Secret Worlds (592 page)

Jace reached for her and grabbed the back of her leg. Wriggling free, Ari used every ounce of energy she had left and kicked him between the legs.

“Motherfuc—” he cried, falling to a heap on the floor.

She ran.

***

The afternoon sun had faded and the hallway was darker than before. Ari ran as fast as she could down the stairs, stumbling down the final three. She slammed into the wall, but managed to stay on her feet, while holding onto the key with an iron grasp.

Her hands shook, making it almost impossible to get the key in the lock. Looking over her shoulder, she watched for Jace, wasting precious time. She cried out, “Thank you!” when the key finally unlocked the door, just as Jace came roaring down the stairs. Cool winter air slapped her across the face and she fell forward, desperate to get outside.

“Help!” she screamed. Jace had his hands around her ankles, pulling her back inside. “Help me!”

“Shut up,” Jace said, dragging her backwards. Ari fought, clawing her way across the front porch. She wouldn’t go back inside. He’d have to kill her first.

“What the—?” he said, dropping her feet. Something or someone flew over her head. Ari used the break to move as fast as she could, on her hands and knees, across the yard. She didn’t get far, because she was suddenly lifted in the air, carried bridal style.

“Let go!” she cried, kicking her feet. Her hands flew out, scratching and attacking.

“Ari, stop!” The voice triggered something inside her and she halted her attack “It’s me. I’m here.”

“Davis?” she finally looked at the man holding her instead of trying to get away. “Don’t take me back in there … please.” She’d already been betrayed once, by Nick. She couldn’t bear it if this were also a trick.

“You’re safe,” he told her, pressing his forehead to hers. He continued walking, carrying her away from the house.

“We can’t leave! They’re in the house! The girls, Hope! She’s in the basement and Shanna, she’s upstairs hurt. Nick did this. Reggie. He’s the one that did this,” she blubbered, tears falling down her cheeks. “We have to go back in.”

“We’re going, but I need you to go to the hospital, okay?” He handed her off to someone else, Peter, who picked her up like a ragdoll in his giant arms. “Peter’s going to take you. I’m going to deal with this. And Reggie, okay?”

“No! Don’t leave me!” Fear gripped Ari at the thought of being away from him. Away from assured safety.

“I have to. I’ll see you soon.” Davis kissed her gently. “Tell Detective Bryson everything. Only him.”

“Why him?”

“He knows enough to give me time. Remember, don’t talk to anyone else, okay?”

“Okay,” she nodded and watched as he ran off to the house, leaving her with Peter.

“Those girls …”

“He’ll get them, but you’re banged-up pretty bad, let’s go before the cops show up. The neighbors will call at any moment.”

“But …”

“You can call your friend on the way.”

“Oliver? Oh my God, Oliver.” Ari had almost forgotten him in all the insanity.

“He’s been looking for you.”

Peter carried Ari to the car. Through the window, she looked back at the house. Several other boys from the GYC followed Davis in. Boyd had Jace held to the ground. Tying his hands behind him. “Why didn’t Davis call Detective Bryson himself?”

But Ari knew before he answered that this was a matter beyond the police, a personal vendetta between Davis and his brother. Davis would want to take him down on his own terms without legal interference. There would be no third chances.

***

Ari kept it together until Oliver showed up at the hospital. Before that, she had to play the part that she and Peter orchestrated on the way there. He dropped her off in the ER, then turned around and Ari ran to the nearest cop, requesting that he call Detective Bryson immediately. The officer recognized her from the missing persons reports and tried to get her statement but she held firm, refusing to speak to anyone but Bryson.

While she waited, emergency workers rushed her to an examination room. A short, older Asian nurse declared her dehydrated and hooked her to an IV. Other nurses came in and took her bloody clothes and clipped her nails, sealing them in plastic, tagged bags. Everything about her was now evidence in a crime. Including her body.

“Ari,” the doctor said, after completing most of this exam. He introduced himself as Dr. Marlow. He was young, probably doing his residency. Ari bet he had no idea about the magnitude of her being his patient. That this would be all over the news in a matter of hours. He stood next to her bed, going over her history. “Were you assaulted? Sexually? If so, you should be examined.”

Ari shook her head, fighting tears. “No. He tried to but, no.”

Thankfully, a commotion in the hallway stopped that line of talk. She hadn’t been abused, but the other girls couldn’t say the same. She’d been lucky.

“Is she in there?” she heard. Oliver. He shouted loudly, “I need to see her!”

“Please,” she begged the doctor. “Let him in. He’s my only family.”

“I’ve completed your exam, so if you’d like him to come in, that’s fine. Overall, Ms. Grant you’re healthy. Apart from the dehydration and exhaustion, your injuries are superficial, I’m confident you’ll make a swift recovery. At least physically. The police will be here soon. Let the nurses know if you need anything.” Dr. Marlow opened the door, allowing an eager Oliver to enter the room.

“Oh God, Ari,” he said, pushing the doctor aside. He looked like a mess, his hair more unruly than normal. Tired purple rings surrounded his eyes. He scooped her up in a hug. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“Stop,” she cried, sobbing uncontrollably. “You know if you cry, I’m going to cry and then it will just be horrible, ridiculous crying.”

Oliver took her hand and tried his best to climb in the bed. “You were just gone, Ari. One minute I knew you were in your bed and the next—gone. You didn’t show for work and neither Davis nor Nick knew where you were. I almost lost my mind.”

A knock interrupted their reunion and Oliver sat up. Detective Bryson stood at the door, a look of relief on his face.

“We’ve been looking for you,” he said.

“I’m supposed to tell you what happened,” she said. “Only you.”

“Okay, the doctor said you were ready to talk.”

“I am,” she looked at Oliver. “I want you to stay also.”

“Sure,” he said, holding her hand.

Ari took a deep breath and told both of them everything that had happened since she left her bedroom window.

She couldn’t go home.

Not after being trapped in a look-alike cell for almost two weeks. That’s how long it had been, she’d discovered. Twelve days. Nick had kept her hidden away, locked in that basement for 12 days. Oliver confessed he thought she was dead, hovering over her obsessively at the hospital, like she might disappear if he left her alone for a second. Davis, on the other hand, gritted his teeth and fisted his hands, barely able to look her in the eye.

He felt responsible.

She couldn’t go home.

Despite his guilt, Davis took her back to his apartment, safely tucked above the gym and a dozen gifted boys, who swore to protect her to their death. She thought it was a little dramatic, but Curtis confirmed the oath after giving her a hug. A rarity between caseworker and client.

She couldn’t go home, because Nick hadn’t been captured. She blocked out this information when she’d been told, instead, focusing on the fact that Davis took care of Jace and Desmond—Ari didn’t ask how. He assured her they would never bother her, or any other woman, again. Assuming Jace was dead made her feel better, and Desmond was nothing more than a lackey. He’d fare okay in prison. Peter had called the police before Detective Bryson got to Ari, anonymously reporting multiple girls held captive at the house. The crew of boys left before the EMTs got there, slipping into the dark, climbing fences, leaving Davis, hooded and obscured as the face of the Vigilante. He pointed them downstairs to Hope’s cell and to the girls locked away on the second floor.

At night, Ari’s dreams were filled with the glint of Jace’s gold teeth. His hands on her body, and Nick’s manipulative grin. She woke, arms flailing, looking for contact—fighting her demons, but instead, warm soothing arms wrapped around her and she was calmed by Davis, who was there. Always.

“How did you know I’d need that knife?” she asked one night. She’d woken from another nightmare. Davis lifted her between his legs and comforted her from behind, letting her rest her back on his chest.

“I had a feeling you may need it one day.”

“A feeling?” She craned her neck to see his face in the darkened room.

“I knew you’d need it the same way you knew those girls needed your help. We’ve been over how my gift works,” he explained. “My father gave the blade to me when I was 13 to practice knife fighting. I felt better knowing you had something close by.”

“Even if I didn’t know it was there.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “You found, it didn’t you?”

“Yeah, barely.” She didn’t want to think about that day, so she asked, “Does Curtis have a gift?”

“He’s developing one. He has incredible speed. He was the one that took Jace down when Jace chased you out of the house. That kid launched at him like a rocket.”

Ari made a face. “You’re kidding. Curtis?”

“He lost it when he found out you were missing. He insisted on coming.” He laughed at her incredulousness. “I keep telling you, these kids love you.”

Davis pressed his lips to her neck and ran his hands down her arms to her stomach. She grazed her fingers over his tattoo and gathered the courage to ask the question she’d been so afraid to ask. “Do you think he’ll come back? For me?”

His muscles tensed. Ari knew it was because they barely spoke about him and because Davis was furious his brother managed to get away. Finally, he said, “I don’t know.”

“I think he will,” she confessed. “I don’t think he’ll give up, you know?”

“He vanished. Once I realized Nick and Reggie were the same, I searched his home and offices. He hid himself so well after my father’s death, I assumed he had moved on, unsuccessfully. I thought he was probably in the system somewhere. I didn’t think he could achieve success on his own. I underestimated him. I always have. That’s my flaw. He manipulated his enrollment into law school and into your circle of friends.”

“Why me? I knew him long before you and I ever met. He knew Oliver in school.”

“I suspect his affections for you were real. Or as real as he could manage. He’s so egotistical that he probably thought he could keep his two lives separate. When you and I got involved, that probably sent him over the edge.”

The idea that Nick and Ari could have been a serious couple while he kept a whorehouse on the side was disturbing. What if they had gotten engaged or married? She had considered it possible at one point.

“Where do you think he is now?”

“Shanna approached one of my men at the park, that’s how we discovered you were still alive. We still didn’t have a location, but she said the names Nick and Reggie and it all started to connect. He must have been afraid we were close to finding him and ran,” Davis said, shrugging. “He’s never been one for confrontation, unless he knows he has the upper hand. But I think, at some point, he’ll come back and settle his issues with me.”

“Did you really not know Nick and Reggie were the same person?”

“No, not until that night. I told you I wasn’t stalking you. I had no real claim to you—you could see other people.”

His words hurt even if that hadn’t been his intention. He seemed to sense this and said, “That day you went missing, I almost lost my mind.” He wrapped his arms tighter around her body. “You didn’t show at work or at the GYC. You didn’t return my calls. I knew something was wrong. The bouncer at the club confirmed you had been there that night but he didn’t see you leave.”

“The bartender drugged me.”

“Son of a bitch.” Davis kissed the side of her neck. “I won’t ever let anyone hurt you again,” he swore. “Not Nick or any of these kids or anyone else.”

She believed him. That he could and would protect her, but could he protect himself? Ari wasn’t sure. She also wasn’t sure if she could handle losing someone else. Those were deep thoughts for another day. Right then, she needed to heal, and Davis helped her struggle through each day.

“Thank you for letting me stay,” she told him, twisting so her arms could wrap around his back and chest. She drifted, back to a fitful sleep, tempered by his power and warmth.

***

Stanton allowed Ari to use the conference room to meet with the girls. Her girls. In the past, she’d always thought of herself above them. Older, law abiding, and educated. Part of that came from starting the job so young, barely looking older than a teenager herself. Later, she realized a little bravado could earn respect from these kids, but that day, they were the same. Victims. Survivors.

She hadn’t returned to work yet. It had only been two weeks since she’d escaped. Rebecca routed her emails and messages to the other workers picking up the slack, but she was starting to worry about the kids. They needed a full-time caseworker. She just wasn’t sure if she was ready to go on the streets alone. She wasn’t sure when she ever would be. Not with Nick still on the loose.

“She’s here,” Rebecca said from the door, with an encouraging smile. Ari’s hands began to sweat, terrified to see Hope. What if she hated her? Blamed her? She deserved whatever came her way. If she had only believed her months ago, this wouldn’t have happened.

All those questions stopped when the young woman stepped through the doorway. Ari crossed the room and smiled at the girl who had always given her so much grief. The girl who had carried her emotions so close and had been impossible to break. Hope was no longer this girl. But to Ari’s surprise, she flung her arms around her neck and hugged her so tight she finally had to break for air.

“Thank you for coming back,” Hope said, pushing tears off her face.

Ari choked back a bittersweet smile. “I promised.”

They were interrupted by Shanna’s mother, who had driven her daughter to the office. A cast wrapped around Shanna’s right arm, and her head still had a yellowish bruise at the temple. The rest of the bruises had faded, but she looked skinnier than ever. Ari doubted either girl got much sleep. Neither of them had the luxury of sleeping with a superhero.