Seducing Liselle (13 page)

“Yeah.
But I didn’t know that and neither did my mom, not really. She
thought he was a loser, but she didn’t know he was abusive.” Beth bit her lip.
“He drank a lot. And he was always mad.”

“I’m glad he’s dead,”
Liselle
said fiercely, unable to stop herself. How could her brother have hurt this
beautiful, innocent girl?
God.

Beth looked startled. “I though I was the
only one who felt like that. I felt so bad for thinking he was better off
dead.”

“Oh, no.
Don’t ever feel bad that he’s dead, Beth. You deserve so much
better than him. Your uncle is a better father to you than my brother ever
could have been.” She hugged the girl, upset that someone she shared blood with
could ever be so evil.

“It’s okay. Uncle John took care of him,”
Beth said, hugging her back just as tightly.

“What do you mean?”
Liselle
asked. All she knew was that her brother had died because he got in a fight,
which hadn’t surprised her at all.

Beth pulled back. “Didn’t he tell you?”

“Tell me what?”
Liselle
carefully ignored the sinking sensation in her stomach.

Beth shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
She looked worried.

“Beth, just tell me. He’s dead. He can’t
hurt either of us anymore.”

“I don’t want you to be mad at Uncle
John.”

Liselle
frowned, starting to get really worried. What did John have to do
with Matt’s death? “I don’t understand.”

The girl jumped up and started pacing. “My
dad was hitting my mom.” She sent
Liselle
a look too
complicated to figure out. “You have to understand, this was after my mom threw
him out.
Months later.
He came back, snuck in the back
door.”

Liselle
nodded. “Okay.” She didn’t care about Matt. She just wanted to know
what John had to do with it all.

Beth took a deep breath. “He came back,
drunk or high or something. My mom told him to leave and he hit her, said it
was her fault he was so messed up. We were in the foyer. I tried to get him
away from my mom, and he hit me. I fell down against the stairs. Uncle John
came
in,
he was coming over for dinner. I remember he
was wearing his fatigues and when Dad saw him, he went crazy.” She stopped and
wrung her hands.

“Beth, it’s okay. You don’t have to tell
me if you don’t want to,”
Liselle
offered, sliding
out of bed and hugging the girl. She no longer cared that all she had on was a
pair of panties and John’s shirt.

Beth shook her head. “No, I want you to
know.” She took a deep breath. “Uncle John grabbed him and tossed him aside,
like it was nothing. I’ve never seen anything like it. He looked like one of
those guys in the movies. Mom said he’d learned how to fight in the military.”
She looked at
Liselle
, her expression pained. “I know
his shoulder still hurt a lot, he was still having trouble with it, but it was
like he didn’t even notice. When my dad got up, Uncle John blocked everything
he threw at him. Mom was on the phone with the cops by now, and I could tell
Uncle John was trying not to really hurt my dad.”

“Jesus,”
Liselle
breathed. “I had no idea.”

“And then my dad went completely berserk
when he heard the sirens. He threw a chair at me. I didn’t duck fast enough.”
She pointed to a small scar over her right eye that
Liselle
hadn’t noticed before. “It started bleeding like crazy, and Uncle John grabbed
my dad and shoved him out the door. The cops pulled up, and then my dad punched
Uncle John in his bad shoulder, really hard. Uncle John groaned and fell back
against the house.”

Liselle
felt sick. Beth had stopped talking and looked like she was on the
verge of tears.

“I know Uncle John was a pilot, but he
must have had some kind of other training, because he suddenly got real calm.
The police were there, but my dad had Uncle John by the neck, too close to him
for the police to really do anything, and he punched him again. Uncle John just
took it—he had the scariest look on his face, and then he hit my dad in the
head.”

She pulled the girl close again and hugged
her. “It’s all over now.”

“I know,” Beth said into
Liselle’s
shirt. “My dad went down, like boom.
Dead.”

Liselle
froze. “What?”

Beth nodded.
“Yeah.
I couldn’t believe it either. The cops said it was totally self-defense. They
saw the whole thing.”

Oh my God
,
Liselle
thought. John had killed Matt. She felt a strange
sort of satisfaction at the thought, and then she felt a hint of guilt for
being thankful that her lover had killed her brother. She should be angry, or
upset, and instead, she felt … relieved.
And weirdly, safer than
she had in a long time.
John said he’d protect her, keep her safe from
her father. Clearly he wasn’t just saying that. He must have thought through
the consequences of exactly what it meant to make that kind of a promise. After
all, he’d killed before.

“Aunt
Liselle
?
You okay? You’re not mad I told you, are you?” Beth sniffed against John’s
shirt.

“God, no, never!”
She hugged her again, beyond thankful that she’d come here all
those months ago and met this girl and her family.

“I didn’t know Uncle John hadn’t told
you,” Beth said.

“I think he was afraid I would freak out,”
Liselle
murmured.

Beth snorted.
“Yeah.”
She rubbed her face against
Liselle’s
shirt,
then
pulled back. “Hey, what’s this?” She hooked a finger
around the gold chain and before
Liselle
could stop
her, pulled out the necklace with the dog tag dangling from it. “This was my
grandmother’s.” She leaned closer.

Liselle
closed her eyes, flushing. Shit. She sure hoped John didn’t mind
his family finding out about them. Wait, he’d given her his mother’s gold
necklace? What did that mean?

“And that’s Uncle John’s dog tag!
Well, one of them anyway.”
The girl rubbed a finger over the
metal. “He gave this to you.” She eyed
Liselle
speculatively.

Liselle
blushed harder. “Um…”

“He likes you! My mom said my grandmother
always wore that chain, for as long as she could remember. Wow. Uncle John gave
it to you.” Beth gave a whoop and kissed her on the cheek. “That is so cool!”

“Uh, you’re not upset?” She wondered when
her life had gotten so surreal.

“Are you kidding? I thought he’d never
meet someone. He never dated any girl that I ever saw. Or guy, come to think of
it.” Beth giggled,
then
seemed to realize exactly what
Liselle
was dressed in.

Or not dressed in
,
Liselle
thought, because Beth let out a
squeal. John’s cat hissed. Beth ignored him.

“You’re wearing his shirt, too, and you’re
totally naked under there! Oh my God, I have to text my mother.” She pulled
away and had her phone in her hand before
Liselle
could even blink.

“Oh God, he’s going to kill me,”
Liselle
groaned, watching Beth type. The girl’s fingers
moved so fast they almost blurred. From the corner of her eye she saw
Pitbull
jump off the bed, throw them both a disdainful
look, and head downstairs.

“Nah.”
Beth flashed a grin at her, hands pausing. “He’ll be cool. He’s
used to women. Four older sisters, remember?”

Liselle
groaned again and buried her face in her hands.

An hour later
Liselle
,
Beth, and Julie were sitting in a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant eating
lunch. Or rather, Beth and Julie were eating lunch.
Liselle
was answering the barrage of questions the two of them threw her way. The place
was set in the small town at the bottom of the mountain where the Steele family
had lived for generations. Everyone seemed to know each other, judging by the
dozens of greetings sent their way from people on the street when they’d parked
the car.
Liselle
hated to admit it, but she liked it
here. It was quaint. The general store John and his crew were renovating was
down the block. When he’d seen her with his sisters he’d smiled and thrown her
a kiss, then winced when Beth made kissy faces at him.
Liselle
chuckled, thinking about it, and took another bite of her burger.

“When did he first kiss you?” Beth asked
around a
french
fry, continuing her and her mother’s
interrogation.

Liselle
made a show of chewing her lunch, gesturing that she couldn’t
answer because her mouth was full. Thank goodness the place was close to empty
because she really didn’t need the whole world hearing about her love life. The
table next to them held three older women. There was a waitress and a cook
using the small kitchen in the back. That was the extent of the people inside,
given that it was a bit late for lunch and the place had no air conditioning.
It was hot inside. She took another bite of her burger, trying to enjoy the
small-town atmosphere of the place. Beth and Julie weren’t making it easy.

“Oh come on, you can tell us!” Beth
wheedled.

Liselle
waved her finger at her mouth, trying to convey 'sorry, chewing
here,' with the appropriate amount of adult control rather than the
embarrassment she was actually feeling.

“Oh please, you’ve been chewing that bite
for, like, an hour,” Beth said, chomping down another ketchup-smothered fry.

Julie laughed. “She’s right. Now spill.”
She leaned over the table. “He hasn’t had a girlfriend since high school. At
least not that he’s told us about.”

Liselle
sighed and swallowed. “And I can see why. He’s got five women
tormenting him for information. Any sane person would have run the other
direction as soon as they set eyes on his family.” She smiled to show that she
was only teasing.

Julie smirked and her daughter laughed.
Liselle
rolled her eyes at them and gave in.

“He rescued me from that blizzard the
first night I met you guys.”

“Wait, what? He kissed you back in
February?” Beth goggled at her.

“He rescued you? What happened in the
snow?” Julie leaned in now, too.

Liselle
chuckled. They look of avid curiosity on their faces was hilarious.

“My car broke down and I ended up in a
ditch on the side of the road. He found me and took me home with him,
thankfully. I was freezing.” She debated on what to tell them, but then figured
she might as well throw them a bone. “And he warmed me up in front of his big
fireplace.”

“Oh my God, the classic ‘share heat’
romance thing,” Julie crowed, laughing hysterically. “Were your clothes wet?”

Liselle
blushed.
“Uh, no comment.”

“They were? Okay, I don’t actually want to
know any more.” Julie sat back and took a sip of her iced tea.

“Aw, mom!”
Beth complained.

“Hello, this is your uncle we’re talking
about here,” Julie said, waving a hand. “I do
not
want details of my
little brother and his romantic conquests.”

Beth laughed and ate another fry. “Yeah,
you’ve got a point. There is not enough brain bleach in the world to erase
those images. I’m glad I’m an only child.”

Liselle
breathed a tentative sigh of relief and sipped her drink. She
wondered if they would be willing to answer a few questions.
Only one way to find out
, she told
herself. “So, how long was John in the Air Force?”

“Oh, twenty years.
I think. I know he got his pension.” Julie’s face darkened. “But
the accident was horrible. I don’t know if he was planning on retiring, but
well…” she trailed off.

“What happened?” It was
Liselle’s
turn to lean forward.

Julie eyed her. “Well, you’re wearing my
mother’s necklace. I guess I can tell you.” She wiped her face with her napkin
and tossed it on the table.

Liselle’s
fingers twitched, wanting to stroke the dog tag. Since she’d taken
it all those months ago, she had come to rely on it every time she felt
unsettled, like a good luck charm.
Not that it helped me much when my dad
appeared out of fucking nowhere
, she thought darkly.

“Supposedly, he disobeyed orders. He told
me that some of his team had gotten pinned down by the enemy in the midst of a
skirmish, up in the mountains in Afghanistan. Some awful ambush or something,
and his commanding officer didn’t want him taking the chopper back to get them.
He went anyway. He got them out, but the bird went down and he was hurt bad.”
She grimaced. “Thank God his superior officers,” her tone of voice implied that
they were anything but ‘superior,’ “decided he should take a medical discharge
instead of just kicking him out for disobeying orders. God, I hated them for their
damned callous attitude. They didn’t deserve John. He’s too good for that kind
of service.” She nearly snarled the last few words.