee would occasionally make random visits to check on Newt’s welfare.”

“So Gary wouldn’t let you just leave and take Newt with you,” I guessed. Before Isaac even confirmed my statement with a nod, I knew what all this was leading up to. “You kidnapped him, didn’t you?”

Isaac didn’t respond at first. When he did, it was just with a simple nod.

“Why?”

When he didn’t answer, I turned his face so he was forced to look at me. “Why did you take him, Isaac? I know it had to be for a good reason.”

He tugged free of my hold and pressed his head back against my chest. Clearly, it was easier for him to talk to me without actually looking at me.

“Gary never hurt Newt like he did me, so I thought it was safe to leave him alone with Gary every once in a while at night. I was taking college courses to try to get a degree in computers. One night I got a call that Newt was in the ER. When I got there, he was being treated for a head injury. Gary told the doctor Newt had fallen down the stairs.”

“You didn’t believe him,” I said.

“No, I didn’t. The injury was on the side of Newt’s head by his temple.” Isaac pointed to his own head. “I got the same kind of injury when Gary slammed my head into a wall when I was sixteen. Before I could tell anyone, Gary threatened me… said if I said anything, he’d make it so I never saw Newt again. He had custody and I was just a twenty-year-old unemployed college student. I knew they’d believe him over me.”

“What happened with Newt?”

“He was treated for a week in the hospital and made a complete recovery. Then the seizures started. The doctor said it could either be from the head injury or he could just be epileptic. There was no way to be sure. Gary didn’t really care, as long as it didn’t affect the money from the trust. About a month after he got out of the hospital, I finally got Newt to admit Gary had hurt him, and it hadn’t been the first time. I took him that night.”

“Where did you go?” I asked.

“All over. Any big city I thought we could get lost in. We’d only stay for a month or two at the most. Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles. Then came San Francisco.”

“That’s where you met Nolan’s ex.”

Isaac nodded. “When I took Newt, I tried to get a regular job, but the money just wasn’t there. Newt’s anti-seizure medicine was really expensive because I had to buy it illegally… I knew Gary or the cops would find us if I ever tried to get him a prescription for it. I just couldn’t make ends meet. One of the guys I approached about selling me the medication told me I could make a lot of money escorting… said I had ‘the right look.’”

Isaac dragged in a deep breath. “When I told him there was no way I could do that, he offered me the drugs for free if I let him fuck me. Those pills cost almost three hundred dollars for just a month’s supply. So I did it. I hated it, but it was so damn easy. When we moved to the next city and our car suddenly died and I was running out of the medication, I thought about what he’d said. So I started looking at online ads, then I placed my own. I made more letting one guy fuck me than I’d made in a week washing dishes. There was no looking back after that.”

“And Trey?” I asked.

“I met Trey through an ad. He was different, or so I thought. A lot of my tricks would sweet-talk me, but I learned pretty quickly it was all part of the act. But Trey was better at it. He’d bring me flowers and presents whenever we’d meet. He’d show an interest in my personal life, and it didn’t take me long to fall for his bullshit that he wanted to take care of me. He was into some really kinky shit, which I hated, but he was so sweet afterwards that in my mind, he became two different people. Trey, the trick and Trey, my boyfriend. And I was willing to do a lot for Trey, my boyfriend.”