Authors: Samantha Blair
Protectors
57
“Wow. It sounds like you stay busy. No wonder you guys are in
such great shape.”
Gage chuckled. “Yeah, well, Ty would be upset if I developed a
beer gut. He’s always threatening to cut me off if I get lazy on him.”
Sara smiled. She found it hard to believe that Tyler would ever
threaten Gage in any way. She was pretty sure that Gage was the one
whipping them both into shape.
A moment later, Gage declared the water to be warm enough, and
pulled her in with him. The spray still stung her swollen face and
scraped knees, but also felt fantastic, and it hurt less than it had
yesterday. Her muscles ached from the stress and the fantastic
workout that the men had put her through.
Gage lathered his big hands with soap, and then caressed her from
behind, gently washing her stomach and moving over her hips. Sara
relaxed and let him have control of her body. Closing her eyes, she
leaned back against his solid chest.
She was so relaxed that she jumped when the bathroom door
opened a few seconds later. Tyler poked his head into the shower and
smiled at them.
“I bought you some shampoo and conditioner yesterday and
forgot to give it to you before your shower. Gage and I both use stuff that I thought would be too hard on your hair.” He offered the bottles of Pantene up to her.
“You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble,” Sara protested.
“Shhh,” Gage interrupted her, taking the bottles from Tyler. “I
told you there are some things that you just can’t argue about. Tyler and I take care of our own.”
He pulled her back into his arms and began wetting her hair. Tyler
took one last long look, as if he was contemplating jumping into the
shower, clothes and all, before pushing the shower door closed.
* * * *
58
Samantha Blair
Sara was washed, dried, and dressed in a brand new pair of jeans
and tank top not fifteen minutes later. The clothes, just like those from the day before, fit perfectly.
“I took your size from the dress that you were wearing the first
night, but I had to guess at the size for the jeans,” Tyler confessed. “I hoped they would fit.”
“Thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it,” Sara said.
“I had expected the top to fit a little tighter.” Tyler laughed,
pulling her into his arms and kissing the top of her head. “I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing a little more of that gorgeous cleavage.”
Sara playfully punched him in the arm before sitting down with
her plate. She seemed pleased with the fresh vegetables that he had
prepared, and it made him happy to think that she might enjoy his
cooking.
“Not that I really want to bring up the depressing subject,” Sara
started, “but I do need to go home soon. I shudder to think what
Jeremy might have done to my things, not to mention my car. I’d
really like it get it back, if it’s still running. Maybe he took the truck to work today.”
Both men looked at her solemnly, but it was Tyler who spoke
first. “You’re not really planning to leave, are you?” He couldn’t
fathom why she would want to go home to that monster when she so
obviously belonged with them.
“Well, I can’t stay here forever…”
“Sure you can,” Gage said sternly. “Tyler and I will take you to
get your things, if you want them, but you’re coming right back here
when we’re done. You don’t even have to go back at all if you don’t
want to. We’d be happy to get you whatever you need. We have two
vehicles. We’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
Sara stared wide-eyed. “No. You can’t drive me all over the place
or spend any more money on me.”
Tyler chuckled. “I wouldn’t try to tell him what he can and can’t
do, honey.”
Protectors
59
“Well, at the very least we should go see if my own car is okay.
It’s already paid off. I would like to have my own clothes and a few
of my mother’s things as well. It’s not very much...”
“Your mother’s things?” Tyler asked curiously.
“Yes, she died about a year ago, and Jeremy sold a lot of what she
had in the house, but there are still a few things, like my
grandmother’s quilt, that I would like to have to remember her by.”
“Why were your mother’s things in Jeremy’s house?” Gage asked.
“Did she live with you?”
“Well, technically we lived with her,” Sara explained. “It’s my
family’s house. The Effeses have owned it and the land for three
generations. My father passed away when I was young, but my mom
and I lived there alone until she got sick. I was working as a teller at the bank, and just occasionally dating Jeremy, but then she got
stomach cancer, and he thought that it would be a good idea if I quit my job and stayed home with her.”
“So he moved in with the two of you?”
“Yes. It was great at first. He made sure that the bills were paid,
and I was able to be with my mom when she really needed me.
Eventually though, he started suggesting that we merge our bank
accounts. It seemed reasonable because he was managing the
household and had the only income. It wasn’t until months later that I discovered that he was spending our savings. We weren’t really well
off, but my mother was careful, and she had saved little by little her whole life. Jeremy was drinking and getting into some pretty bad
poker debt.”
“Bastard,” Gage growled. Tyler sympathized with him. If Jeremy
ever went near her again, there was going to be trouble.
“By the time he started to get violent, my mother was really sick,
and I couldn’t take her away from her own home, so I tried to throw
him out instead. The first time that we had
that
discussion he put me in the hospital with a broken nose and dislocated shoulder. When I got home from the hospital, my mother was screaming in pain. He’d
60
Samantha Blair
refused to give her any pain medication while I was away, and she
was in agony. He told me that if I ever suggested anything so stupid
as asking him leave again, he would kill her.”
Tyler’s hands clenched into fists on the table, and Sara reached
across to calm him. He took her hand between both of his, and let her continue her story. For now, there was nothing he could do but be
supportive.
“But she died anyway, of course. The doctors had given her less
than six months when they first discovered the cancer, and she held
on for almost nine. She begged me all the time to leave Jeremy, but
there was just no way that I could take her with me, so I stayed and
tried not to make him angry.”
“When she died, Jeremy wouldn’t even help me to pay for the
funeral. I didn’t have any of my own money at that point because I
hadn’t been working for more than six months, and he had control of
most of the accounts. Luckily, I had managed to keep one savings
account hidden from him. It was supposed to be my escape money,
but in the end, it barely covered the cost of burying her.”
“So he trapped you in your own home with no money and abused
you while he drank and gambled away your inheritance? I’m tempted
to march down to the station right now and explain to him the proper
treatment of a lady.” Gage’s face was covered in rage, and Sara’s
posture stiffened when she saw it. Tyler squeezed her hand
reassuringly. Gage might get mad, but he’d never do anything to hurt
her.
“No, you can’t do that,” Sara protested. “It’s better to let it go.”
“And watch you give up your family home and all of your
possessions to an abusive bully? I don’t think so. You’re not leaving.
He is. It’s your house, and he doesn’t belong there.”
“But he does. He and this crooked lawyer buddy that he plays
poker with forced my mother into changing everything legally before
she died. She even signed the deed for the house over to him. He
owns it now. Everything. He threatened to hurt me if she didn’t do
Protectors
61
what he wanted, and she was too sick to fight back. He used me
against her, always threatening to hit me, and she eventually gave in.
He has a legal right to everything that was hers now. It’s all his
property, except for my car. The car was the only thing in my name,
and I refused to transfer the title no matter what he did to me.”
“We’re going to straighten this out,” Tyler promised. “I know
some very good lawyers. He isn’t going to know what hit him.”
* * * *
Despite her protests, the men spent the next forty-five minutes
making phone calls. Tyler did indeed seem to know a lot of powerful
people. For two men that mostly kept to themselves, it seemed odd.
“How does Tyler know all these people?” Sara whispered to Gage
as Tyler got on the phone with yet another lawyer.
“His father is a retired senator. He knows a lot of people from
helping with the campaigns. The others he knows from Yale.”
“Yale? Like Yale, the Ivy League university, Yale?”
Gage chuckled. “Yep. That’s the one. Our boy is sharp as a tack.
It’s one of the things that I love about him.”
Sara rolled that one around in her head for a while. He was a
brilliant, wealthy, powerful, and unbelievably attractive man. She
understood his attraction to the masculine and talented Gage, but what on earth did he see in her?
“What’s the story?” Gage asked as Tyler rejoined them in the
living room.
“I’ve got it all taken care of,” Tyler announced. “Martel called
two state cops he knows well, with me on the phone. I told them your
story, and they are going to come out here to get an official statement later this afternoon. I also spoke with my family lawyer who said that he would be happy to help with the criminal case. He referred me to
an expert in inheritance law as well. They think that you have a strong case because all of the paperwork that your mother processed was
62
Samantha Blair
signed under duress. It will be harder to win because she’s no longer living, but if we win the criminal case, he’s confident that he’ll be able to recover the house and whatever remains of your mother’s
savings.”
Tears filled Sara’s eyes. She was overwhelmed by the possibility
that she might not only be safe from Jeremy, but she might regain
ownership of the house that she had long ago thought lost forever.
Tyler pulled her onto his lap and held her. “We’re going to take
care of everything, baby. Don’t worry. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
Protectors
63
Chapter 7
The state police were very nice, Sara admitted to herself as she
watched their unmarked car disappear down the long drive. They’d
sent two detectives by the names Ryder and Filley.
She’d given her statement with confidence, even though she was
trembling on the inside. Tyler sat beside her the whole time and held her hand. She had gone over every detail that she could think of from the last two years and provided as much evidence as she could
regarding her sick mother, the sale of the house, and everyone who
was involved in Jeremy’s gambling. Tyler insisted that the bruise on
her cheek should be evidence enough, and amazingly, the officers
seemed to agree with him.
Sara hadn’t known it, but her complaint was not the first against
Jeremy. Apparently the state cops had been involved twice before.
The first incident was with a tourist who had gotten a speeding ticket while passing through town. The speeding woman had reported him
for inappropriate conduct saying that he had made suggestive remarks
and been overly aggressive toward her. The event was investigated
and noted in Jeremy’s file but ultimately swept under the rug.
The second incident had been a bar fight. Jeremy had been off
duty and drinking when the fight had broken out. A fellow officer,
who remained anonymous, had placed a call suggesting that Jeremy
had been involved in the beating of a young man who was
hospitalized as a result of the occurrence. Dutifully, this incident had also been investigated, but an anonymous phone call from someone
claiming to be a police officer and an absent testimony from the kid in
64
Samantha Blair
the hospital, who refused to press charges, were hardly even worth
noting.
Jeremy’s file was not enough to convict him of anything, but it
was enough to make the detectives believe what Sara was saying. The
man was clearly an aggressor.
The detectives were going to check in with the bank and the
hospital to make sure that the evidence corroborated her story. In
order to file for a restraining order against Jeremy, they needed proof that he was responsible for her previous hospitalization, and they
wanted at least one or two more witnesses to testify to his gambling
and drinking habits. If Jeremy was really as volatile as she described, someone else in town would know about it.
They recommended that she stay away from the property in
question until they had Jeremy in custody, which meant that she was
staying put for a while longer.
* * * *
Gage handed her a cup of herbal tea, sat down, and pulled her feet
into his lap. “Since we can’t take you home yet, was there anything