“You’re gonna be alright here, little lady. We’ve got your back,” Dane whispered in her ear, when he put her down.
Hearing a sound from behind her, she turned around to see an older woman with gray hair and a huge smile on her face. “Well now, you must be Keeley… I’m Julia. I’ve heard such wonderful things about you. Welcome to Maxwell Secures, where the men are overgrown, and hot as can be!” Julia told her causing her to laugh out loud. It was freeing to be able to laugh like this with people who didn’t want to cause her harm. “Come child, let’s leave these overgrown beasts to do what they do, and you and I will become better acquainted.” Before Keeley could protest, Julia grabbed her hand and dragged her down the hall to what she assumed was her office.
Turning her head she saw the men with smiles on their faces and chuckling, which made her relax enough to know she would be ok with Julia for the time being. Looking around Julia’s office, she admired the warmth coming from this room. The decor and atmosphere were very soothing. The walls were painted a nice light blue with small pieces of artwork hanging around, mostly birds in flight, but a few with what looked like children’s drawings of wild flower fields. “Did your grandchildren make these, Julia?” She asked the older woman.
“They did. They love to paint and I find that having them here, instead of some stuffy over-priced ones, is much more relaxing,” Julia replied with a proud smile on her face.
“I think they’re wonderful. How old are they?”
“Eight and five, now. I can’t wait to move closer; I miss my grandbabies something fierce. I don’t get to see them nearly enough since my son-in-law’s transfer to California two years ago.”
“Oh wow, that’s awfully far away. Do you have other children?”
“Nope, just the one, which makes moving there so much easier,” she said with a smile. “Alright, let me show you Nate and Ty’s schedule for the day, and we’ll get you situated with what your role will be, sound good?”
Nodding her head, Keeley was shocked at how much she was looking forward to helping with their company. “Julia?” She asked.
“Yes, dear?”
/> “The guys haven’t really told me much about the company. What exactly is it that they do?” she inquired tentatively.
“Oh my, ok. Well, they do it all really. It might be something as small as training security personnel for an event, or finding a missing person. Sometimes they go overseas and offer protection for dignitaries or business magnates. I suppose it just depends who needs what and where,” Julia explained briefly.
“Are they in danger?” The question voiced her real fear.
“Sometimes there’s a case where some danger is involved. It’s not often, but they are the best at what they do and take every precaution they can to make sure everyone, including themselves, stays safe.” Feeling better about it, she simply nodded and started to study the schedule Julia brought up on the computer for her.
Once she had a better idea of what they did, Keeley realized it wasn’t often they left the country, which settled her nerves more. Julia showed her how to handle a new case and how to open the file for it, which was much easier than she thought it would be. After learning about the filing system, which was color coded by most urgent cases, they broke for lunch. Not realizing it was nearly one in the afternoon, meaning they’d been at it for nearly three hours already, she was starving. “Let’s get you to those boys, now. I’m sure they’ve had to hold themselves back from coming and checking on you,” Julia said while getting up and grabbing her purse and coat off the rack.
Leaving Julia’s office and heading to Nathaniel and Tyler’s, Keeley realized how excited she was to tell them about the things her and Julia did, and that even though she had been nervous about not having experience on a computer she found it easy to maneuver on.
“Here you are dear, I’ll see you in a bit,” Julia remarked leaving her standing outside their closed office door.
Knocking on the door she waited for them to answer. When Tyler opened the door looking angry and had a huge scowl on his face, she immediately backed up. Not wanting to anger him further, she meekly walked in when he gestured for her to. That is when she noticed the same anger reflected on Nathaniel’s face, and she started to really get scared.
“Wh—What’s going on?” she asked nervously, shifting from foot to foot, unconsciously getting closer and closer to the corner of the right wall.
“You tell us, Butterfly,” Nathaniel snarled the nickname he’d given her like a curse, shattering any illusion she had that what they shared was real. With a lump the size of a baseball settling in her chest, Keeley started to shake her head in the negative not understanding what was happening.
“It’s like this darlin’, we’ve been investigating your family all morning, only to stumble across a list of charges against you as long as my arm. Care to explain?” Tyler asked with malice in his voice.
Hanging her head in shame she didn’t want to answer, they already assumed she was a horrible person. What they failed to realize was she had no choice; it was life or death. She choose to live and now she wished for death. She knew one day her offenses would come back to haunt her, but it was so long ago she refused to think about it. It was best to move past it all for her own sanity. “I’m sorry, I had n-n-no choice,” she stuttered out on a weak whisper.
“No choice?” Nathaniel asked her angrily. “You always have a choice, Keeley, with everything. You chose to steal from people. To con them. To make them believe you were something you’re not. Is that what you were going to do to our parents? Then later to us?” He practically yelled at her.
Keeley was shaking in not only fear, but also anger now. She didn’t know what to do, what to say. She had no way to defend herself against their accusations. With tears streaming down her face she railed at them, “I had no intention of doing anything to you or your family. It was you that burst into my life, Nathaniel, not the other way around. I had no choice in conning people, because it was either do it or suffer a beating to rival all others I’d had!” She yelled at them while shaking so hard her teeth were now chattering. “You have no idea what I was forced to do so my so-called parents could feed their habits. And you know what? The beatings never stopped no matter what I did. Everything I’ve ever done in my life, bad or good, has been with survival in mind.” Breathing heavy she took a break to stare at them. Their faces were still hard and jaded so she knew, just knew, her time in this life was over. “You know I never asked you for anything, never wanted to fall in love with one man let alone two, and you made me. Both of you. Now, I’m once again left with nothing. You act like what I did was so abhorrent, yet look at what you’re both doing now,” she admonished before walking out of their office door, and straight through the lobby and out the front door.
Standing in the parking lot, Keeley turned around and gave the building one last look of regret before walking away. With nowhere to go and no one to call, she was left with little option but to keep walking.
*******
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!!” Nate exploded out of his chair chasing after Keeley, with Ty hot on his tail; running past a startled Julia on their way out the door. They both skidded to a stop as they saw her getting on a bus a block away. “Fuck, Keeley, wait!” He yelled hoping she’d hear him. Relief swamped him as she paused and turned half way. Looking right in his eyes, she shook her head and turned her back on them. “Get the truck, Ty!” He yelled while running back inside, stopping when he saw Julia standing by his office door looking very angry.
“You want to explain to me why I saw that girl with tears pouring down her face, and how when she saw me she ran into traffic to get on that bus?” Julia asked impatiently, tapping her foot.
“No,” Nate told her before grabbing his phone and calling Dane, then running back outside to Ty, who was waiting in the truck at the front door. Climbing in as Dane answered, he told Ty to go. “Yo man, look, I can’t explain, but Keeley’s gone. We’re following her on a bus right now, but I think we might need back up and I really don’t want to call my parents. Can you meet us? I’ll text you the address.”
“What the fuck did you guys do to cause her to run?” Dane asked sharply. “I only spent five minutes in that girl’s company, and I know that while she might be fragile as hell, she’s got a heart of gold and a spine of steel.”