Mine Forever (Book 3: The Billionaire’s Obsession Trilogy)(10)

"My father died a month before the incident. Overdose. Drugs and  alcohol. He was foolish enough to steal drugs from one of the biggest  drug dealers on the west coast, a guy he ran errands for or distributed  drugs for in return for enough drugs and booze to feed his own habit. He  rarely got paid in cash, and even if he did, he didn't use it to feed  his family or his wife." His voice was low, seething with distain for  the man who had fathered him. "Mom tried her best, but she had dropped  out of high school and couldn't get anything but minimum wage jobs. She  did whatever she could to feed us and keep dear old dad's business away  from our shitty apartment and away from me and Sam. Mostly, she kept us  out of trouble, making us see that we could be something more, something  better." His voice cracked, his adoration for his mother evident.

Everything that Helen had told her made sense now. Helen blamed herself  for not being able to give her boys a better childhood. Kara frowned as  she remembered the sorrow in Helen's eyes when she had talked about her  boys, their crappy childhood. Didn't Helen realize that she had given  her boys something to cling to in their childhood, something they  desperately needed to survive intact? Helen had given Simon and Sam  love...and hope.

Simon's voice strengthened as he continued. "Rose was my childhood  friend, really my only friend other than Sam. She grew up in the  apartment next to ours. She was a year old than me." He shifted  uncomfortably, his foot bouncing in the water as though he were nervous.  "We were as close as friends can be until my hormones started to rage  and I started to see her as a female. I cared about her a lot and I  thought she cared about me."                       
       
           



       

"So you did have a girlfriend when you were a teenager?" She wasn't sure  where he was going with his explanation, but she sensed that it was  important to his history.

"Yes and no. I guess. We kissed, we held hands. I had horny, teenage-boy  wet dreams about her every night. I wanted to get laid for the first  time and I wasn't exactly an attractive teenager. I was quiet and  skinny, not much to look at. Clumsy as hell. I read a lot. Mom made sure  Sam and I had books from the library or reading programs. But Rose  seemed to like me even though I was a gawky, ugly kid."

Kara's heart contracted, trying to picture a young, awkward teenage  Simon. She was willing to bet her nursing career that he had been  adorable.

"She started changing when she turned seventeen. She dropped out of  school, started hanging with my father's crowd, wouldn't talk to me  anymore or was so distant that she acted like I was nobody."

She squeezed his hands. "That must have hurt."

"It did." He didn't bother to deny it. "I knew she was using, stoned out  of her mind most of the time. I begged her to let me help her, but she  wouldn't listen. She just laughed in my face, saying that there was  nothing I could do because I was as poor as she was. And she was right,  damn it! But I wanted to help her get clean. And stop working the  streets."

"She became a prostitute?" Oh God, poor Simon.

She couldn't see him, but she felt his shoulders lift in a shrug. "She  had to pay for her habit somehow and I know she gave some of the money  to her mom to help her younger brother."

"You didn't give up, did you?" Kara didn't need an answer. She already  knew. Simon was stubborn and tenacious, his rescuer tendencies still  alive and well. It wasn't in his nature to stop trying.

"No. I wanted to believe that the Rose I knew was still inside of her,  waiting to come out again." He snorted. "It didn't matter how many times  she tried to avoid me or told me fuck off, I still tried. I was pretty  naive, I guess."

No, you weren't. You were good, even though life had dealt you a crappy  beginning. You were a dreamer who wanted to believe that everyone could  be saved. You must have been as guileless, honest and direct as you are  now. You just didn't hide it as well then.

"Having hope doesn't make you naive, Simon."

He laughed, but it was self-deprecating. "I was gullible. I didn't see  her for about a month after my father died. Then one night, she showed  up at our apartment, dressed in a short sexy skirt and a friendly smile.  For a teenage male virgin...that was all it took for me. Mom was  working and Sam had already gone to Florida to start a construction job  there. I was getting ready to graduate from high school and Sam had made  enough money working construction to bring us to Florida to join him."

"You were graduating from high school at the age of sixteen?"

"I skipped a grade. Twice. School was never difficult for me." He  answered in a sheepish voice, like the fact that he was smart  embarrassed him.

Why was she not surprised that he was a boy genius too? "So, what happened after she came in?"

"She came on to me hot and heavy. I responded like a sixteen-year-old  who had never gotten laid. She had me in my bedroom within minutes. She  was experienced and I let her take the lead. She opened my fly and had  my dick out of pants and a condom on me, before I really knew what was  happening." He laughed, but there was no humor in the hollow sound. "Not  that I would have objected. I had a beautiful woman above me, ready to  fuck me senseless. I was a teenager in complete ecstasy."

Oh. Dear. God.

Kara bit back a horrified gasp. Her suspicions had to be wrong. It couldn't have happened that way.

"She had the knife hidden in her bra." His voice trembled.

She wasn't wrong, and the nausea started to rise in her throat.

"So there I was, getting my first fuck, drowning in erotic bliss, never  once thinking that there was something strange about the whole  situation. She grabbed the knife and started stabbing the moment I  started to come. It took me by surprise. She had stabbed me so many  times before I realized what was happening that I didn't have a chance  to defend myself." His chest was heaving, his voice strangled and raw.

Kara's whole body quivering with emotion, she turned in his arms,  straddled his thighs and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Why?" she  asked, her question coming in a short sob. "Why would she do that?"  Burying her face in his neck, she let her tears flow unchecked down her  face. All she could think about was the vulnerable teenage Simon, lying  in a pool of blood, dying, just because he was a hormonal, typical young  man.                       
       
           



       

Wrapping his arms tightly around her, he answered in a graveled voice,  "Revenge. My father died before he could be punished for stealing from a  powerful boss in an organized and huge cartel. The organization was  sending a message, letting people know what happens to a person or their  family if they try to steal from them. They couldn't let my father's  bad deed go unpunished. He died before they could send that message. I  was just a substitute."

"But why Rose?"

"The boss knew we had been friends since childhood. Her loyalty was  being tested. She was pretty deeply involved in the organization. They  threatened to kill her mother and brother if she didn't kill me."  Surprisingly, there was no bitterness in his voice.

Shaken to the depths of her soul, she choked out, "Is she in jail?"

"She's dead." His voice was flat. "She fled as soon as I passed out from  blood loss, obviously convinced that I was a goner. She went straight  to an alley, took a lethal amount of drugs and slit her wrists with the  same knife she used to stab me. They found a suicide note and her  confession in her pocket. She begged forgiveness from both her mother  and mine, saying that she had to protect her family. She never knew that  I survived. Mom came home a few minutes later and found me. If she  hadn't, I would have been dead."

Unable to contain her horror, she sobbed into Simon's neck, crying for  all of the pain that he had suffered, both emotionally and physically.  How did one survive a betrayal like that? Especially by a friend, a  woman he had adored. "I'm so sorry."

"Why?" he asked, sounding perplexed. "You didn't stab me." He rubbed his  hand up and down her back. "Don't cry. I don't like it." His voice was  demanding, but he rested his head against hers, his touch on her back  gentle and comforting.

A sad smile crossed her lips as she tried to rein in her emotions. His  comment was so...Simon. He had no idea why she was crying for him, why  she hurt for him. Being loved by anyone other than his family was  completely alien to him. "Tell me about your injuries?"