For Once In My Life (Stevens Book 2)

Chapter 4

Dana was able to dress in her clothes that evening for dinner.  She had missed lunch and considered the missing meal, but had decided that it would be rude, and one thing she wasn't was rude.

Quinn knocked on her door ready to help her down the stairs, and when she opened, it and her heart turned over at the sight of him. They both silently regarded each other for a moment.

"Look, Quinn, I'm sorry about-" she tried to apologize, but he wouldn't let her.

"No apology necessary, and the offer of the safe still stands.  However, if you're not interested I know Lizzy has some hiding places in her room somewhere, but please let me know if you find any baseball cards.  She stole some from me twenty years ago, and I still haven't gotten them back."

The image of a young Quinn fighting with a little sister made Dana smile.

He held out his arm, and she took it. They walked in silence, and as they got to the end of the stairs, she looked up to see Bryce Stevens standing in the doorway to the kitchen watching them. He looked cold and forbidding with no expression on his face, and she stumbled a little as she got to the end of the stairs causing Quinn to tighten his grip to keep her from falling.

"You all right?" Quinn asked as he waited for her to regain her balance.

"Y-y-yes."

"Bryce this is Dana, Dana this is my brother Bryce Stevens."

"Yes, Dana and I have met before. It is nice to meet you again Mrs. Rowland."

Dana heard his deep English accented voice and felt all of the color drain from her face while the room started to spin. Bryce Stevens knew her and knew who her husband was.

"For God's sake Bryce, do you have to scare the poor girl?" Quinn growled as he picked her up and carried her to the sofa in the living room.

"I am not going to pretend I do not know who the woman is Quinn. She and I have met on several different occasions."

"Bryce, sometimes you're a little too honest. You could have been polite, maybe tested the situation first."

Dana had focused in on Bryce in time to see him shrug at Quinn's comment. "You can tell more from a shocked reaction than you can from a polite one."

Quinn placed a drink in her hand and helped her to take a sip.  It was strong, and it finished bringing her around. She silently regarded the two men who were looking at her with closed looks.  Well if she was honest, Bryce's was closed Quinn's was concerned.

"Why are you here Dana? Did your husband send you?" Bryce asked not pulling in punches.

Why would Marcus send her here, to a ranch in Texas?

"No," she croaked.

Dana noticed the silence of the house. "Where is everyone?" Where was Bertie? She sat up panicking.  Had they called Marcus? Is that what was going on?

"Bertie went home, and the roof of the bunkhouse was fixed. It's just the three of us tonight." Quinn took the glass from Dana's limp hand.

"Did you call Marcus?" She looked at Bryce, her eyes huge with fear. "You didn't, did you? I promise I'll be in my car and out of here as soon as it and the bridge are fixed."

"The bridge is fixed, how else do you think I got here?" Then, just as quickly as he asked the rhetorical question, he asked a real one. "Why don't you want Rowland to know you're here?" Bryce sat down in a chair opposite her, his large frame filling the space. He was just as large as Quinn, but where Quinn had a peaceful nature about him, Bryce was very cold, almost hostile.

Dana looked at Bryce considering her answer. She could be honest and plead for his sympathy and silence, or she could remain silent and hope he kept his mouth shut. She looked over at Quinn who had sat in the chair opposite her offering her no help. She trusted Quinn.  She didn't know why she did, but she did. Should she trust his brother as well?

Dana finally decided that she would have to take a chance.  Bryce already knew she was here, the best she could hope to do was salvage the situation with the truth, ever miserable word of it.

"Because I am trying to start my life over again and he won't let me go." It was almost a whisper when she finally spoke.

"How do you know he won't let you go?" Bryce asked in his best lawyer voice.

"Because I have tried twice before..."

"And what happened?" Bryce was not gentle with his questioning.

Dana looked at the empty fireplace.  She did not have to answer him, but if Bryce had a heart somewhere in that cold demeanor, the truth was her best defense.

"He put me in the hospital both times." Dana realized that she felt very cold as the words left her lips. "The second time I... I was in there for a very long time." She couldn't say she almost died she just couldn't.

"Why didn't you press charges?"

"It's kind of hard to do when you're unconscious, and by the time I woke up he had woven a tale so tight, with witnesses I might add, that I didn't stand a chance. It seems money can buy you everything including a wife."

Dana was sucked back into her past the images rising up and almost choking her. She had forgotten the present and didn't notice how still both brothers had gone. There was complete silence for a moment then Bryce rose in a burst of energy, suddenly all business.

"Quinn get Bertie back here now.  Then call Lizzy and Mother and get them here as soon as possible.  I need as many women in this house as I can get."

Bryce strode out of the room leaving silence behind him. Quinn pulled out his phone and slowly and methodically called Bertie; after he had made the phone call the room fell into silence once again.

"I have to go. If Marcus finds me..." She fought back the tears. "He would make your life a living hell."

"What about yours?" Quinn asked harshly.

Dana just shrugged. "I'll run for as long as I can.  If he catches me, which he will, then I will beg for mercy and wait for him to take another mistress hoping that he will tire of me and divorce me."

"He won't," Bryce said reentering the room

"No, he won't," Dana agreed. "I am his property, not his wife."

"Which is why you'll stay here until we can serve him with divorce papers."

"We?" Dana looked from Quinn to Bryce. "I can't afford-"

"This one is on the house." Bryce smiled at her then, a genuine smile which completely changed him.

Dana was transfixed.

"Your husband is dirty and helping you will be my pleasure."

Dana looked back at Quinn who was staring silently at his empty glass.

"Quinn?"

He turned to look at Dana with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Let Bryce help you, Dana." He rose. "I'll go call Mom and Lizzy." Then he left.

Dana's eyes followed him as he left the room.

She missed Bryce's curious glance that went from her to Quinn.