Bare It All

chapter FOURTEEN

“YOU’RE DERANGED.” How in the world could Reese think anything had motivated her other than his awesome appeal?

His eyes widened a little at her insult.

Using both hands, she shoved him back a little. Or at least, she tried to. But since he was six and a half feet tall, every inch of him carved with strength, she only managed to surprise him.

“Look at you!” She cupped a hand at his jaw, rasped her thumb over his bristly beard stubble. Even that small touch set butterflies rioting inside her. Softer now, her voice an awed whisper, she said again, “Look at you.”

“Alice.”

Disregarding the warning tone in his voice, she ran both hands over his broad chest, those sculpted biceps, down to his incredible abs—which tightened more beneath her gentle touch. “You want the truth, Reese? You want to know why I was suddenly so—” she couldn’t force the word horny out of her mouth, so she settled on “—ready?”

Green eyes narrowed again, showing his disagreeable mood. “The truth would be nice.”

No way could she miss that insinuation. She gasped so hard she nearly choked herself. “I have not lied to you!”

“Lies of omission count, Alice.” He settled both hands atop her shoulders, close to her throat. “And I have a feeling you’ve omitted a lot.”

She should probably feel threatened. She’d had some pretty awful experiences with big, powerful angry men. Reese was bigger and more powerful than most, and right now he was all but incandescent with anger.

But she didn’t feel fear.

Not ever with Reese.

That did scare her a little because it felt so incredibly right to lean on him, to rely on him. She’d worked long and hard to find her independence again, to regain her self-worth.

And now, all she could think about was Reese...and how she wanted to share it all with him.

Knowing she had to confess, she let out a breath—and wrapped her arms around him. “You’re right.”

Surprised again, Reese held still...for three beats of time. Then he gathered her close. “Convince me I haven’t been used.”

“I can’t.” She tilted her head back to see him and gave him the truth he claimed to want. “I did use you. After what happened today, I was so shaken I didn’t know what to do. I felt like crying, or shouting, or just curling up tight and hiding somewhere. I haven’t felt like that for a while now. But then I realized you’d be home soon, and instead of falling apart, I wanted to get closer to you. I...” She pressed her cheek to his chest. “I wanted you to make me feel better.”

Broad, warm hands coasted up and down her back. She felt the beat of his heart against her cheek, the expansion of his hard chest as he drew in slow, deep breaths. “And did I?”

Alice nodded. “I was going to tell you everything. Rowdy insisted. I knew if I didn’t, he would.”

Reese stiffened. “And if Rowdy hadn’t been involved?”

“I’m sorry, but I honestly don’t know. You’re a cop,” she said quickly, hoping he’d understand. “You naturally feel an obligation to do things the legal way.”

“That’s not a bad thing, honey. The legal way works when you let it.”

“No, it doesn’t, not always.” Time to stop stalling. Alice gave up the comfort of his big solid body, but as she stepped away, Reese caught her hand.

She saw the questions in his eyes, the doubt he still felt about her motives. She couldn’t blame him.

“Let’s sit down.” She gave him a gentle tug toward the couch. “It’s a long story.”

“Rowdy told me much of it.”

Rowdy knew only the tiniest bit. Alice waited until they were both seated. As usual, Cash rushed over to sit with them. She patted her thighs, and he climbed into her lap, rolling to his back so he could stretch his head out to Reese’s thigh.

Smiling, Alice scratched his belly—and avoided looking at Reese. “Today, I saved a woman.”

Reese said nothing.

“Even if it upsets you, I feel good about it.” A quick glance showed the seriousness of his expression, both somber and acutely focused. “There were so many times I prayed for someone to save me.”

“Someone did.” Reese rubbed under Cash’s chin. “Rowdy says the guy is a wraith, but that he has incredible influence with the law.”

In doggy heaven, Cash dozed off.

Alice loved the dog with all her heart.

She realized now that she loved Reese, too, and that was a whole lot trickier. It meant she couldn’t hide anymore. He’d have to know the truth.

And she’d have to accept the consequences.

“It surprises me, the things Rowdy can uncover.” She licked dry lips. “He didn’t get a name? Any details?”

“No.” Scooping up the dog, Reese moved him to his opposite side so that he could sit nearer to Alice. With two pats, he resettled Cash, who was just as content to doze nearby.

Reese turned to her with all his considerable concentration. “I’m hoping you’ll share those with me.”

She would tell him what she could and hope it was enough, but not too much.

Stretching out one arm along the back of the couch, Reese more or less caged her in. “Logan also did some checking for me.”

Wow, he’d been busy. Surveillance of her shopping trip, background checks on her past. Did all that curiosity mean that Reese cared—or that he suspected her of something?

Trying to sound curious instead of wary, Alice asked, “Did Logan uncover anything?”

“A little.”

Her heart beat faster. She wished he hadn’t moved Cash; being near the dog helped relax her. “For instance...?”

“I know what you told the cops when you were recovered, what you told the papers when you showed up again. And I know you have permits for your guns.” He stared at her a moment. “Now I want to know the rest. Who took you, how you got away, why you’re still so afraid—”

“I’m cautious, not afraid.” Liar. So many times, fear overtook her. “Not as much, anyway.”

He dismissed her protests. “And I want to know what happened today, and why.”

The why was easy. “That young lady needed my help.”

“No, Alice. There’s more to it than that. I think maybe you’re trying to make amends for something. I think you’re still hiding a lot. But it’s time to stop hiding.”

Alice closed her eyes. Reese had no idea—and she’d really wanted to keep it that way.

Touching her chin, he brought her face up, waiting until she opened her eyes. “It’s time to let me in, Alice.”

She nodded, but she couldn’t decide how to start. Fear. So much awful fear. “I don’t want things to change,” she finally admitted.

“Between us?”

“Yes.” Once he knew it all, how could he possibly still be interested?

“You have to tell me sooner or later.”

“I know.” Dread smothered her, tightened her chest and made her stomach churn. “I think I’ve known that since the day I met you.”

“Then let’s get it all out in the open and deal with the consequences. The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be.”

Knowing he was right, Alice fell back on an old tactic, forcing herself to relax her muscles, to compose her expression.

Hide emotion.

Hide fear.

Hide everything, so that she didn’t really exist. That made it easier to get through—

“No.” Reese turned her, his gaze bright with furious determination. He kissed her hard, pressing her head back. “Don’t do that, damn it. Not with me.”

She blinked in surprise, shaken and thrown off.

Appearing pained, Reese put his forehead to hers. Voice guttural, his hands tight on her shoulders, he said again, “Not with me, Alice.”

* * *

REESE FELT THE pounding of her heartbeat, but he couldn’t make himself pull back.

He wouldn’t let her hide, not anymore, not from him.

How many times had she had to do that during the year of her captivity? How many times had she faded to a quiet little mouse, hoping not to be noticed? Hoping to survive?

How many times had she been singled out, anyway?

God, it killed him to think about it, and Alice had lived it.

He kissed her again, more gently this time, moving his lips over hers, taking relief from the fact that she was here now, with him. “I need to know, Alice.”

She nodded—and surprised him by offering comfort. It was there in the way she kissed him, so tenderly, on his chin, his jaw.

She rested her head on his shoulder. “He had me taken right after work.”

The emptiness in her voice sent chills down Reese’s spine. He smoothed back her tangled hair. “Can you tell me who?”

“His name was Murray Coburn. He’s dead now.”

Sometimes it’s better when they’re dead. Reese had to agree.

“I was locked away at night.” One breath, two. “I’m not sure where he kept most of the women—the women he sold. But I stayed in his home. Wherever he went, I went. Always.”

For a year. For an entire f*cking year. Rage burned Reese’s eyes, made his muscles twitchy with the need to find and kill a man beyond his thirst for vengeance.

“At first, for the longest time, I assumed he was going to murder me,” Alice whispered. “But after a while, when that didn’t happen, I didn’t know what to think. Then he told me I needed to be his secretary. He said he had studied my background, my history of employment, and that I was just the conscientious, attentive assistant he needed for his business dealings. He said he couldn’t just hire someone because he needed someone he could trust. He said—” she swallowed hard “—he said knowing I’d die if I didn’t do a good job would be all the incentive I’d get.”

Reese found it near impossible to fathom such a thing. But he believed her. “You did what you had to do.”

“I’m sorry, Reese, but you don’t understand how it was. What I had to do...”

Reese stroked her, encouraging, wanting for her to get it out there so they could deal with it.

“I told you he was a human trafficker?”

“Yes, you told me.” And Reese feared where this would go.

“I was complicit in it all.”

“No.” Never would he believe that.

She nodded sadly. “In so many ways, I’m as guilty as he is.”

“No.” After he got all the facts, he’d find a way to convince her.

“I set up his meetings, arranged for pickups. For...sales.”

The words choked her, and when Reese brushed a thumb over her cheek, he found it damp with tears that continued to fall.

His heart felt trampled. “You were forced, Alice.”

“But I knew what he was doing. He made sure of that. Everyone knew. Everyone in the office, that is. So many immoral people, all of them as ugly and evil as him.”

“The police?”

“Couldn’t touch him,” she said simply, stating it as a fact. “He always covered his tracks, and he had corrupt friends in high places. Whenever necessary, he had an alibi. He taunted me with it. And he told me if I ever tried to leave he’d steal my little sister and sell her, too, and then he’d rape me. He said he didn’t want to.” Her hands knotted against his chest. She pressed closer, her voice raw, broken. “Even when he made me be naked around him, he said that I repulsed him, but that he’d rape me anyway if I gave him trouble.”

Dear God. Reese hauled her into his lap, trying to wrap himself around her, wanting to somehow protect her from a past already buried deep in her soul.

“I still waited and prayed, but I never had a chance to get away, not once. I couldn’t stop things, couldn’t risk my sister. If it had only been my life...”

“Your life is very important, Alice.”

She swallowed hard. “The things he threatened, what I knew he did to others, that would have been worse than death.”

Needing her to understand, he tunneled his fingers through her hair, cupped his hand around her skull, pressed a warm kiss to her forehead. “I’m very, very glad that you survived.”

Tucking her face under his chin, she said against his throat, “I feel so guilty.”

“I wish you wouldn’t.” But knowing Alice, he accepted that she’d take that guilt to her grave.

“When Murray hired a new bodyguard, I knew right away that he was different.”

Ah, the wraith. Thank God. “Who was he?”

“I can’t tell you that. No, please, Reese.” She struggled back to see him, those big brown eyes liquid with tears, her nose pink. “He saved me. He saved everyone.”

There was that. But who was he? “You said he hired on as a bodyguard?”

“Only undercover as one.” She chewed her bottom lip, and more tears tracked down her cheeks. Impatiently, she used the back of her hand to swipe them away. “I’d been such a coward, worse than useless to all the injustice. But he gave me hope. And then he gave me freedom.”

Leaning in close to her, his voice barely above a whisper, Reese said, “I’d like to thank him.”

“I’m sorry, but you can’t.”

Unacceptable, yet how could he push it right now with her shaking uncontrollably, waiting, he knew, for criticism and censure?

More than his insistence on legality, she needed reassurance. Reese was more than happy to give it to her. “I think you’re the bravest woman I know, Alice. Not many would be able to survive what you did and come out of it so caring and sweet.”

She choked on disbelief. “I’m not sweet.”

Using two fingers, Reese lifted her chin and kissed the tears from her cheeks. “Yes, you are. Sweet and wonderful, and I don’t ever want you to forget it.”

She searched his face and must have seen the sincerity there. On a small sob, she launched herself against him, squeezing him as tight as a slight, sad woman could.

Alerted by her cry, Cash lifted his head. Reese reached back with one hand and soothed the dog. “It’s okay, boy. She’s okay.” He pressed his mouth to her temple. “Aren’t you, Alice?”

“Yes.” She nodded hard, gave him another squeeze then sat up to speak to Cash. “I’m fine, baby. Go back to sleep.”

After watching her a second more, Cash gave Reese a quick glance and dropped back to the couch with a loud doggy sigh. At least Cash trusted him.

Now to work on Alice. “How did it all end, honey? Can you tell me that?”

“Yes.” This time she used both hands to wipe her cheeks. A little more composed, she explained, “It was during an arranged meeting. Murray made me go along. I think he’d caught on to...the new bodyguard.”

Which would have put everyone at risk. “He’d been nice to you?”

“Yes. Maybe that’s why Murray decided to kill everyone. Instead...” She hesitated, exhaled out a shaky breath. “All the bad guys died.”

All the bad guys? “What happened to the wraith?”

“He had backup.”

Someone in the police force? Could it have been a sting? “How do you know that?”

“We were at the loading docks in an old crumbling warehouse. A truckload of women had arrived early, but when Murray ordered the driver to come open the trailer, he didn’t answer. He was...dead. Belfort, the buyer, panicked, and everything seemed to happen at once. He thought Murray had double-crossed him, and Murray thought the same of Belfort. Shots were fired from a distance, and Dugo, who’d come along with the buyer to protect him, got hit in the chest. He died. Belfort was badly wounded—I don’t know if he lived or not, but I know he didn’t get away. The women were all rescued. And Murray...”

Reese waited.

Voice fading, she focused her gaze somewhere in the past. “Murray died, and good riddance.”

For a time, Reese just held her, keeping her close, reassuring himself that she had survived and that nothing that awful would ever happen to her again.

He kissed her forehead, her ear and cheek, hoping she’d understand that nothing had changed with her truths.

After some time had passed, Alice eased back to see him. She searched his gaze. “Are you disgusted with me?”

“I’m proud of you.” And heartbroken, and enraged on her behalf.

Disbelief had her leaning away.

Reese touched her precious face, the corner of her mouth. “Anything else?”

It took her a minute to speak. “The police came, but we were already headed out of there. He gave me cab fare and a number to call if I had any trouble.” She knew what Reese would ask before he finished formulating the question. “The number was for a limited time. It doesn’t work anymore.”

Disappointing, but that would have been a long shot, anyway. “Where did you go?”

“Home to my family. That’s where he said I should go.”

“He told you not to tell anyone about him?”

“No.” Looking at his collarbone, Alice drew her small, cool hand along his chest. “He wouldn’t do that.”

Even at the worst of times, Alice seemed preoccupied with his body. Reese liked that. He more than liked her. Teasing her, he touched her chin and whispered, “Up here, honey.”

On a sigh, she lifted her gaze to his. “It was my decision to censor the story. There wasn’t much I could tell, anyway. I knew him only undercover with an alias. And he was long gone. Telling any of that to the police would only have confounded them, and it would have kept me with an open file. Instead, I told them the deal had gone bad, and everyone started shooting.”

“Close to the truth.”

“Yes. Close enough that they had what they needed from me.”

Reese considered the plausibility of that. Any good cop would be able to tell the difference between shots fired at close range and shots from a sniper. But maybe they wrote that off as a cohort, either of the buyer or the seller, who got away.

“What was his alias?”

“Why does it matter?”

Because she still wasn’t telling him everything. Did she hope to protect her savior because she thought Reese would go after him—which he might, if for no other reason than to get more answers—or because she still, to this day, had contact with the guy?

Watching her face for any sign of deception, Reese said, “Tell me.”

She gave in with a lot of tension. “The name he used was Trace Miller.”

The truth, as far as he could tell. “Thank you.” He’d do a search, but if the guy was half as good as he seemed, there wouldn’t be much, if anything, to uncover. “Now, about today...?” Reese prompted.

Alice drew a breath. “Today,” she said, “I saw that girl, and I knew something wasn’t right. I felt it.”

Because cops survived off gut instinct, Reese accepted that. “You should have called the police.”

“By then it might’ve been too late. I’m trying to make a difference, Reese. I want to believe that I’m stronger now than I was back then.”

She meant morally—and that frustrated Reese. “Do you honestly believe there was anything you could have done to change things?”

“Maybe not, but I still should have tried.”

“And died in the process? And then what?”

She shook her head.

Reese didn’t let her turn away. “He would have grabbed another woman, Alice. He would have replaced you.”

Shaken at that idea, she stared at him, her eyes haunted, her skin going pale. “Oh, my God, you’re probably right.”

“By enduring, you surely spared someone else.”

Her bottom lip trembled, shredding his heart. “I never thought of that.”

“You were too busy being guilty to see what I see. To see what others will see.” He brushed his thumb over her delicate but stubborn jaw. “Your family included.”

“That’s a really wonderful way to look at it.” A small, shaky smile appeared. “Thank you.”

On that high note, Reese decided it was time to jump up to the present. Hoping to keep her in a better mood, he picked her up and started across the floor.

“Are we going back to bed?”

Reese looked at her, saw the flush on her skin, the heat in her eyes, and he almost lost his resolve. Alice and her one-track mind.

Damn, he was a lucky man.

“We’re going to the kitchen.”

As he entered the room, she eyed the table with interest, her thoughts clear on her face.

Shoring up his resistance, Reese shook his head. “No, I won’t take you over the kitchen table.” The idea had merit, but this was too important to put off for any reason. “But I will feed you. I don’t know about you, but I’m starved.”

“Oh.” She looked disappointed for only a second. “We didn’t have dinner, did we?”

“And you haven’t yet told me about your newest exploit.” Remembering how close she’d come to danger worked to temper the lust. Flattening his hands on the table in front of her, Reese leaned in, nose to nose, wanting her to understand the seriousness of the current situation. “No fudging, and no omissions. I need to know everything, Alice, even the smallest detail. And I need to know it tonight.”