“Do you know what it is?” he asked.
“A little boy…Uncle David,” I said, giving the first tiny laugh since this whole thing started.
He wrapped me in his arms, kissed my temple, and told me we were going to bring the others back in the room.
We’d made our peace.
Micah refused to allow me to remain in the room as his family discussed the D’Angelo issue. I argued for all I was worth, but even his family decided this matter should be between them.
Micah took me back up to the room and told me not to be surprised if this took a long time. He said not to hesitate to call for room service to send up anything I needed, but he would prefer (although he swore I was safe) that I didn’t leave the room.
There were no reasons that could make me want to go wandering around with so many mobsters in the building. I was staying put.
Lunchtime came and went, and then suppertime came and went-I was starting to get worried, but I was going to follow directions. I crawled in bed and dozed in and out, thinking about Ryan’s shirt that I still carried around with me. It and the awesome Pacific air were the only two things that helped me sleep in my four months of seclusion, but what would Micah think if he came in and found me asleep with it? It was eleven p.m. before I heard the door to the penthouse open. He looked like he’d been wrung completely out, emotionally, physically, and mentally. What had they discussed this long and why did he look so upset?
He crawled into the bed and kissed my forehead. “You should be asleep,” he scolded.
“I needed my sleeping pill,” I stated and then wrapped my arms around him. “Are you tired?” I whispered.
“Not too exhausted for you,” he replied.
He was lying and I knew it.
I sat upright and straddled him, smiling and telling him it was his turn to relax. He was reluctant, but eventually obeyed as I had him roll onto his stomach and began massaging his knotted muscles. He moaned and enjoyed every stroke of my hands from the base of his neck all the way to his calves. Then I turned him over and began with the front. He wasn’t expecting what I wanted tonight and at first he refused vehemently, but eventually he gave way to the new experience. He just kept repeating he didn’t deserve me, and I kept showing him he did.
Chapter Thirty
Thursday night we pulled into Colorado Springs after a long day in the car. I paid for a year’s lease for my house and I still had the key. I told Micah that we might as well stay there tonight and we would go see Ryan on Friday. What I hadn’t expected was the reaction we both had when we walked through the living room to get to the bedroom; both of us pausing beside the couch and then looking at each other. The memory of the attack was so vivid for me that I could hear the sound of his hand slapping my face, I felt the painful bites, his grip on my throat, and the sound of his voice when he told Ryan it was ‘his turn.’ I shuddered without thought as Micah wrapped his arms around me.
“Maybe this was a bad idea,” he whispered against my hair. “We could go to a motel tonight.”
“No. It’s just hard for me. I hate what happened here,” my hand motioning to the place on the floor where he eventually took me, “but, I love what happened here,” I said, placing his hand on my stomach. “Come on.” I pulled him toward the bedroom. We didn’t make love, but I fell asleep to the repeated sound of him whispering words of love in my ear.
I called Ryan mid-morning and told him I was in town and on the way over. I was surprised that Micah was anxious to see him, yet I could tell he was worried.
Ryan must have heard my sports car’s engine, because he was out the front door as we pulled in. I told Micah to stay in the car until I had a chance to calm him down, because I knew he would be upset. I saw him duck down to look at the driver, but my windows were darkly tinted so he didn’t get the first glimpse until I opened my car door.
What came out of his mouth didn’t bear repeating in any way, shape, or form.
He was ready to go after Micah right then. I was trying to stop him as he grabbed me to move me out of the way. That was when I heard Micah’s door open. All I kept thinking was I wasn’t ready for him to get out of the car.
“Please, Ryan.”
“Don’t touch her,” came Micah’s warning.
“Get in the car, Micah,” I commanded, still holding on to Ryan and blocking his path. “Please, Ryan, calm down. I want you to meet someone-someone else.”
That stopped him. He was looking at me like I’d lost my mind as I took his hand and placed it against my soft flowing top. He jerked back like I’d shocked him.
“Ah, don’t tell me-he got you-he got you pregnant when he raped you?”
“I have a whole lot to tell you, but I’ve got to know if you’ll listen to me-please, Ryan. I’m going to have Micah leave for a little while so we can talk.” He was still staring with angry eyes at Micah when I turned his chin toward me, “Tell me now if I should leave or if you’ll at least hear what I have to say.”
“Don’t go,” he choked out, “Please, don’t go. I’ll listen.”
“Go back inside. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Reluctantly he turned and did as I asked. Now I had to get Micah to do the same.
“Go for a drive. I’ll call you when he’s ready to talk with you.” The other reluctant party drove away.
I didn’t think it would take quite so long to settle Ryan down, but he eventually began to understand why I was with the one person he felt I should hate instead of love. I explained about D’Angelo and the drugs, how horrible Micah felt about what he’d done, and what he’d learned by Ryan’s photos.
“He was so hopped up on anabolic steroids and amphetamines that he barely remembered any of it. I knew I was pregnant several days before I left and I was planning to get away for a while and let you get on with your life, but then a package arrived.”
“What kind of package?”
“It was an iPod with a note that appeared to be from Micah. I thought he was coming after me after what I read and what I heard.”
“What was on it?”
“‘Breath’ by Breaking Benjamin,” I said, watching Ryan’s face as he mentally reviewed the words in his head. It was a band he liked and I knew he would remember the song. I saw the anger flush his skin as he understood why I ran. “He didn’t send it to me-D’Angelo did to make it look like it was from Micah. He was trying to make sure I took off and the two of us never got back together-it almost worked. I nearly shot Micah when he showed up a few days ago.”
His eyebrows went up, “You pulled a gun on him?”
“I wasn’t going to take a chance of him hurting the baby. We eventually talked and I realized he never wanted to kill me-he was still in love with me.”
“But why after all this time of keeping everything secret did you finally tell him the truth about why you left?”
I wasn’t ready to blow all the progress he and I made by telling him Micah drugged me. I sighed deeply, “Can you, at least for now, just trust me that there were reasons beyond my control and the truth finally came out-please, I beg you; don’t push it. Just trust me.”
“You should know I trust you, baby girl-I may not trust him for a very long time, but I trust you.”
“He wants to talk with you. Can you do that for me without an incident?”
He nodded; I called Micah and told him to return. Candace was due to come home and she actually made it before Micah. When she learned who brought me over, she flipped out worse than Ryan.
I met Micah at the car and told him to stay there for a few minutes.
“I actually wanted to speak to Ryan privately. Just ask him to come out and we’ll go for a drive and you can talk with her.”