Rebound: Passion Book 2(16)

“She upstairs?” he nodded and I turned to leave.

“I’m going up.” I didn’t wait for him to say yes or no just headed back the way I came and walked out and around. I knew there had to be a way in from the inside but I didn’t want to scare her. I pulled my phone from my hip and called her on my way up the stairs. “Kadyn I’m at your door open up.”





She was dressed like a typical teenager, something I’d stopped being about two hours ago, in a halter-top and shorts. The thing with Patti had barely tipped me over into adulthood, this shit, what I might have to do now to protect had finally taken the shine off the once happy go lucky kid with the silver spoon in his mouth and the world at his feet. My eyes had been opened and I didn’t like none of what I saw.

I looked at her standing there and it pissed me off that my first thought was to get her back inside behind closed doors. This had been her reality for how long, this hiding and barely existing while this sick fuck was living his life free and clear? The report on the net had said that because their state had no stalking laws at the time of the incident he had walked with a mere slap on the wrist and a restraining order, which everyone knew wasn’t worth shit. He’d been free to torment her while she and her mother had lived in fear no doubt.

I crowded her in the doorway until she walked backwards into the room her eyes never leaving mine. I tried to fix my face and dim the kill lights maybe a little but I could see from her apprehension that I wasn’t doing a very good job. “I know.” Her eyes fell to the envelope in my hand before her shoulders scrunched up to her ears before they fell and she lowered her head as if in shame. That too pissed me off.

Lifting her chin I looked into her eyes hoping she could read what was in mine. It was a fucked up situation all around. How could I ask her to trust me after everything that she’d been through? We’d only just met, she knew next to nothing about me, only that I’d stormed into her life and decided that she was mine. That wasn’t about to change but I had to find some way of getting it through to her that this was for real. That I meant everything I’d said to her on that beach. Was that only a few short hours ago? Felt like a lifetime.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of Kadyn, but now I understand certain things. I want you to listen to me, as hard as this might be for you to accept you no longer have to live in fear, I won’t allow it. I know you’ve felt cornered for the last four years but that shit ends here and now. Tomorrow I’m taking you home to meet my parents, if my words alone won’t convince you then being with them will. What we love we protect, when you become one of us you gain the same care as everyone else in the Steele clan. And we are a force to be reckoned with believe me. So far it’s just been your mom and dad and their limited resources, well now you have Nathaniel Steele in your corner and he’s no light weight.”

She had no idea what the fuck I was talking about, it was evident in the questioning look she gave me but I figure it was best to just show her. I can imagine that being given the run around all these years by the people who were sworn to protect her had made her a little doubtful, but now it was my job to see that she had all the protection she needed. I felt raw inside and although all I wanted was to go home and dive into the file her dad had given me I needed her more.

“What were you doing before I called?” she looked back into the room where I could see a puzzle of some sort laid out across the table. “I was playing with the puzzle.”

“Fine, I’ll stay with you for a little while before I leave. Now that I know the basics Kadyn one day soon I want you to tell me everything.” She swallowed deeply and nodded her head. “Aren’t you going to yell at me for going behind your back to find out the truth?” She was suddenly very shy and unsure of herself, which was understandable. I hope one day soon to break her out of that shell. For some reason I wanted to see her like my sisters are, care free and full of life.

“How did you find out?”

“I looked it up online. Don’t panic I was very careful there’s no way for him to trace anything back to you. Tell me again why you’re so sure that he would even know if someone went looking?”

“There were things that he knew, things that he had no way of knowing unless he had our phones tapped or my internet hacked. He used to contact me using different user names, even when I changed my ID and password he’d still find me. Then he started sending things to my friends using my handles so we figured he’d hacked me. It got to the point where no matter what we did he would still find me.”

“Ssh, it’s okay he’s not here now.” I hugged her close when her body started to shake. Standing there in her father’s living room I asked myself what strange twist of fate was at work here. My ex had turned out to be a monster who had set out to terrorize someone else and had almost got her killed. And now my future was running from a monster set on destroying her. Was she my redemption for the horror I’d unwittingly brought into my family? Was this inexplicable rush of love that I was beginning to feel for her somehow part of some master plan? Whatever it was it was now mine to deal with.

I lifted her chin so I could reach her mouth for a long overdue kiss, one that was meant to erase all the darkness of this day. I only meant to share some of me with her, didn’t mean for it to become anything else but when she collapsed into me, her body becoming pliant and soft I took it deeper feeding her my tongue as my hands roamed her back down to her ass.

Careful Matthew. I pulled back slightly and kissed her nose before setting her away from me. “I know you’re not ready for anything heavy right now so I’ll take my time, but know that in the meantime there’s going to be a lot of heavy petting and make out sessions in your future.” I tried to make a joke of it to lighten up the heavy mood that we were in. Again she hid her face in my chest and I kissed her flushed cheek before leading her to the table with her puzzle.





I sat with her for the rest of the afternoon keeping the conversation light so as not to spook her any farther. I drew more information out of her without being too obvious and the more she told me the angrier I became. It wouldn’t do to show her my anger though, she’d been traumatized enough from what I could tell. It was a wonder she wasn’t more fucked up than she was after the shit she’d endured. No wonder she’d reacted the way she had that day on the sidewalk when I walked up on her.

My only purpose now was seeing that she was safe, that meant no more looking over her shoulder, no more hiding out like a criminal. There’s no way I could live with that. Now I see why Josh was as crazy as he was over his wife, why he had that attitude of kill or die where she was concerned. Kadyn wasn’t going to have any less from me, no matter how long it took I was going to make sure she had everything a Steele woman deserved and no asshole pedophile was going to rob her of it.

She seemed to relax more as the day went on and I kept my touches to a minimum to get her comfortable with me being that close. I couldn’t help touching her though. If my hand wasn’t playing in her hair my finger was trailing down her cheek. I stole two or three more light kisses as we sat there, each time holding my breath that I wouldn’t do something that would set her off. I had no idea what I was dealing with here.

“You’ll come to me tomorrow? I’ll give you directions it’s not that far.”

“I might not be able to, dad might need the car.” She looked so young as she looked up at me from her place on the floor: young, innocent, and sweet. My heart constricted in my chest and I had the wayward thought that if that shit happened every time I looked at her it will be a lot of wear and tear on my old ticker.

“Fine I’ll come get you; don’t be a female, be ready when I get here I hate waiting.” I added the last to get a laugh out of her, which it did. I’d wait forever for her if I had to. Fucking sap





It was on the way home that I almost had a panic attack. I just realized I had no idea how to date a woman. I knew the basics, flowers and candy and that type of shit, but I was a boy when I started seriously dating my ex. Were the rules the same? What was I supposed to do for her? If the females in my family were anything to go by women needed a lot of fucking maintenance. Nothing I can’t handle as long as I know what the fuck I was supposed to be maintaining.

I went upstairs and dropped the envelope in a drawer, it didn’t escape my notice that I wasn’t in any hurry to read that shit. There was a whole lot that needed to be done there yes, but I also wanted to focus on her as much as on the situation. I wanted to make up for the lost years, at least that much I knew. Had she ever just gone to the movies with her friends? Or out for ice cream, the usual teenage bullshit that girls did? Somehow I didn’t think so. That would be my first order of business; I’m going to have to recruit my family to help me with this. I’d already decided I was gonna need mom’s help in a big way but it looked like it was going to be a whole family effort.

It was almost dinner time by the time I got back so there was no time to talk to Josh or dad about what I’d learned. Everyone gathered around the table and though I could sense the questions and feel the stares no one asked or said anything. I’m sure by now everyone knew what was going on because as far as I know Josh didn’t keep shit from Carrie and dad and mom shared the same damn brain so…