anyone what was happening.” Sent to a children’s home where I’d be beaten, starved, and disallowed to have clothes.
“What made it all stop?”
I hesitated, flexing my fingers. “She and two of her friends …”
“What?” he pushed.
“They locked me in the trunk of Wyatt’s car. With her pet rat.” The latter might not have mattered so much if it hadn’t brought back memories of my life with my mother.
I swallowed hard, remembering how I’d begged them to let me out. They’d only laughed. “Melinda and Wyatt were at a party. Heather and her friends waited for the babysitter to fall asleep and then smuggled me out of the backdoor. They carried me to the driveway at the front of the house, shoved me in the trunk, and then left me there. I screamed and kicked, but no one heard me. Not until Melinda and Wyatt stumbled out of a cab at two in the morning, drunk.”
Dane spat a vicious curse. “Then what?”
“They sat me down and demanded to know what had happened. I told them … and everything else that had gone on just tumbled out of me. They were devastated. Shocked. Furious. They asked me if I wanted to leave, but I said no. They came down on Heather hard, and she never touched me again. They were never the same with her after that. They’d sometimes look at her like they didn’t know her.” I sighed. “So now you know.”
He kept watching me with those piercing eyes, holding himself unnaturally still. “Right now, the thing I want most is to make a few phone calls that will shatter her life until she has nothing,” he said, his voice low and loaded with anger. “But I made you a deal, and I’ll stick to it.” He went nose to nose with me. “Don’t threaten to walk out on me again, Vienna. Ever.” Before I could say another word, he stalked out of the room.
I let out a shaky breath, feeling as though I’d dodged a bullet. For a minute there, I hadn’t thought I’d be able to talk him down. But he’d relented when I made him a deal—I’d have to remember that. I might need to utilize such a tactic if we ever again found ourselves clashing over something. Which we would, because he was a pain in my ass.
Returning to the plush chair, I plopped into it. The man was going to drive me to drink at some point—I was sure of it.
Standing at my office desk a few days later, I flashed a falsely apologetic smile at Hope and Travis. “Sorry, Dane’s not here; he’s making his rounds to other departments.”
He liked to catch up with the teams, be visible, and keep his finger on the pulse of whatever was happening within the company. I just hoped he wasn’t firing people left, right, and center. He’d been in a major funk since our little argument in the library. Today, however, he was in a seriously foul mood, and his level of tolerance was currently paper-thin.
I’d asked if he wanted to talk about whatever was bothering him but, of course, he’d blown me off—and rather rudely, at which point I’d flipped him off and told him to go jump up his ass. “He’ll probably be another half hour or so,” I added.
“That’s okay,” said Travis, scratching his chin. “We really wanted to speak to you, actually.”
Lord, deliver me. “You’ve come to apologize for calling me a liar?” I doubted it.
His brow furrowed. “A liar?”
“Yup.”
“When did I accuse you of being a liar?”
“When Dane confronted you about cornering me outside my old apartment,” I said, sounding as bored as I felt. “You told him I lied about what got said and then you accused me of trying to drive a wedge between the two of you.”
Travis shook his head fast. “That’s bullshit. He and I argued, sure. He didn’t like that I’d told you certain things—Dane likes his secrets. But at no point did I call you a liar.”
“Whatever. If you’re not here to offer any apologies, why are you here?”
He exchanged a look with his wife and then said, “Last time you and I spoke, I warned you what Dane was like, Vienna. You obviously decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. I would have respected that and let it alone. But then you married him and …” Travis sighed. “It’s going to be hard for you to hear this, but we’re all in agreement that