Beg Me (12 page)

She opened her mouth and Drake cut her
off. “Shut the fuck up,” he bit off. “You hear me? You
know
what he did and don’t tell me
otherwise. You’re almost as guilty as he was.”

Without saying anything else, he shoved past
her, the garbage can tucked into his arm, carrying that damning
evidence.

His heart was like ashes in his chest.

He had to tell her.

And there was nothing he dreaded more.

I
t was a
little after nine when Drake knocked on the door.

She answered, smiling at him. “Hey. I was
starting to think I wouldn’t see you at all today.” She leaned
against him, lifting her face to his.

He brushed a hand down her hair but didn’t
smile back. “We need to talk,” he murmured, his voice gruff and
ragged. “But not here. Can we go to my place?”

She blinked at him. “Ah…yeah.” Lifting a
hand, she laid it on his cheek. “Is everything okay?”

In response, he caught her hand, turned his
mouth to it. “We’ll talk. Get your coat. Wait in my car. I…I need a
few minutes inside the house.”

Perplexed, Tania stared at him. “Drake,
what’s going on?”

“
Just wait in my car, okay?” His dark
blue eyes caught hers, held them. “Please.”

She frowned, then slowly, she nodded.
Her heart beat against her ribs, hard and fast, and she wondered
what in the hell was wrong. Because
something
was wrong. Turning away, she grabbed
her coat from the coat tree. As she turned back, she saw Drake grab
something from the porch—a trashcan…?

What…?

But before she could ask, he set the can
just inside the door and guided her out to his car. It was a
sleekly rebuilt 1965 Ford Mustang, painted a gleaming black. She
studied his face as he opened the door for her, but his expression
revealed nothing. Nervous, she touched her fingers to his lips. His
gaze came to hers and he bent over, his hand curving around the
back of her neck, drawing her close for a kiss.

It was slow and gentle, soft—but she tasted
something wild and edgy—dangerous in it. And when he lifted his
head, she glimpsed something dark and angry behind the blue of his
eyes. He smiled at her, but for some reason, she didn’t feel very
reassured.

Swallowing, she linked her hands together
and stared through the windshield as he shut the door.

But as he turned and headed for the house,
she looked back, watching him.

There was fury in every line of his
body.

What was going on?

W
ith each
small camera he found, it only served to make him more and more
furious.

There were twelve in all—that he’d been able
to find. He hoped that was all of them, but he had a friend or two
who did security work—he’d ask one of them over in a day or two.
They’d make sure everything had been found.

He needed to calm down, needed to cool down,
needed to get his head together and do it fast.

He’d use the drive to his place—a
thirty-minute drive to his house on the river—and maybe he’d settle
down. As he headed out the door, a faint ringing sound hit his ears
and he realized it was her cell phone. She’d left her purse.

He snagged it, the trash can that held all
the DVDs, CDs, crumpled pictures and now, the destroyed remains of
the cameras. He’d have to do some repair work on her house, too. A
few of the cameras had been placed in things like crown molding, so
cleverly concealed and he hadn’t been able to get them out without
messing things up a little.

He grimaced now, wondering if he was
handling this right. He was operating on pure instinct, though,
pure fury—and while he was trying to focus on the instinct and not
the fury, he knew, in his gut, he couldn’t let Tania stay in that
house while the cameras could still be activated. It would
devastate her. The sooner they were shut down, the better. He
wasn’t making the wrong call there.

The rest…Hell. He didn’t know.

T
he drive
passed in silence.

The tension weighed heavier and heavier
until Tania thought she might crack, but she didn’t say anything,
didn’t try to get him to talk.

Not yet.

She knew Drake.

He wouldn’t talk until he was ready.

By the time they arrived at his house, she
was strung tight enough to snap, and the first thing she did after
he unlocked the door was head straight to his liquor cabinet,
pouring herself a rum and Coke. “You want one?”

“
No.” He came to stand behind her,
bracing his hands on the counter on either side of her as he dipped
his head low and pressed his lips to her shoulder. “You know I’d
never do a damn thing to hurt you, right? I’d cut off an arm
first.”

She took a sip of the drink as she turned
around, meeting his somber blue eyes. “I know that. You don’t have
it in you to really hurt a woman physically, Drake.” She summoned
up a smile for him, despite the dread she felt curdling in her
gut.

“
I’m not talking physically,” he said
gruffly, reaching up and cupping her cheek. His thumb stroked over
her lower lip. A harsh breath shuddered out of him. “I meant it
when I said I love you. I’ve loved you for years. Part of me feels
like I’ve always loved you—it almost killed me when Kyle died, and
not just because I lost my best friend, but because of what I knew
it would do to you. I can’t stand to know you’re hurting. I can’t
stand it—”

He pushed his hand into her hair and fisted
it as he pressed his brow to hers. “And fuck, what I’m getting
ready to do is going to hurt, baby. It’s going to hurt bad.”

Her gut knotted. She licked her lips and
reached out, slid an arm around his waist. “You’re not about to
tell me you’re married or that you have to suddenly leave town
indefinitely—nothing stupid like that, right?”

“
No.” He laughed but there was no
humor in the sound. “Trust me, I only wish it was something like
that, because I could figure out a way around that.”

He sighed and cupped her face, pressed
his lips to hers. “I thought about
not
telling you…and I realized that was taking
your choice away. I couldn’t do that, even knowing how much this is
going to hurt. Fuck, I’m sorry.”

He eased back and she stared at him, torn
between dread and confusion as he reached inside his pocket and
pulled out a crumpled picture. He worried it between his fingers
for a minute as he stared at her. “I got a call earlier, not long
after you called me to tell me you were going to have drinks with
Becky,” he said hoarsely. “It was from Gail.”

The ache of dread grew, turned to ice.
Lowering her gaze to whatever picture he held, she shook her head
and backed away. “I don’t think I want to know,” she said
shakily.

“
You need to. Because it’s bad.” He
looked down at the picture, then back up at her. “It’s really bad,
baby. But if you’d rather not know, tell me, and I’ll take care of
it, all of it.”

Staring at his face, into his blue eyes, she
knew he would. Whatever hideous, awful knowledge had put that look
on his face, he’d deal with it, handle it, protect her from it. She
wanted so badly to let him do that. She swallowed, then whispered,
“Is this something I need to know?”

“
As much as I hate to say it, yeah.”
He blew out a sigh and added, “It’s possible it may come back to
haunt you, so…”

She closed her eyes and held out her
hand.

He tucked the picture into her hand but kept
his fist curled over it for a few more seconds, stroked her hand
before he let go.

Tania lowered her eyes and stared at it.

It was her.

She didn’t have to look for even a second to
recognize that, although it hurt her belly to look at the
picture—there had never been a time when Kyle had touched her
without love, but this picture…it looked obscene. She was on her
knees with him behind her, sodomizing her. He was staring down,
watching her. Tania had her head lifted, mouth open and parted on a
gasp.

It looked like something lifted from a
fucking porn movie.

“
Where did this come from?” she
whispered, her voice thready.

She recognized her bedroom in the
background, but where had the picture come from?

She stumbled backward and looked up, staring
at Drake.

He reached out and gently tugged the picture
away. She watched as he tore it into shreds, letting them fall to
the floor. “It was in Kent’s room, sweetheart,” he said gruffly.
His shoulders rose and fell on a ragged breath. “He… Shit.”

He spun away and started to pace the
kitchen, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. After about thirty
seconds, he stopped and stared at her from across the room. “He had
cameras, Tawny. All set up in your house, the feed going back to
the place he stayed with his mom. And she knew about it. She…”

Now a different look came over his face,
anger and discomfort and embarrassment, setting red flags of color
high on his cheekbones as he stared at her.

“
She’d seen video of us, baby. She
watched us.”

“
Watched…video…” Tania spun around
around, slamming her drink down. “No.” Her voice shook, wavered.
Covering her face with her hands, she whispered, “No, Drake. Stop
it.”

He came to stand behind her, covering her
shoulders with his hands. “I’m so sorry.”

“
How…how long?”

He buried his face in her hair. “Kent
watched you for years, it looks like. At least since Cancun.”

“
Cancun? But…” She shook her head.
This didn’t make sense. Turning around, she stared at him. “No.
This isn’t right.”

He cupped her cheek. “I’m sorry, baby. But
there are too many pictures.” He rubbed his thumb over her lower
lip. “I don’t think Kyle told him, though. Kent knew because he’d
been watching.”

Tania jerked, liked he’d punched her.
“Watched… Oh, God.” Shoving past him, she ran for the bathroom. She
barely made it before she started to puke.

He was right behind her, holding her hair,
murmuring to her, whispering and stroking her back.

When the spasms past, he wiped her face with
a rag, gave her a glass of water. When she started to shake, he
scooped her into his arms, carried her into the living room and
rocked her. “He watched us… Why…why would he do that?”

He didn’t answer and she fisted her
hand in his shirt, shook him, half desperate. “
Why
?”

“
Because he wanted something he
couldn’t have,” Drake said starkly. “And finally he snapped,
decided to take it.”

“
Me. Not
something
—
me
.” She shook her head, resting her head on his
shoulder. “Did…you said this was all at Gail’s house. Did
she
know
?”

Drake was silent.

Lifting her head, she stared at him. And the
answer was on his grim, unyielding face. “She did, didn’t she?”

“
I think she did.” He stroked his hand
down her back.

“
And she could have said
something—maybe warned me, maybe we would have known…”

That was when the tears started.

S
he broke his
heart.

Fury and grief mingled inside him, tearing
him in two.

Gripping the back of her shirt, Drake rocked
her as she sobbed, pressed his lips to her brow and wished he could
take this from her. But he couldn’t.

God, did I even do the
right thing by telling her
?

But what would he have done if he
was
wrong
and Gail
did
try to go to the police? If they
did think maybe they should investigate Kent’s death? He knew it
wasn’t likely, but how could he let her get blindsided like
that?

And
damn
it
, she had a right to know.

There was no telling what all Kent had done
with those videos he’d taken, the pictures.

But with each deep, racking sob, he made
himself question, made himself wonder.

It was almost an hour before the storm
started to ease. When she tipped her head back and stared at him,
he brushed her hair back from her face and whispered, “Tawny, I’m
so sorry. If I could have…”

She shook her head. In a hoarse voice,
she said, “You couldn’t have kept this from me.” She cleared her
throat and then continued. “I know Gail—I can imagine how she
thinks what she has is proof that I’m nothing but a slut anyway and
she’s got
proof
.”

Drake looked away.

“
I’m right, aren’t I?”

“
Yeah.”

She swallowed and nodded. “I figured as
much.” She sniffled.

He snagged a tissue from the bedside table
and handed it to her. She blew her nose and looked around. “How
long have we been in here?”

“
Nearly an hour. I thought you might
cry yourself to sleep…wanted you to be comfortable.”

“
You’re a sweet guy, Drake,” she
whispered softly, absently stroking his tattoo. She closed her
eyes. “My head hurts. My heart…everything. I don’t know what to
do.”

“
You don’t need to do anything right
now.”

“
I feel like I should do something,”
she muttered. There was an edge creeping into her voice, harsh and
hot. Abruptly she squirmed away from him, moving to sit on the edge
of the bed. “What all is on the video feeds he had?”