Page 39 of Twisted Hearts
Jaxon’s gaze flitted toward me so damn quickly I almost missed it. Red faded in at the edges of my vision. My jaw clamped down to silence the burning question I wanted to ask. Was she suggesting what I thought?
“Addi,” I growled, and then I stopped myself. I cleared my throat and swallowed down the question that tasted like bile in my throat. Had hehurther?
I’d kill him. I barely knew her, didn’t know him, but if he’d hurt her, I’d kill him.
“It’s okay,” she said softly, and to my utter surprise, her hand fell to my thigh as if she needed to comfortme. None of this was okay. “Anyway, our fathers decided we should date. I tried to stop it, but somehow it snowballed, and every time I tried to end it, my father insisted and Daniel refused to listen. It was like, with all of them, what I wanted didn’t matter. I don’t know how to explain it further.”
Losing the urge to not comfort her at all, I placed my hand over hers. “What happened then?” I asked, as compassionately and kindly as I could manage given the fire bubbling up in my gut.
“I didn’t want to get engaged to Daniel.” She pulled her hand from mine and twisted them in her lap again. “I didn’t want any of it. But there was something that happened, right after Christmas…this guy was at our house, and he freaked my dad out. I’ve never seen him so nervous, and then a few days later, on New Year’s Day, my dad and Matthew were forcing an engagement and refused to listen to anything I said.
“If I had married Daniel, it would have been…would have been horrific. He wasn’t nice at all. He took whatever he wanted, and he…” She stopped and cleared her throat, closing her eyes.
“Take your time,” Jaxon said, and the softness in his tone surprised even me. “Take all the time you need.”
She nodded and rolled her shoulders back. When she opened her eyes again, they were hazy. “Daniel…God, he was just the biggest ass. If I had married him, my life would have been over. He’d have destroyed me. I knew it then, and I know it now. Hell…” She laughed coldly, shaking her head. “I knew it from that first dinner when this was all set in motion.”
“Who was the guy?”
“I don’t know.” She tucked hair behind her ear and shrugged, shaking her head. “I have no idea who he was, but I know my dad’s reaction to him. He was always in control, and that day, he wasn’t.”
“We’re going to need descriptions. Anything you can think of with that guy you saw.”
She nodded at Jaxon’s request and rolled her lips together.
“What happened after?” I asked.
“I’d already been hiding money. I have a trust fund, and I opened an online account at a bank. Just a few hundred here and there. I started doing it right after we dated. I wasn’t sure why then, survival instinct maybe, but I just felt like I had to do something, to stay safe in case…”
In case the worst happened. My guess was her taking off on her wedding day meant the worst thing had happened.
And there I’d been, acting like an ass, coming on strong…forceful. It was the last thing this woman needed. Yet she’d had a backbone, too. Outside of me surprising her both times, she’d had no problems collecting herself and giving back a handful of sass when it was warranted.
“Why is it so important they find you?” I asked.
“Because Daniel will be embarrassed and humiliated. Because his dad isn’t used to anyone saying no to him.”
Her chin wobbled and she took another sip of water, the bottle shaking as she brought it to her lips and swallowed.
We gave her time. Jaxon was gruff and didn’t show much emotion, but he knew how to handle situations like this, and I’d had years of training with victims and knew to let her take time to compose herself.
“They said something, that day we got engaged, and it has me worried. About my dad…about me, what will happen when they find me. Not if, because I know they will.”
The hell they would. I already knew enough to be certain if I ever saw any of these men she’d talked about, I’d have no problems doing whatever was necessary to keep her away from them.
“We’ll do everything we can to keep that from happening,” Jaxon said. “Or ensure you’re safe if they do.”
“What happened with your dad?”
She squeezed her eyes closed, and once she opened them, fear rippled through her gaze, making my jaw go tight again.
This time it wasn’t her hands but her voice that shook. “He said he was making me get engaged and married to keep me safe. And Matthew said…” She put a hand on her throat. The urge so pull her into my arms and hold her, comfort her, promise her she was safe with us was almost overwhelming as she finally said, “I don’t remember exact words, but he said my father would pay with blood, and that what would happen to me would be worse.”
Tears gathered in her eyes and slid down her cheeks. She looked at the table, swallowed thickly, and tried to sniff back the drops that kept falling. I grabbed her napkin and held it out for her.
“It’s okay, Addi. Take the time you need.”
“My dad isn’t a bad man. He’s cold and stern, but he’s notmean. I just…I can’t figure any of it out, what it means for him now…if he’s okay…what they meant…”
