For Once In My Life (Stevens Book 2)

Chapter 3

Dana entered the room she was staying in on automatic pilot.  Her mind was racing over the past, trying to find a man in it that she had not feared. Surely there had to be one, a teacher or an uncle?

Her mother had died when she was very young, leaving her father and her grandmother to raise her.  Her grandmother had not been a kind woman.  She saw to her needs, making sure that she grew up to be a lady but that was all.  Her father had worked hard to build up a business and had little time for her.  The few times he had seen her he treated her as if she was a nuisance.  In their home children were only to speak when spoken too.

She closed her door behind her and lay down on her bed, closing her eyes, remembering the day her father had come to her, telling her that she was to be married just after her seventeenth birthday. She had begged and pleaded with him not to make her marry Marcus Rowland who was twenty-five years older than her.  She had wanted to go to college, but her father had said that it would be up to Marcus to decide, that she would finish high school through tutors but college was up to her husband.

When she had outright denied her father and tried to run, he had caught her and hit her for the first time then he had locked her in her room until the wedding. She had known better than to make a scene at the courthouse because he would hit her again.

Marcus had not been a kind husband. Dana shuddered as she remembered her wedding night.  Marcus had not even tried to woo her. She was his property, bought and paid for, and she would do as he said when he said, and she was only to speak when spoken to, her father had trained her well.

Dana still knew almost nothing about him after five years of marriage.  He had bought her a large house with beautiful gardens, but the only time she went out socially was with Marcus, and she always knew that she was on show. Dana was there to make Marcus legitimate. She had no friends, it wasn't allowed, and even the staff were forbidden from talking to her. He had also insisted on a bodyguard disguised as a chauffeur for when she went out to run errands or go to the hairdresser. Her father had told him she would run, and she had tried two other times to free herself from him. Both times it had taken him a week to catch up to her, and both times he had put her in the hospital.

She had lived for the times when he had had to travel on business or when he had taken a new mistress because those were the times when she knew he would not want anything from her.  He would almost forget about her, leaving her to her lonely existence. Eventually, though, he would come back and, in the case of his affairs, he had the habit of comparing her to his current mistress, hoping to make her uncomfortable or ashamed.

This time she had waited until he was out of town, pretended to come down with the flu and ran.  She had sold all of her jewelry the week before so she would have enough cash to buy a used car with no title and no questions asked on either side.  She didn't have a driver's license, and she didn't have insurance.

All she had was a used car and five thousand cash.

She sat upright.  Her cash was in the car, in her purse. She jumped up forgetting about her ankle and crumpling to the floor with a cry, and she had barely recovered when her door flew open, and Quinn was next to her.

"What happened?"

"M-m-my purse, my car." She was panicked.

"The car is out back waiting for a tow truck to get over the bridge. If you wait here, I'll go and get your things and bring them in for you."

Dana looked at him with pleading eyes. She didn't know what she was pleading for, but he must have sensed that she needed reassuring.

He helped her back into her bed. "I'll only be a few minutes."

Quinn was true to his word, and it didn't take him long before he was back with her one suitcase and her oversized purse.

Forgetting he was there, and needing to see for herself, she dumped her purse contents out on the bed and gave a sigh when the money all fell out onto the bed. She quickly counted it to make sure it was all there.

"I have a safe in my office, would you like me to keep your money there?"

She jumped at the sound of Quinn's voice. "No." She picked it up and started to shove it back into her purse. If he had her money, she wouldn't be able to get to it if she needed to in a hurry.

She had no clue that she had a look of wild fear about her.

"Lunch is in a few minutes if you feel up to eating."

She didn't, but she thanked him, waiting for him to leave.

When he did, she couldn't hold back the tears.  What was she going to do? Marcus would find her he always did. She couldn't go back she just couldn't.

*******

Quinn stood in the hallway listening to her quiet sobs, and her crying made him feel helpless.  She was a girl in some serious trouble.  Dana had to be if she was carrying that much cash.  She must be trying to hide her tracks, and that coupled with a husband, an unwillingness to share her name, and the bruises only meant one thing.

Bertie had told him that she had recognized Bryce's picture, and if that were the case then maybe Bryce would recognize her.

She wasn't going to let him help her he could tell by the look in her eyes.  He had offered to keep the money for the very reason she didn't want him to keep it. So she couldn't disappear without his knowing it.

He moved to his office closing the door and picking up the phone, and it was answered on the second ring.

"Brother I need you to come home." Quinn could hear a commotion in the background that sounded like a busy restaurant.

"I'll be there this evening," Bryce said before hanging up.

Quinn had expected no less. He would have the horses ready in case the bridge was still impassable. He sat back in his chair and contemplated the situation.  She was a beautiful woman who looked like she was thirty, not twenty-two.  What kind of life must she have lived to age her and put that constant look of fear in her eyes?

He remembered holding her in his office that morning.  He had not wanted to let her go, and he still didn't, he had a strong need to protect her and keep her safe, and if he was honest with himself, there were a lot of other feelings that were better not thought of with the current state of affairs.

She was a married woman after all, even if she was not a happily married one.