Tied Up, Tied Down (Rough Riders #4)(17)

Damn. News traveled fast around here. “It’s not what you think.”


“No?”


“No.”


“Then you are an idiot, Sky. A freakin’ idiot.” Annie tossed up her hands and stormed out.

What was wrong with everybody today?

Thirty minutes later Nadia knocked and Skylar motioned her in.

Dark-haired, dark-eyed Nadia was a refugee from Bosnia who’d immigrated to the United States through a local church.

Last year during the interview process, Nadia had referred to herself as the perfect peasant. Ugly, stick-thin, strong as an ox, uneducated, and an “eyes forward, no-talking”


kind of worker. The description haunted Skylar, as did the occasional evidence of physical abuse on Nadia’s arms and face.

Despite repeated attempts of her coworkers to convince Nadia to ditch her husband, and Nadia’s promises to follow through with it, Nadia stayed with the abusive man. A sad fact of life in rural America. With the lack of financial and social resources, many women didn’t have a choice but to stay in a bad relationship.

The whole situation worried Skylar, and quite frankly, she’d nearly called the damn sheriff herself, but as Nadia’s boss, she couldn’t interfere. The one time she’d approached Nadia to offer whatever support she’d needed, the woman tearily told her to mind her own business. And as much as it pained her, Skylar had done as Nadia asked.

So far, Nadia’s son, four-year-old Anton, hadn’t shown signs of abuse and was a well-adjusted little boy who played well with the other kids in the daycare program.

Instead of standing in front of the desk like she was facing a firing squad as she usually did, Nadia paced. “What’s up, Nadia? Dee said it was important.”


“It is.” She paced to the far wall and back. “I like working here. It is good for Anton, it is good for me.”


“I like having you here. I’m not flattering you when I say you are a great employee.”


“Thank you.” Nadia stopped and looked at Skylar with haunted eyes. “When I’m here I work hard.” She clenched her hands at her sides. “I need to ask you a favor.”


“Okay, I’m listening.”


“If my husband calls, I’d like you to tell him I’m not here.”


A thick silence hung in the air.

Sky’s stomach churned. How many times in the last year had Nadia asked for this favor? A dozen, probably. The very next day Nadia would recant her request, claim she’d been stressed out or tired and she hadn’t meant it. Then she’d vehemently deny her husband had anything to do with her decision. Skylar had suffered through this type of wishy-washy behavior before with her sister. India promising to get clean. To get sober.

To stop using and abusing her body and take control of her life.

Nadia was in the same holding pattern. It might be cynical, but Sky didn’t think this was the time Nadia would stick to her declaration either and she tried damn hard to keep the doubt out of her voice. “I know you’re a private person, Nadia, but honesty is necessary for me to understand what’s going on. Why should I lie to Rex?”


“Because I’m leaving him. For real this time. A friend is letting us stay with her. I need this job and this is the first place he’ll try to find me.”


“As happy as I am that you’re taking a positive step, do you think he’ll believe you just up and left town? Especially when he knows how much you like working here?”


“He thinks I hate this job.”


That was a new twist. “Excuse me?”


Nadia thrust out her chin. “It’s not true. I lied to him. In the last couple of weeks I started complaining to him about this place and how bad it’d gotten. How I hated everyone who worked here. I even hinted I was looking around for something else and I’d found another daycare for Anton.”


Smart woman, laying the groundwork, but it made Sky absolutely sick that Nadia had to go to this much trouble to get out of a horrid, unsafe situation.

“When he realizes we’re gone, hopefully he’ll think I’ve moved to Denver. I told him I have cousins there.”


“Do you?”


“No. I don’t have any friends there either, so there’s no way he can trace me. Except through here.”


Skylar stayed calm and professional even as she wanted to ask more detailed questions on why Nadia was convinced this outlandish ruse would work. She tapped the pen on her calculator, contemplating issues Nadia might not have considered, but ones that affected everyone in her employ. “Is the woman who’s hiding you out another employee?”


“No. I’d never ask that of someone or put such a burden on you. You’ve been very good to me, which is why I hate to ask such a big thing. Again.”


Helpless to say no, Sky said, “Okay. I’ll inform Annie since she fields most of the phone calls. But you have to promise me one thing, Nadia.”


“What?”


“If anything changes, if you decide to return home, or if he threatens you, you have to tell me right away. I can’t be flying blind in this situation when I have a business to run and other employees—including children—to consider.”