I rose up to give him a stressed look. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“I’m just trying to figure out why, if he is so rich and powerful, why he would come to a poor town in West Virginia to marry you?”
I relaxed and lay back to his chest. “He is very handsome. I’ve asked myself that same question a million times.”
I finally dozed back off. Dawson never let go of the hold he had on me.
When I woke, Dawson was still holding me. He was never still in bed when I woke up. He was an early riser too, not quite as bad as Lauren, but he was still normally up before me.
I looked up and he was wide awake, staring pitiful glares through me. He opened his hand palm side up, and I placed mine in his. He kissed me on top of the head as I lay back to his chest.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked. I knew what he was thinking about, and I wished I would have kept my past in the past and not shared my horrific nightmare.
“You,” he quietly said, kissing me again.
“About how pathetic I am?”
“Not at all, I was thinking about how much I loved you, and how I wished I could take all of this away from you.”
I snorted. Nobody could take it away. Drew had taken it all, and although I hated to admit it. He still controlled me. It wasn’t as much as when I first left. It seemed like every time that I was happy, and things were going exceptionally well for me was when he decided to haunt me. Why? I didn’t know. I guess the subconscious is just one of those mysteries that you just never figure out.
“Why did your wife leave you, Dawson?” I asked for some reason. I never asked about his past. I guess it was just another one of my hang-ups. I was never allowed to ask questions, and it was always no concern of mine.
He snorted next. I assumed he was thinking about how crazy I was.
“I met her at the police academy. I knew I wanted to stay here and take over once my father retired. She was from Chicago and couldn’t get used to the small town. She needed more action than Misty Bay could give her.”
“Your wife was a cop too?” I asked. I never knew that. I had seen a picture at his house once of a graduating class, and I assumed one of the two females was her, but had no idea that she was an officer. I was shocked that Lauren never mentioned it. Not that she was much on gossip, but she would answer my questions. I guess I never asked what his wife did.
“Yes, she was a cop or is, I should say. She went back home to Chicago after one year here. Her dad was also a cop, so she knew that there was more action than writing parking tickets in some small hick town.”
“I like this small hick town,” I smiled up at him.
He carried a heavy heart. I could see it in his eyes.
“I need for you to talk to me, Ry.”
“I’m not telling you who he is, Dawson,” I assured him.
“Then don’t, but I need some answers.”
I took a deep breath. I owed it to him. There was nothing that I could tell him that would scare him away. If he was going to run, he would have done it before now.
“What do you want to know?” I asked, turning back to lie on his chest. It was easier not to look at him when I talked about my past. I didn’t want to see the disgust on his face.
“How did you spend your days there?”
“Most days were good. He traveled a lot, so I spent most of my time either alone or with Rebecca.”
“Tell me about Rebecca. She knew. She knew that you were there against your will. Why didn’t she help you?”
“Rebecca helped me in more ways than you could ever know. I don’t know that I would have survived without her.”
“How old was Rebecca?”
I’m not sure why that mattered, but I answered.
“She was probably in her mid-thirties when I first got there.”
“And she was just the help there?”
“She was more than the help. Her only job was to take care of me.”
“What do you mean take care of you? What did she do?”
“Hmm, a little bit of everything I guess. She made my appointments for my hair, dress fittings for his stupid dinners, made sure that I had my birth control shots. She cooked for me too, but I think that was because she liked to do it. I remember her always being close by. I used to ride around the property on one of the golf carts, and sometimes I would see her in a distance checking to see where I was.”
“Were you able to talk to her?”
“Not much. Every room in that house had cameras, and he could hear everything that was said. Sometimes she would ride with me on the cart, and we would talk, but she was always afraid to say anything.”