Hidden Away

CHAPTER 15

SEAN Cameron turned his patrol car onto another county road that led away from the lake and scanned the tree line and farther down the dirt road. It really pissed him off that Rusty had pulled this crap after all the Kellys had done for her. He’d questioned some of the students at her school and had been told she drove off with Matt Winfree after school ended.

When he got his hands on both of them, he was going to wring their necks. Especially Rusty’s. Marlene and Frank were sick with worry and now Sophie was in the hospital about to deliver. Something that should be a joyous occasion for all the Kellys. They should all be at the hospital, not scouring the countryside looking for an ungrateful twit.

When he rounded the bin, he fishtailed to a quick stop, coming only inches from running over a person in the road. He looked up to see Rusty staring at him through the windshield. Her hair was a mess. She had blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, and her eyes were wide and frightened.

As soon as she recognized him, her expression grew hard and cold. Her lips twisted belligerently and she limped past him and continued down the road. He shot out of the car and charged after her. He grabbed her arm and spun her around.

“What the hell happened?” he demanded. “Where’s your car?”

Her nostrils flared. “Get your hands off me, copper.”

“It’s either my hand or the cuffs. Take your pick,” he snarled back.

He pulled her back toward his car and pushed her against the side. She trembled underneath his fingers and he let go, standing in front of her, arms across his chest in an intimidating manner.

“Start talking, Rusty.”

She refused to meet his stare. “It’s about a mile up.”

“Did you wreck it? Where is Matt Winfree?”

Her head popped up and anger burned through her eyes. “What do you know about Matt?”

“I know you left school with him when you should have been going home. And that you took off without telling anyone where you were. Damn it, Rusty, the Kellys are worried sick about you. Sophie’s in labor and the family should be with her but they’re all out looking for your irresponsible ass.”

Her face fell and for the first time he saw beyond the belligerent front to the pain that lurked deep in her eyes. He frowned as he took in not only the trickle of blood but the redness of her face. His gaze swept downward to take in her torn shirt and the welts around her neck.

“Son of a bitch,” he bit out.

Rusty flinched away and would have taken off but he put his hand on the car to block her.

“Talk to me, Rusty. What the hell happened? Did that little bastard hurt you?”

She shook her head mutinously and Sean blew out his breath in frustration. “Get in. Show me where your car is.”

He walked around to put her in the passenger side and she looked briefly up as she slid in. “Not going to make me ride in back like the other prisoners?”

“I haven’t arrested you. Yet.”

He slammed the door and went back around. He needed to call Marlene to put her mind at ease but he wanted to find out what the hell had happened first. Rusty was holding out—not that it was any shock.

They drove up the road and about a mile up, he saw the car nosefirst in a deep ravine.

“Goddamn,” he muttered. “Is Matt still inside?”

Anger flashed on her face again and she shook her head. “Mind telling me where he is?”

“He took off.”

Sean pulled up beside the wrecked car and rested his hand over the steering wheel as he looked over at Rusty. “Any reason why?”

“Because I threatened to call you,” she blurted.

His eyes narrowed. “Call me?”

“Yeah, okay? It was a bluff. Pretty stupid. You wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire.”

Sean reached over and touched the blood drying at the corner of her mouth. Then he lowered his hand and pulled the collar of her shirt back just an inch to reveal the already discolored places on her neck.

Rusty stared back at him, her gaze challenging.

Sean picked up his phone and punched in Frank’s number.

“Frank. I’ve found Rusty. I’ll bring her home after I’ve straightened things out. No, don’t come. I’ll take care of it. You and Marlene just worry about Sophie.”

He hung up before Frank could press further and then he stared back at Rusty.

“We can do this one of two ways. You can tell me exactly what happened, or I can take you back to the station and you can tell me there. Your choice. But you are going to give me an exact accounting or I’m going to find Matt Winfree and get his side.”

Rusty closed her eyes. “It doesn’t matter. You won’t believe me. Nobody will believe me.”

“Try me.”

She turned her face toward the window and stared out. More bruises shadowed the slim column of her neck up to her ear. He was getting more pissed off by the minute. Then she looked down and her shoulders shook as if she was valiantly trying to hold on to her control.

“I didn’t mean to make them worry,” she said in a cracked voice. “It wasn’t supposed to be anything more than a ride home. Matt Winfree is cute and popular and I thought he was interested in me. He asked if I’d give him a ride home. So I said yeah. I mean, what girl wouldn’t? After we left the school, he asked if he could drive. He thought the car was cool and wanted to get behind the wheel. I know I should have said no, but I wanted him to like me.”

The pained vulnerability in her voice gripped Sean by the throat. Christ, she was just a kid. It was hard to remember that sometimes, but she was still just a seventeen-year-old kid who’d had a hell of a hard life.

“So I pulled over and told him he could drive to his house and that was all. I knew Marlene would worry if I wasn’t home, but I figured she wouldn’t mind five minutes.”

She went silent and locked her gaze on some distant object out her window.

“Go on,” Sean urged.

She dragged her hand through her hair and he saw two nails, broken to the quick, tiny lines of blood at the tips. He had a very bad feeling about this.

“He drove past his house. I asked him what the hell and he laughed and said he wanted to show me something. I was pissed because I’d already told him just to drive to his house. He came out here, with me yelling at him the entire way. He tried ...”

She leaned her forehead on the glass and hunched her shoulders inward as if to hide herself completely from Sean.

“What did he try?” Sean asked quietly.

Rusty whirled around, tears swimming in her eyes, but they blazed with fury. “He wanted sex, okay? He wanted me to put out. Apparently it’s the hot gossip at school that any boy can get into my pants, and so he wanted his turn.”

Sean’s jaw clenched so tight his teeth ached. “Did he rape you?”

She gave a dry laugh. “He tried. He tried, okay? I told him I’d tell you, and he laughed. Said you’d never believe me over him, that everyone knew what kind of girl I am. I fought him off and he drove my car into the ditch. Then he took off. Probably called a friend on his cell phone to come get him. I don’t know. I don’t care.”

“He’s wrong.”

She lifted pain-filled eyes to his. “What?”

“I believe you.”

Relief was crushing in her eyes. Tears slipped down her cheeks and then she raised her hands to her face as sobs billowed out. He reached over to lay his hand against her hair.

“He won’t get away with this, Rusty.”

She jerked her head up again. “No. You can’t tell anyone. No one will believe me. No one. Do you understand? My life will be ruined. I won’t be able to go back to school.”

The sad thing was she was right about a lot of people not believing her. But that didn’t mean that Sean and the rest of the Kellys couldn’t make the little bastard’s life miserable.

“I won’t press charges,” she said vehemently. “I won’t. I’ll say nothing ever happened. You can’t make me.”

Sean slid his hand underneath her chin and nudged it upward. “Trust me, Rusty. I know you and I don’t see eye to eye. I know you hate me. But trust me. I’ll take care of this.”

The hope in her eyes damn near undid him. It was gone in a flash, and her expression went dim again.

“Now tell me where you’re hurt. Do you need to go to the hospital?”

She flushed and shook her head. “He hit me a few times. Tore my clothes.”

He touched the side of her neck where the bruises had already formed. “What happened here?”

She twisted away and pulled her torn shirt up to cover it. “It’s nothing. He held me by my neck while he ripped my shirt.”

Sean itched to get his hands around Matt’s neck.

“Tell me what you want to do then. I’ll take you to the hospital if you want to go.”

“I just want Marlene,” she said in a small voice.

“Then I’ll take you home. Okay? I’ll call ahead to make sure she’s there.”

“Won’t she be at the hospital with Sophie?”

“I think right now you need her more,” Sean said gently.

Rusty breathed a sigh of relief and then she looked at him. “Thanks. You’re not so bad, you know? For a cop.”

Sean shook his head. “We’re not the bad guys, Rusty.” He glanced over at her car. “Do you need anything out of there before we go?”

“My purse. And my school stuff.”

“Okay, sit tight while I go get it. I’ll need to call a wrecker to come get the car.”

“Frank and Marlene are going to be so upset,” she said. “They just got me that car and I promised to take care of it.”

Sean paused and then leaned back into the car to look over at Rusty. “They’ll be happy you’re okay. They don’t give a damn about that car.”

As he walked toward the wrecked car, he pulled out his cell phone. “Marlene? This is Sean. Yeah, Rusty’s okay. Look I know you’re probably on your way to the hospital but ... Rusty really needs you right now. I’m going to take her home if you can meet me there.”