LITMIR.BIZ

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who’d used Leigh as a sexual bartering tool, and he deserved to be locked away. “He’d threatened her a few times, shoved her around, bullied her. But it got worse suddenly.”

      “I get the picture. He was pissed about something and taking it out on her?”

      “He said she hadn’t brought in enough money lately, money he needed to support them both. He accused her of not doing her share. Today, he threw her out—but not before…” The words stuck in her throat, and she shook her head twice before managing to say, “Not before beating her up.”

      His eyes flinty, Bryan asked, “Who is she?”

      Very softly, Shay said, “Her name is Leigh.”

      Rising from his seat, he leaned forward, his palms flat on the table. “Where is she?”

      Stunned by the menace he exuded, and by the fact that he obviously knew Leigh, Shay rushed to reassure him. “She’s safe, and she’ll be okay.”

      “That’s not what I asked.”

      No doubt he was used to commanding fast answers. Too bad she couldn’t accommodate him. Shay asked, “You know her?”

      “Yeah. And I told her this would happen.” He sounded furious with himself. “I tried to get her to stay here, but she wouldn’t.” He loomed over Shay. “So where is she?”

      With a shrug of apology, Shay said, “I can’t tell you.” Before he could insist further, she explained, “She’s afraid, Bryan. That’s why she wouldn’t go to the police. I had to promise not to tell anyone. Maybe she didn’t mean you. But maybe she did. All I can tell you is that she is okay now. You have my word.”

      Bryan’s stare held her a moment more, then he sank back into his seat. “If she’s really away from him, that’s a start.”

      “A very good start,” Shay agreed, and with a sigh: “But it’s been an upsetting day. Seeing someone hurt like that makes me feel so damned helpless, as if there’s no escaping the bad stuff.”

      Bryan leaned forward again. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, Shay, how you’re tied in with Leigh or why you were hanging around the bar. But if you stay here, I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

      She’d only meant she felt helpless in her inability to help the others, but he’d taken it as personal fear. And now, with him offering his protection, she saw no way to correct the misconception. “Thank you. That’s very…” What could she say? Gallant? Heroic? She shook her head. “Thank you.”

      He picked up his pad of paper, all business again. “Tell me about yourself.”

      For such a big, hard, macho guy, he was damned endearing in his attempts to help. She peeked at the paper he held, saw it had pretyped questions on it, and shrugged. “Sure. What do you want to know?”

      “Start with family.”

      “Okay.” Shay continued to eat, waiting for him to begin, but he hesitated. “What is it?”

      Rubbing the back of his neck, appearing uncomfortable with his task, he said, “If I hit on a sore spot, just tell me, okay?”

      “I’m not shy.”

      “I noticed.” Their gazes met and held, until he looked back at the paper. “What about your father?”

      “My birth father or my adoptive father?”

      “You have both?”

      “Unfortunately.”

      She had no idea what he was thinking, but it didn’t look good. “Start with your father. Do you think he’s interested in where you are?”

      The rude sound she made was answer enough. Her father was slime. But her adoptive father, if he had any idea what she’d gotten herself into, would probably give her enough lectures to last a lifetime. Not that it would do him any good. He knew she couldn’t be stopped once she’d set her mind on a course. So he usually just ended up offering his full support.

      “Shay?”

      She gave Bryan a smile of reassurance. Her father, and his lack of interest, had no impact on her life. “He’s a world-class pig. I haven’t seen him since I was five, and that was when he left me at the bus station.”

      His expression hardened. “What do you mean, he left you?”

      “He said he was going to buy us something to drink, but he never came back. I sat there almost the whole day waiting, until I had to go to the bathroom. Then I didn’t know what to do. When I started to cry, a woman offered her help, and the next thing I knew, I had everyone’s attention.”

      She hadn’t meant to say quite that much. She hadn’t talked about those long-ago days since she was a child. But with Bryan’s undivided attention, the words just seemed to come out. “The police figured my father had abandoned me, and after a few months, they finally located him three states away, living with a woman and her sister.” Her smile went crooked. “He denied being my father.”

      Bryan’s expression didn’t change, but there was now an alertness in his dark brown eyes that hadn’t been there earlier.

      “What about your mother?”

      She shrugged. “The reason my father had me with him in the first place was that my mother refused to keep me any longer. She was what the authorities termed ‘emotionally abusive.’ That was after they found me in the bus station and did a thorough checkup into my past.”

      Bryan had the paper and pen out in front of him, but he hadn’t written a word. His jaw looked like granite again. “And after they did the checkup?”

      She tried to skim over details while still giving him a truth or two about her past, enough that she wouldn’t get tripped up in it later. But she didn’t want to hurt him with her truths, not when they no longer hurt her.

      “I spent some time passing around foster homes and was in an orphanage for a bit.” She left out the people who pretended to care but didn’t. She left out a chunk of little girl hurt and fear and desperation.

      “Jesus.”

      He looked so outraged on her behalf, she jumped straight into the happier parts. “When I was almost seven, I got lucky. I got adopted.” Just thinking of her first few weeks with her new parents had her smiling again. “Mom and Dad are incredible. They didn’t think they could have kids, so they took me into their home and treated me like I was their own. Later, they did have a baby. So I also have a little sister.”

      He finally made a few notes, his gaze repeatedly coming back to her face as if he couldn’t stop looking at her. “Won’t these people worry?”

      “They know I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for a long time.”

      “Do they know how you take care of yourself?”

      She wouldn’t outright lie, and if he chose to make more assumptions, it was no more than he deserved.

      “They know.” Thinking of all the times her parents had lamented her stubbornness, she grinned. “They gave up on telling me what to do when I was about fifteen.”

      His brows snapped down. “You’ve been on your own since then?”

      “No. I didn’t move out until I was seventeen. But I’ve been fairly self-sufficient since before I was in high school.” Mostly because she’d always needed a challenge, because she’d been innovative in making her own money through one scheme or another, because she’d gone on to college only months after turning seventeen with a full academic scholarship. Even as a young child she’d been driven by demons to do, to make a difference, to fulfill promises to herself that no one knew about and no one would understand.

      Her parents would have gladly given her the moon if it were possible, but they knew she wouldn’t accept it, not if there was a single chance she’d

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