Noah's Journey (Sawyer Brothers #3) (11 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Noah

“We got a call about an abandoned car out on Henry Lane. The caller said they noticed it last night, and it was still there this morning,” Ryan said as he rounded his desk and walked toward me. “Wanna ride along to check it out?”

“Let’s go,” I said as I grabbed for my gun and holster and strapped it in place, but I only brought it along as a precaution. Not much happened in Livingston, Montana. It was a quiet community full of wholesome people. The teenagers and younger adults got a little rowdy at times, but it was all in good fun.

“Do we have a plate number?” I asked as I followed him out the front of the station toward the patrol car.

“Nah, old Mrs. Willard can’t see for shit. What she gave me didn’t pan out. I figure when we get out there, we’ll get the correct one and match it with the rightful owner.” Ryan was right; Mrs. Willard shouldn’t even be driving. She was an eighty-nine-year-old, bullheaded widow with a mean streak who refused to allow her children to chauffer her around.

“That lady freaks me out,” I said with a shiver. “Do you remember when Pop took us with him to clean up her yard after Martin died?”

Ryan nodded as he winced at the memory.

“I damned near pissed my pants when she rounded that barn with a shotgun in her hand.” We were teens then, and she thought we were stealing tools from the shed. Apparently, a few kids around town were robbing her blind.

“I also remember Jackson dropping to the ground and crying like a baby,” Ryan added, and we both laughed. “Once I realized the damn shotgun was a wooden replica, I was so relieved.”

“She’s one crazy lady, that’s for sure.” We both sat in silence, and I remembered that day with Pop. Hell, he worked us three boys like dogs. Later that afternoon while we were slaving away, he sat on the back porch with Mrs. Willard, drinking iced tea and shouting out demands.

Us boys silently cussed him for making us spend a Saturday cleaning up some cranky old lady’s yard. Now I found the lesson in it. He was making us men. And those memories made me thankful he was as hard on us as he was.

I was brought out of my daydream when the patrol car slowed to a stop behind the abandoned car. The old silver Corolla didn’t look familiar, but it did have Montana plates.

Ryan instantly began tapping on the small laptop screen mounted to the dash, searching through the database for the owner’s name. I scanned the area around us as we waited.

Within seconds, the information we needed popped up on the screen. “Michael Westerfield.” Ryan read off a street address in Dillon, Montana. He tapped the screen and unfastened his seat belt.

I undid my own, and we opened our doors and crawled out of the cruiser. Ryan walked up to the driver’s side of the vehicle while I took the right, cautiously looking through the windows with my hand on my gun out of habit.

A movement through the window in the backseat caught my eye, and I immediately pulled my gun and pointed it toward the vehicle. Ryan did the same as he crouched down in a guarded stance.

“Livingston police,” I announced. “We need you to place your hands in the air where we can see them.”

Ryan and I remained in place as we waited for whoever was hidden beneath the blanket in the backseat to follow my order. Slowly and cautiously, the occupant began to sit up, holding their hands above them.

“Keep your hands where we can see them at all times. Do not make any attempt to reach or retrieve any item within the vehicle,” I directed.

Ryan remained in place, his eyes locked securely on the person, ready to act if necessary.

I reached for the handle of the door, still holding my gun firmly in my right hand. Ever so slowly, I opened the door, and when the passenger turned and looked up at me, my heart sank.

The girl couldn’t have been more than eighteen or maybe twenty, and her face was battered and bruised, showing obvious signs of abuse.

Chills covered my arms and legs, and I slowly lowered my gun and took a step closer to the vehicle. “We’re not gonna hurt you,” I assured her.

Her lower lip trembled, but she nodded.

“Did you come here alone?” I asked, and she nodded once again. “What’s your name?”

“Trinity,” she whispered in a shaky breath.

“Okay, Trinity, I’m gonna reach out and help you from the car.” I had no intentions of scaring this young girl any more than she already was. My heart broke for her. Her story couldn’t be a happy one.

Slowly, I reached out, and she placed her hand in mine. I allowed her to move at her own pace, giving her control.

Trinity kept her other hand out in plain sight, following my earlier orders. “I think my ankle may be broken,” she said and winced as she refrained from placing her left foot on the ground. “It hurts to put pressure on it, and it’s pretty swollen too.”

“I’m just going to step around you and allow you to lean on me as I move you to the patrol car,” I explained.

A look of panic covered her face, and she hobbled back, still keeping her hands visible. “Am I under arrest?” She began to shake, and that’s when Ryan rounded the car.

“Sweetheart, we have no reason to arrest you. We’re here to help you, but you’re gonna have to let us know how we can do that.” The look of worry on Ryan’s face mirrored my own.

“I don’t think anyone can help me. I’ve tried to get help, but it only made him angrier.”

That information only pissed me off more. Some man had obviously put the fear of God into this impressionable, frail girl. “Trinity, I can assure you that we will help you. If someone has hurt you, we promise to not let that happen again. But you have to give us a little help here. Tell us who you’re afraid of.” I needed her to understand she could trust us.

Her uneasy gaze shifted between Ryan and me for a few moments before she finally spoke.

“My husband,” she whispered.

She didn’t look old enough to be married.

“We’ve only been married for three months,” she added. “He never hit me before, but after our wedding night, things changed. I left three days ago, and I was just gonna drive until I found a place to hide out.” She shrugged. “Not a great plan, I know, but I had to leave. Then the car broke down and I crawled in the backseat, deciding that if he found me, there was nothing I could do.”

“There is something you can do,” Ryan told her. “Let us help you.”

She nodded once again as tears began to fall down her cheeks.

We locked up her car, and with Ryan on one side of her and me on the other, we led her toward the cruiser.

***

“She was just hiding in the backseat of her car alone?” Alena asked as she sat down on the barstool next to me.

I nodded, remembering just how sad and lonely Trinity looked when she first raised her head. Trinity Flores was twenty-one, and so far her young life had been terrible. When she was sixteen, her drug-addicted mother abandoned her. She lived with random friends after that, and some nights on the street. That was until she met Michael Westerfield, a twenty-eight-year-old from Dillon. He had a long record of battery and abuse that he neglected to tell Trinity about. She was young and looking for security, and when he made her feel as if he could offer her that, she fell for his lies.

Now she was paying the price.

After a few hours at the station, going over detail after detail of the horror she had endured, we issued an arrest warrant through the Dillion Police Department. A while later, they notified us they’d picked up Mr. Westerfield and were detaining him on domestic battery and sexual assault charges.

Trinity would live with the hell Michael had put her through for the rest of her life, and she would fear men and their intentions. And that thought made my chest feel hollow.

I texted Alena when my shift ended, and Ryan did the same with Amber. After a day like we had, we needed a drink. Both girls promised to meet us at Roger’s, our go-to place when we needed to get shitfaced.

“So where is she now?” Alena asked from my left as I lifted the beer to my mouth.

After taking a pull, I tilted my head in her direction. “She’s staying over at the church for a few days until she finds another place to stay.”

Concern washed over her face instantly. “She doesn’t have any family?”

I nodded and motioned for another round for me and Ryan. He sat at my right, Amber’s arms curled around his neck in a soothing manner.

“Is she gonna stay in town?” Alena asked, and I shifted my gaze back to meet hers. “Because I was just thinking I could use some help around the store, and I have a spare room.”

I stared at her in awe. She was so unbelievably selfless. We were talking about a complete stranger—one who was down on her luck, yes, but a stranger still—yet here Alena was looking out for her. Without saying a word, I placed my hand around the back of her neck and pulled her close. She let out a little yelp as her body fell into mine, and I stood immediately, turned her, and pinned her back against the bar. With my chest pressing firmly against her, I covered her lips with my own.

The clink of the beer glass as Wayne, the bartender, placed it on the counter pulled me out of the heated kiss. Staring into one another’s eyes, we both took a moment to regain control.

“You’re so kind,” I whispered, still holding her close. “There aren’t that many people out there that would be willing to offer what you just have.”

“I know what it’s like to feel alone,” she said with sadness, and that’s when I realized there were still things I didn’t know about Alena. “Sometimes you just need to be shown there are kind people in the world. One little gesture of hope could lead to a lifetime of success and love.”

“I promise to never let you feel alone again,” I assured her, and her eyes filled with unshed tears.

I meant it. Never again would I be foolish enough to not appreciate how truly exceptional Alena was. She was beautiful both inside and out.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Alena

“If you keep poking me with those damn needles, I swear to you, woman, I am gonna kick you.”

I looked up from kneeling before Bailey and laughed. I was pinning the unfinished wedding dress at her waist, and on more than one occasion I had poked her hip with a straight pin.

“I thought you loved being poked,” I replied with a smirk, and she narrowed her eyes.

“Smartass,” she huffed.

Just then Trinity, my new friend, roommate, and employee, exited the back room carrying a pile of silk nighties. The things were so hard to keep on the shelf. Apparently the women of Livingston loved lingerie; who would have thought?

“I thought I’d restock the lingerie section,” she said. She was still standoffish with anyone but me. It took over a week of sharing the same apartment before she felt comfortable being in the same room with me for more than ten minutes. She was still warming up to Bailey and Amber, but I knew she would come around.

“Yeah, thanks. That would be great.” I offered her a smile as she walked past me and got to work.

“I don’t think I ever told you how great it is that you gave her a fresh start,” Bailey said in a hushed tone. “It’s truly heartwarming, Len. It’s one of the reason I love you so much. You truly have the biggest heart.”

I shrugged, refusing to accept I had done anything special. “It was nothing. She’s a good person who deserves happiness. She just had to learn that for herself.”

“Well, whether you want to admit it or not, I think you’re pretty damn awesome,” Bailey stated as though it was a matter of fact.

Breaking the heart-to-heart moment, because the last thing I wanted to do was cry, I smirked up at her. “So, speaking of getting poked, have you and Jackson got it on it the barn lately?” Her eyes widened in surprise, and I laughed.

“You heard about that?” she said, lowering her voice.

“I don’t think there are too many people that don’t know about it,” I replied, and she closed her eyes, pressing her lips together tightly. She did her best to hide her laughter, but in a matter of seconds we were both giggling.

***

“What time do you think you girls will be done?” Noah asked as he pulled up to the front of Jackson and Bailey’s place.

Bailey recruited Amber, Tammy, Olivia, Trinity, and me to help prepare the wedding invitations for mailing. So when I walked into my apartment carrying two bottles of wine and found Noah lounging on my couch, I regretted committing to spending the evening with the girls. I would have much rather gotten my drink on and attacked my man instead.

When I’d informed him of our plans, he pouted and then insisted that since we would be drinking, he would be driving us there and picking us up after.

“Are you going home?” I asked when he placed his truck in park.

“Yeah, Stacey is gonna bring Austin over and leave him for an hour while she gets her hair colored. Afterward, she’ll stop back by and take him home.”

I had gotten so much better with accepting Stacey being around Noah. But when she was with him without me near, I always felt a small tinge of jealousy.

“I can text you when we’re about done.” I had unfastened my seat belt and gathered my bag from between my feet.

Trinity had already opened the passenger door and crawled out and was smoothing her shirt as she waited for me. I’d started to slide across the seat when Noah cupped the back of my neck, stopping me from going any farther.

“You forgetting something?” He watched me with worried eyes, and I suddenly felt bad. I let go of the bag I had just lifted from the floor and left it in the set next to me as I leaned in and wrapped my arms around Noah’s neck. “I’m sorry,” I whispered just before placing my lips against his.

I took control of the moment and rolled my tongue with his, causing him to groan. When I pulled back, he followed me, sneaking in just a few more seconds. I smiled against his lips, giving him one last peck before releasing my hold. “Until later,” I said with a wink.

He waited in the driveway until Trinity and I were safely inside with the door closed behind us.

***

When you got a few drinks in Trinity, she became a whole new ball of fun. Not to mention extremely talkative. At one point she had Bailey laughing to the point of tears before she hurried off to the bathroom with her legs pinched tightly together. She was on the verge of hyperventilating, saying something about peeing her pants in between gasps.

I watched as Tammy laughed so hard she snorted.

Olivia and Bailey were the only sober ones in the bunch. Bailey used the excuse of taking medication she couldn’t drink with. Tammy and Olivia gave her skeptical looks, but she quickly changed the subject. Olivia kept threatening us with taking some incriminating photos to use against us later, but no one seemed to care.

The invitations were all ready to go out, the first few bottles of wine had been consumed, and the radio had just been turned on. Who knew acting like a fool with a group of half-loopy women would be so fun?

“Do it.” Amber nudged me with her shoulder as she nodded toward Olivia and Trinity. Both girls were standing in the center of the room, their backs facing as us they twerked to the music. Olivia was sort of a natural as she bounced her hips and took herself lower to the floor before rising once more.

“Yeah, Alena,” Olivia taunted as she looked back over her shoulder, still shaking her ass at us. Tammy was laughing to the point of almost falling over, and Trinity was doing her best to keep up with Liv.

“Does your father know about these moves of yours?” Tammy asked between laughs, and Olivia spun around to face us as she began rolling her hips more suggestively.

“Come on, Gran, don’t be a stick-in-the-mud. Let me see you work it,” Olivia taunted, completely ignoring her question.

Tammy looked over at me, arching a brow. After a few seconds of staring at one another, we both crawled from the floor and joined the girls in the center of the room.

I knew I was tipsy, but I truly did not know just how much until I stood up. I held my hands out to my sides, trying to make the room stop spinning. My reaction only made Trinity bust out in giggles, and Amber rolled back on her back, her feet in the air as she snorted like a pig.

“Okay, now show me how to move like that,” I slurred.

Olivia got on one side of me, placing Tammy on the other side of her, and Trinity was at my left. They both began to roll their hips, making their asses bounce. The movements gradually increased, and I did my best to keep up.

I had been so focused on the music and not falling on my face that I hadn’t heard the front door open. But when I heard a loud hoot followed by a “what the fuck?” I spun around quickly.

Ryan, Jackson, and Noah were standing in the entryway, staring at us with smiles on their faces. Well, all but Ryan. He was giving his daughter a warning look.

“What?” she asked.

“I better never see you dancing like that outside of the house,” he said, and she rolled her eyes.

“Seriously, Dad.” She walked over toward the radio and flipped the switch.

“Yeah, seriously. I swear, girl, I am gonna lock your ass in the basement and feed you your meals through a goddamned hole in the door,” he mumbled as he stepped around her and walked toward his wife. “We really need to look into a big-ass padlock or steel fucking doors,” he told Amber.

We all waited for him to finish his fatherly rant before we laughed at his ridiculous behavior.

Jackson worked his way toward Bailey and curled his hand around her waist. He placed his lips only inches from her ear and began whispering—probably all sorts of dirty words, because that’s just how those two are.

Forgetting Noah was still behind me, I jumped when he wrapped his arms around my midsection. He placed a soft kiss against my shoulder before he too began to whisper near my ear. “I think you should let me take you home, strip you naked, and then I’ll lie back on the bed while you dance like you just were.” He kissed my neck just beneath my ear, and I shivered against him.

“Then you can lower yourself over me and sit down on my cock,” he said in a husky rasp.

Noah very rarely talked dirty, but I loved it when he did. He was a generous lover and very giving, but generally he was passionate in a sweet way.

Everyone in the room was so entertained with picking on Ryan that they weren’t paying attention to Noah and me. So I took the opportunity to place my hand behind my back and slide it between our bodies. The moment I made contact with his now-growing erection, I gripped him firmly and glided my palm over him.

“Or I could just take you out to my truck right now and fuck you on the hood.” He moaned, biting into the delicate part of my neck. “Please tell me you’re ready to get out of here.”

“I’m ready,” I said with no amount of hesitation.

He placed his hand over mine and removed it from his dick. “We’re gonna head on home,” he announced, causing everyone to look in our direction.

Trinity looked slightly disappointed until Oliva made her smile by saying, “Trin, do you wanna go back to Gran’s with me for the night?” Tammy smiled and nodded, suggesting she thought that was a great idea.

I was secretly happy Noah and I would be alone on the ride home. I had plans for him. We said our good-byes just before he pulled me out the door in a hurry, making me giggle all the way.