SEAL Team Seven Tyler: Book 4 (9 page)

***

Although she’d said no to food I still left her long enough to go in search of something. She was still being a little clingy which under other circumstances I would’ve liked but knowing that it was out of fear kinda took the pleasure out of it.

My whole family was in my kitchen including Davie and Susie. Connor, Logan, Zak, Quinn, Cord and Devon got real quiet when I walked in, like that was gonna work.

“No, he’s mine. Danielle did you make her that soup I asked for?”

“It’s right here Ty, let me heat some up. How’s she doing?”

She and Gabriella fussed around me like two mother hens while the soup warmed up on the stove. I rested back against the sink and folded my arms as I fielded their questions.

Baby Zak was not amused at my inattention and let her feelings be known in a long diatribe of babbles. I took her from her mother and buried my face in her neck, inhaling the sweet baby scent of her.

Was it only this morning I was teaching her how to do crunches and reading to her from a thousand year old book? How had so much shit happened so fast?

She seemed to sense something my sweet little bit, and cooed to me as she patted my head and cheek. I held on tight as I fought not to break.

The room shifted and I could feel the tension in the air. “Ty…”

“I’m cool Connor, as long as none of you go do what’s mine to do, I’ll stay that way.” I knew from their guilty looks that that’s probably what they had been plotting when I walked in.

“How is she doing, did she say anything?” Logan asked as he tipped back in his chair with a false air of calm. I knew tensions were high, it had been hours with no retaliation and the fucker had to know she was gone by now. I also had no doubt that he also knew who had her.

“I haven’t asked her yet she just woke up. I figured I’d get some food in her first.” Yeah that and maybe I was a little afraid of the answers.

They wanted to go see her but I didn’t think she was ready for that yet so I held them off. I went back to the bedroom with her bowl of soup on a tray and a hole in my gut. She had her face turned away and didn’t even acknowledge my return.

Was she going to blame me? Now that she was awake and had had time to rest and think? Would she blame me just like I blamed myself?

I know it didn’t make sense, but if I had shown just the smallest interest in her when she was trying so hard, this never would’ve happened. It was the one thing that kept plaguing me, how I could’ve prevented this if I’d only been less of a fuckwad.

I placed the tray down on the nightstand and waited, still no movement. “Do you need help sitting up?” She wouldn’t even look at me when she struggled to sit up. I guess that answers my question, now that she was safe again she was ready to spit in the devil’s eye.

That was fine, I’ll take her anger and anything else she had to throw at me, I deserved it. As long as she stayed her little ass where I put her in the future she can be as mad as she wants to be.

“Here let me help you.” I helped her sit up and fixed the pillows behind her. She gave a start of surprise when I kissed her hair and ran my hand down her cheek gently. My poor baby was a mess. My baby, huh, I like the sound of that.

***

Victoria-Lyn

I hate that he’s seen me like this, hate that I’m so weak when all he knows are strong women. I hadn’t been asleep as long as he thought, I’d just been lying there enjoying for the first time the feel of his arms around me, that strong body making me feel safe and warm.

I’d heard part of what the others were saying when they were here before, heard Ty warn them that the guy was his. I didn’t want that, didn’t want him or any of them getting into trouble because of me.

“Here open.” I opened my mouth as best I could because I knew he wouldn’t stop. I’ve been studying him for the past few months, ever since that night when I saw him for the first time, and I knew he was as stubborn as they come. I should know; I have the bruised pride and broken heart to prove it.

I’ll never forget the way he made me feel that first time with just one look, and not just any look, it’s what I call the Tyler special. That’s where he lowers his lashes and gazes into you with the heat of his blue eyes. Eyes that match the hot Georgia summer sky.

I’m not ashamed to admit I had a very strong reaction to him. My virgin body had shown a slight interest in the opposite sex before, but that night I felt like an inferno went off inside me.

I was out of my depth, not knowing what to do. But then Dani had said I should go for it but maybe be sneaky about it, because of all the brothers she thought he might be the hardest to crack.

Figures, I’ve never done anything the easy way. I’d run away from home when my mom thought it was a good idea at sixteen for me to share her husband’s bed so he wouldn’t leave her.

Ever since then I’ve been scrambling to keep my head above water, to not become what she’d obviously thought of me. I mean why else would she have asked me such a thing, if she didn’t think less of me.

I’d known for some time before that fateful day that he’d had his eye on me. There’s only so many times you can accidentally walk into an occupied bathroom, especially when the door had been locked from the inside.

When I caught him staring at my tits when I was fifteen I knew it was time to go. But go where? I had no place to go. Mom came from a broken home, I had no idea who my father was, had never met the man before, and there were no close relatives to help out.

It all started to go down hill when I hit puberty; things really took a turn for the worse when at sixteen my body blossomed. I could’ve done without it, though it seemed to make the boys at school mad with lust.

Then my stepdad upped his game so to speak. I remember that night laying in bed listening to them. It was always rather disturbing listening to them having sex, but the walls were so thin there was no escaping the sounds.

It was no different to any other night, her screaming ‘yes-yes-yes’ him calling her ‘bitch, slut, cunt, and on and on it went. What was different this night though was the mention of my name in the middle of all the festivities.

“You gonna let me have Vicki huh? You promised I could remember.” Say what? I remember my heart beating out of my chest with fright and the fear paralyzing me in the bed as I heard my own mother promise to give me to the greasy slime ball she’d been married to for six years.

I put my hands over my ears when the ruckus started up even worse next-door as I realized they were both getting off on their little pillow talk.

My mind had started racing as I thought of a way out. What if they come after me tonight? I’d never been so scared in my life as I was that night laying there waiting for the door handle to turn.

I was tempted to get up and move my dresser in front of the door, but I was too scared to move lest they hear me. Besides I was frozen in place.

Luckily they didn’t come in and by morning I was beginning to think it was all a misunderstanding that maybe I’d heard wrong. Even though his leer at the breakfast table was filthier than usual.

As soon as he left for work she’d started in. “You’re a big girl now, you’re gonna have to start doing your part around here.” I got that sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach and my mouth ran dry.

“What do you mean?” As if I didn’t know, but I needed to hear her say it so there was no mistake. “Well, Ben’s the only one working around here since I got laid off and things are tight. If you wanna keep this nice roof over your head there’re some things you’re gonna have to start doing.”

I felt the bottom drop out. Granted there was never any love lost between us, she’d never been anyone’s definition of a mother, but I thought she at least had some feelings for me seeing as how she birthed me.

She soon disannulled me of that notion when she laid it all out for me. How I was to make myself ready that evening. She had it all planned out, I was going to come straight home from school, take a nice bath and wear the sexy lingerie she’d have picked out for me.

I think I died a little that day sitting at that kitchen table as I watched my childhood end. I played along I had no choice. I didn’t know what she would do if I showed my true feelings.

I went back to my room and instead of the books I needed for that day stuffed what little I could in my backpack. There was five dollars in coins in my piggybank, which I emptied into my bag and left.

That was the last time I saw her. I’d walked to the edge of town and hitched a ride the rest of the way until I had two towns between us.

That first summer, I lied my way into a job at this nice little beachside restaurant. I’d been living on the streets for a few weeks but had learned how to keep myself clean in public restrooms.

I spent most days in the public library so I’d have some place to go, and had researched how to get my GED online. At night I’d find a spot somewhere out of the traffic of the city to bed down.

For some reason I felt freer on the streets than I had at home. I wasn’t as afraid of being violated, but I knew I couldn’t do it for too long before being found out.

I got that job and studied for my GED and at the end of the summer had a nice little nest egg. I got my GED much earlier than I would have if I’d stayed in school the next two years, and just when things were starting to look up, my world came crashing down again.

My boss cornered me in the storage room for a little cop a feel one evening while his wife was on the other side of the door restocking the shelves.

I didn’t know what to do, if I made a sound she would most definitely hear me and I would lose my job for sure. But if I stayed quiet… his hand inching its way up under my skirt made up my mind for me.

I kneed him as hard as I could and ran out of there. I never looked back. Instead I ran to the little long-term motel I’d been living in, grabbed my stuff and headed to the Greyhound station.

I’d ended up here in Briarwood because it was the farthest place the bus was going. I liked the feel of the place. Small town, everybody looked out for each other and they were friendly.

The first thing I did was sign up for classes at the university and though they’d made me jump through hoops because of my lowly GED, I’d lucked out and got a counselor who saw something in me.

She’d given me an aptitude test and when I passed with flying colors had gone to bat for me, even going so far as to help me sort out financial aid. It was there that I met Dani and Gaby. That was seven years ago and in all that time my luck had been holding out pretty good, until now.

***

I opened my mouth and accepted the spoonful of broth he fed me. Tasted like Dani’s that girl can cook, so can I. Well I hadn’t always paid much mind to my skills in the kitchen. Living on my own for so long, I’d gotten into the lazy habit of TV dinners and takeout.

That’s until Dani told me about Ty’s stomach and the bottomless pit that he was as she so fondly called him. Fool that I am I had cleaned out the local library of every cookbook they had and my new pastime was watching the cooking channel.

I had lots of time on my hands then too since life had taken a turn again, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I’d had to give up my cushy condo and rearrange things in more ways than one. Even my career had taken a hit.

I liked my job at the diner, I’d taken it after the investment firm I worked for had downsized during the recession. The money was nowhere near as good, but it was easy work and it kept me from having to dip into my savings to survive.

I had other prospects but they would entail moving and I hadn’t liked that idea even before I met the hunk with the dreamy blue eyes that made me melt.

Just the thought of leaving, never seeing him again, made me sick to my stomach. I knew I had it bad and even those days and nights when I told myself to give it up, that he was just not interested, my mind would always shy away from such thoughts.

It had got so it was almost a physical pain, like a need too long unfulfilled. And being around him was getting harder and harder to bear. But like a moth to his particular flame I kept coming back for more.

It was bordering on pathetic how just the little scraps of his attention made me feel so alive. It was that that kept me going, knowing that if I felt this way with the little he gave me, then it would be beyond amazing if he ever gave me the time of day.

There was something else that kept me coming back too. That sense I got sometimes that he was very aware of me no matter how much he pretended. Plus the fact that he left me wet and wanting every time he’d turn those eyes on me with that look.

There was no use running, I was already gone I just had to find a way to get him on board, and I might have eventually, if this hadn’t happened.

It’s funny, but ever since my experiences as a teen something had gone wonky with my sexuality. Before then, I had the usual urges of any red-blooded sixteen year old. I didn’t do anything about them, but there were there, and I knew from listening to my friends and reading, that it was natural.

After the thing with my stepdad and then my boss attacking me, I started to see sex as something to avoid at all cost. Technically I knew that it wasn’t sex that was the problem that it had been those two, but mentally I couldn’t separate the two.

But Tyler changed all that. Before he came into the picture there were plenty who showed an interest, but those I easily warded off, never even giving them a hint of reception.

One look at Ty though and I was ready to throw all my inhibitions to the wind. I’d badgered poor Dani to death for every morsel of information I could glean about him. I lived off every little tidbit she shared until I was going out of my mind wanting more. I ached for him like nothing before.

I know I made a fool of myself whenever we were in the same room together. I couldn’t seem to help it. There was just something about him that called to me, like two sides to the same coin. And when I saw him with the baby, my ovaries had opened like a flower and started doing handsprings.

I’d felt a burning so deep inside, and anger. Anger at him for not seeing what I saw, not wanting what I knew would be so good for us. I’d heard him teasing his brothers about their lovesick ways as he called them. Each time he said it I felt hope dwindling farther and farther away.

But then I’d watched him with that little girl and my hope was restored. No man could look at a baby girl like that and not feel. And when he’d looked over her head and right into my eyes, I knew I’d fight another ten years if I had to, just to taste the promise in those eyes.

Then this, only the night before I’d been dreaming sweet dreams about when we finally got together. Even though he’d gone back to being his usual self after that shared look, the damage had already been done.

I’d sensed something different in him, a slight change, like maybe he was more open to the possibilities of us. I was planning to work on that and enlist the help of the others if I had to. I got the impression that they would approve, and maybe with a little nudge…

I wouldn’t say he was ready for wedding bells like the others, but I had seen something more than interest in his eyes that time. I’d gone home with a warm feeling; things were finally looking up.

My breath hitched at the memory of what followed and I reacted. “Easy baby, easy.” Ty put the tray down and climbed on to the bed with me. I can’t believe the way my body trembled. In my mind I knew I was safe, that nothing could reach me behind these walls, in his arms, but my body couldn’t seem to grasp that.

“Baby, I have to ask…” I knew what he was going to say before he gave the words free reign. I curved into myself as much as I could with his arms wrapped around me. It was the way he reacted that shocked me out of it.

He practically flew from the bed in a rage. “Son of a mothering fucking bitch I’ll kill him.” His rage for some reason helped to assuage whatever was going on with me. I climbed off the bed my body wracked with pain and tried to hold him as he looked around the room, his eyes wild.

It was like he wasn’t there. “Tyler, look at me.” He was gone and I was never so scared in my life. There was nothing in his eyes, nothing but a deep dark rage. He didn’t look at me as much as look right through me.

I hobbled out of the room when I saw it was no use, there was no getting through to him. “Vicki…” Logan saw me first and started to get up. It looked like they were all here keeping watch.

“Ty, mad…” They were the only words I could get out before six chairs scraped back, no make that seven. “No Davie you stay here this could get ugly.” Cord told the younger man to stay put as Dani came over and wrapped her arm around me to lead me to the couch in the other room.