Chapter One
Jack
Jack pulled up outside the address his best friend, Wyatt, had texted him. The single story home in a quiet neighborhood looked more or less like the rest of the houses surrounding it. Green palisade fencing — that was going to be a bitch to scale if she wouldn’t let him in — large garden with the obligatory Jacaranda tree and agapanthus along the edge.
He looked over at Derrick, Wyatt’s new brother-in-law. “Text Alyssa and ask for Nadine’s number.”
Getting the text in the middle of the wedding reception had sent the entire family into panic. Nadine hadn’t mentioned that she was injured, they all just knew.
Derrick pulled out his phone and fired off the text. “Do people just follow your orders blindly?”
“I fucking wish.” He tended to hire people who could think for themselves and usually that came with a fair amount of insubordination. “I suppose when we’re in the field we’re just that much in sync that I don’t have to bark too many orders. Otherwise, my guys tend to talk back more than most.”
Jack owned a security and investigation company. It was one of the top providers of its kind. Well, it was one of his businesses. According to the outside world, he also owned an employment agency. It was registered and everything and he sent temps out to various jobs. What everyone didn’t know was that his temps were highly trained operatives.
Derrick’s phone beeped with an incoming text. “I have the number.” He read off Nadine’s cell number and Jack dialed it.
He made a mental note to save it for later. The phone rang a long while before going to voicemail. Jack tried a second time. There was a blue Mazda in the driveway. From everything his friends had told him about Doug, that was certainly not his car.
The phone rang for a little and Jack had resigned himself to having to climb that fence, when she picked up.
“Hello?”
It took him a moment to reconcile the voice with the situation he was likely facing.
“Nadine, this is Jack Ward. I’m your—”
“I know who you are. Is that your car outside?”
God, that voice. He wasn’t expecting it. It was husky and feminine at the same time. He didn’t want to admit how much it affected him. “It is. Do you mind letting us in?”
“Us? Is my brother with you. Because I don’t want to see him. Any of them. I didn’t want to ruin the day.”
Nadine had six brothers and a sister. Despite the drama that led them to find one another, they were all fiercely loyal and highly protective of each other. Wyatt, the oldest, had married the love of his life and Derrick’s sister, Mini, earlier that day. It made some sort of misguided sense that Nadine wouldn’t want to ruin the day.
Of course, what she didn’t see is that each of her siblings would rather have their day ruined than see her in trouble with her douchebag husband.
Jack exhaled. He could relieve her of one of her concerns. “No. It’s just me and Derrick Skosana.”
“Derrick?”
Her tone lightened a little, and Jack felt the slightest twinge of jealousy that his friend could solicit such a response from her. “Yeah. I brought him along in case you were injured.”
“I’m not—” She stumbled with her words. “It’s nothing major.”
“Let him just check you out. Just to be sure.”
There was a beat of silence before she answered. “Okay.”
There was silence for another long moment. No movement around the house at all.
“Nadine?”
“Yeah?” She sounded faraway. Like she was thinking about something and he interrupted her.
“You need to let us in, sweetheart.”
He didn’t know where the endearment came from but it seemed to fit the moment.
The rattle as the green palisade gate rolled open signaled another win. She trusted him. Or at the very least she recognized that she needed help. He pulled into the driveway behind the blue Mazda.
He took some time to have a look around. Nothing stood out except for the fresh skid marks on the light grey bricks of the driveway.
“Let’s get this over with.” Derrick walked past him toward the front of the house.
“You okay?”
Derrick turned to him and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I don’t usually know the victims I treat. Even when Nadine came into the ER I could distance myself because it was easy to pretend she was just a patient.” He stared down at his feet. “But a few hours ago her brother married my sister. It’s hard to keep that distance. And I’m at her home, not in the ER.”
Jack clapped the back of his friend’s shoulder. “Pretend it’s a house call. Whatever you need to do to give her what she needs. Besides, you have no idea what you’re facing.”
Nadine opened their security gate, allowing them inside the house. God, he’d seen pictures of her. He hadn’t been living under a rock and she was one of South Africa’s top models. Her face and body was everywhere. She was beautiful, there was no mistaking it. With that long dark hair and pouty mouth, her image on the cover probably sold more magazines than anyone else.
And yet, seeing her broke his heart. Not just the bruise forming around her eye, or the blood at the side of her mouth. It was the haunted look in those turquoise eyes, her hunched-over shoulders. She looked defeated, as if she had lost all her fight.
He walked through the security gate and had to suppress a smirk. Those gates were designed to keep the monsters out. There was nothing one could do about the monsters who lived under the same roof. They were more dangerous. “Where is he?”
Nadine shook her head. “I don’t know. He left in a rage. Said he needed to calm down before he did something he regretted. Told me I better still be here when he gets back.”
“Then best we work quick.” He pointed to Derrick. “Let him check you out, and you can tell me what needs to be loaded into the car.”
“Where are you taking me?” She took a step back. “I don’t want my brothers to see me like this. I don’t want to be around them right now.”
“Calm down.” Jack resisted the urge to take a step toward her. He was a big guy and he didn’t want to scare her. “I won’t take you anywhere you don’t want to go. You can stay with me for the night and we can reassess in the morning. If you’re comfortable I’ll have one of my female employees come over and keep you company.”
They’ll also have to catalogue her injuries and encourage her to give the police a statement and press charges. He knew that Adam, another one of her brothers, had started the paperwork for the restraining order but Nadine had been reluctant to sign it while Doug believed she was out of the country.
She had taken on a modeling assignment in Mozambique and cancelled at the last minute. She told her husband, who was also her agent, that she was still going. Instead she was holed up in a hotel waiting for the right time to get her things and leave Doug for good.
Her plan obviously didn’t work. Doug must’ve been suspicious since he came back to the house instead of going to the wedding. And once again, proceeded to beat his wife.
“You don’t have to do that.” Nadine sat in an armchair in the corner of the room. “I don’t want to impose. I can go to a hotel or something.”