“We can have sushi, Italian…” I listed off options but she stopped me.
“Sushi is good,” she smiled softly. I pulled out my cell phone and called one of the Japanese restaurants close by. I didn’t normally cook, so I had a list of restaurants I could call for take-out in my contacts. After ordering a large variety of food, I closed my phone, and placed it back in my pocket.
We sat awkwardly staring at each other for a few quiet moments. “This is a nice place,” I said, placing both hands on my thighs and nodding my head while I looked around the apartment.
“Yeah, it was nice of Bryce to put me up here,” she said, biting her lower lip. As my eyes gazed down to her plump lip and then lower to her chest for a brief moment. I could tell she wasn’t wearing a bra by the way her perky nipples were showing through her shirt. I needed to tame the beast in my pants down.
“So, when did you find out that he was your father?” I asked, hoping I was not pushing too much while trying to distract myself from reaching over and claiming those lips. She still seemed tense, and I had Wellington to blame for that. I would take care of Scott Wellington on my own time. I didn’t want to upset her more than she already was.
“When my mother died. She wrote me a letter and she left it for me. Inside was the truth about my paternity. A part of me felt angry that she had kept such an important detail from me, but that anger quickly dissolved because I knew she felt like she would be rocking our solid family by breaking the news. My papa, Tony, back home raised me from when I was six months old. He was the only father I ever knew. I think she didn’t want to hurt him by taking me away. We were a close family,” she explained looking down at her tangled fingers. It was hard for her to talk about her past, but I appreciated that she was opening up to me.
“So the first time you met him was the other day in his office when you presented yourself as a journalist?” I asked with a playful grin.
“Yeah,” she blushed. “You were there to witness me at my finest moment, Luc,” she said with a playful smile and a hint of sarcasm in her tone. We both eased into conversation and seemed to relax. I still needed to ask her more about Scott Wellington. He was the real reason I was here tonight. That and I liked spending time with her.
“Vicky, I want you to tell me about Scott…I need to know exactly what he’s holding over you, if I’m going to protect you…” I said carefully and her eyes got the deer in the headlights look.
“Luc, you don’t need to protect me, or feel like you need to, I will handle this…” she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, only she didn’t look cold.
“I know I don’t need to, but I want to. Besides I could tell how scared you were today when he was waiting for you in the lobby.” Suddenly the rims of her eyes turned red and they filled with tears. She bowed her head forward then shook it back and forth like she was trying to rein in her emotions. “Please don’t cry, pretty girl…” I said swiping at her eyes. “Please let me help you.” In this moment when I was begging her to let me in, I felt like I could never hurt her because I only wanted to see this girl smile, she had been through too much at such a young age.
“Luc, I told you I’m messed up. You don’t need this or me.”
“Vicky, let’s not put any pressure on ourselves here,” I began to say, knowing that I was repeating Dr. Davies' words. But the truth was that they sounded good and made me feel better. “Don’t worry about what this means. I get it we are both not in a place to commit, but I still need Scott out of your life especially since he is threatening you.”
Sitting on the couch next to her, her small body looked rigid and she shivered. “Tell me, Vicky, please.”
She took a few breaths, almost like she was forcing herself to just breathe. “When I went home with him I didn’t even know his name. Those things didn’t matter,” she explained, as her gaze drifted up to mine, she looked embarrassed. I nodded my head willing for her to continue. “I thought I was going to have a one night stand. Fun, easy and no one to deal with in the morning. Like I said earlier, my life had turned upside down so quickly, I had no processing time. It was one bad thing after another and I was cracking. I never expected Scott to be into heavy BDSM, though. I didn’t really know much about it but for some reason he thought I was on board. I was a stupid girl. I should have turned around and left the moment I saw the shackles. It wasn’t for me, I just wanted to feel numb, I was looking for an escape,” she explained and her words turned my blood cold. Did I hear her right? The man had shackles? I clenched my fists at the side of my thighs, but I couldn’t show her how much it hurt me to hear that someone did that to her. Instead I closed and opened my eyes acknowledging that I understood her, that I knew what it was like to look for a way to numb the pain.
“He beat me so bad and…” she paused. The fact that she paused meant that he did something unfathomable.
“Tell me,” I urged, as my thumb slowly caressed her hand.
She nodded her head and the sobs grew louder. I didn’t need her words to confirm what I already knew. “He raped you.” I said it as a statement and she completely broke down. Once again, I embraced her as I caressed her back gently and whispered in her ear that everything would be okay. I have never wanted anything more than to make her life okay. She’d been beaten down too much.
She pulled away from me and I didn’t understand what she was doing at first, but then she turned around and lifted her shirt. My jaw clenched when I saw the marks that animal left on her back. I couldn’t help but run my fingers over her rough scars. My heart broke thinking of what she must have been through, what Alexis must have been through, first with her mother and then with me. My past always came back to haunt me, even then sitting there with Vicky. I was a bad man. She was good and pure. I should leave. I would have left if she hadn’t needed my help.
“Vicky, I am so sorry for what that monster did to you, but you were in a bad place, this isn’t your fault. If Bryce knew he was blackmailing you, if he knew he raped you, he would have that guy put away for a long time.”
Her eyes widened again. “Please promise me you won’t tell Bryce. We have only just met, and I don’t want him to think badly of me.”
“Bryce has opened his world up to you, Vicky, I don’t think he would turn his back on you for this, but your secret is safe with me. I will deal with Wellington on my own.”
“Luc, I don’t want you getting into any trouble because of me either, maybe he will just go away.”
“Men like Wellington are opportunistic. I can’t let him get away with what he did to you. I will make a phone call and get him checked out, and then we need to find out where he keeps his video footage.”
I stood up and walked over to the corner of the room. I was going to make the call later but after hearing what he did to her, my fists were clenching with the need to inflict pain on this man. For the first time in a long time I felt like I was back in the family business making calls to check on people. I called an old contact. After two rings he picked up. “Ronaldo, it’s Luc Blanchard,” I drawled into the phone, feeling my blood pumping hard. Not because I was nervous but because I wanted to wring Scott Wellington's neck. I haven’t felt this kind of rage in a long time and I knew I needed to calm down.
“Luc, long time, no speak…” Ronaldo answered. I debriefed him on the situation and gave him some orders to follow through on. I also told him that I would reward him even more if he didn’t mention this phone call to my father. I had been out of the business for two years now, and calling in a contact would probably not be deemed acceptable in my father’s eyes. It could also send the wrong message that I wanted back in, when I clearly did not.
Vicky got up to open the door; it was the sushi delivery guy. I was surprised Tim didn’t call first, that’s not cool. I paid the delivery guy and walked back into the apartment with two plastic bags in my hand.