sorry for rescuing her. Because, in the end, she’s out of that bastard or any bastard’s clutches. She’s safe and I will never let her go.
I sigh as I sift through more land records in search for this cabin Baylee spoke of. Gabe no longer lives next door to her house. Records indicate a new family moved in not long after he abducted her. I just need to locate where he went.
“Do we have any crackers?”
I click off the land records and swivel in my desk chair to look at my woman. It amazes me that she was able to drag me from the hellish depths of my mind back to reality. I still have difficult days from time to time. I still won’t touch meat even if it is the only thing left on the planet to survive on. And of course I don’t go to the beach with her, or anywhere else for that matter.
But I can touch her.
I even managed to give Dad the world’s most awkward hug the other day.
Baylee spends all day long researching OCD psychotherapies and makes me try some of them since I refuse to be seen by a therapist just yet. I’m not ready but I keep assuring her I will be. Mostly the therapies she’s found involve retraining my brain and talking through the pain of what happened to Mom. I might not be close to being completely healed, but I’m happier than I’ve been in my entire life. Dad practically lives over here because not only does he adore my girl, but he loves being able to spend time with his son free of afflictions for the most part.
“Did you look on the bottom shelf in the pantry? I think there still may be a sleeve,” I tell her. Anxiety infects my chest and my heart begins to race once I really take in her appearance. “Are you okay? You look pale, Bay.”
She makes a face and groans, crossing her arms over the T-shirt she’s wearing. “I don’t feel so hot. I’m going to call Land to see if he’ll bring me some ginger ale.”
I stand from my chair and walk over to her. “Do I need to call a doctor? Dad is friends with one who could come over.”
“No,” she mutters and accepts my hug. “I’ll be fine. Just feeling a bit blah today. Maybe I’ve been running too hard lately.”
I frown but slide my hands down to her ass. She’s not wearing panties under the oversized shirt she stole from me and if she weren’t feeling so sick, I’d already have dragged her back to our room to make love to her.
Now that I can more easily touch her, I find it hard keeping my hands off her. There are certain things I haven’t yet been able to bridge—the idea of oral sex, for example, still seems abhorrent to me, giving or receiving—but we have sex more than most humans do, I’m sure. Recently we’ve done it doggie-style a few times too. I feel like, in time, I’ll jump all the hurdles between us and nothing will stand in our way ever again.
“Go call Dad and put some pants on before I try to make you better with my cock,” I tell her with a growl. “I’ll finish up in here and then I’ll make you something to eat.”
She giggles. “Such a tease, Warren McPherson.”
I grin crookedly at her. “I love you, Baylee. I just want you to know that. Through sickness and in health,” I promise and my smile falls. “I know you don’t believe that—that I’ll run at the first sign of illness. But I won’t. I’m here, beautiful. Always.”
She sniffles and presses a kiss against my chest. “I love you too.”
With a smile, I kiss her hair and release her. “Good, now go grab some crackers.”
Once she’s gone and I’m settled at the computer, I start perusing the records again. I toggle back and forth between screens looking at remote cabins outside or near the San Francisco area and cross-reference them to the land records.
Nothing.
With a sigh, I open a new search and go back to hunting for the sex ring site. You can’t just type in White Collar Trade and find it. Last time, it had been pure luck when I’d found it. Apparently these people create a new website each time and kill the previous after the event. I have to back track back to when I found the one Baylee was at