She climbed off me and curled her legs underneath her. “Are you in a lot of trouble?”
“That doesn’t matter, Andie.” I sat up and smoothed a hand over her frizzy hair. “You matter.”
Tears cascaded down her cheeks. “I don’t remember much, except him dragging me upstairs. I don’t even remember going into a bedroom. I hate myself.”
“Whoa! You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But I did, Grace. Lettie in our dorm, the girl with the dyed-purple hair, warned me about the Omega House. She freaking warned me not to go to that party. Apparently, a friend of hers in her economics class was roofied in the fall at Omega’s first party of the year.” She examined her nails. “I didn’t wear the nail polish you gave me. I forgot to put it on.”
Anger churned in my gut. “This is not your fault.” I scooted closer to her. “Look at me.”
She raised her watery gaze.
“Carl Dixon is the one who will atone for this. He’s at fault. He’s the monster. Not you.”
She pulled on a thread along the seam of her jeans. “The rape test didn’t show any semen. Did he penetrate me, though?”
“No, I shot him before he had a chance.”
She sighed. “I feel numb, Grace. I don’t know how to process all this. Tell me how. You’ve been through worse. How did you deal?”
I’d shared with her that I’d been a victim of sex trafficking. Those last two words conveyed enough for people to understand that I was raped repeatedly without me having to give details.
I rubbed my hands along her arms. “You know I still have issues. You’ve woken up to me screaming from my nightmares.”
She flicked her fingers under her runny nose. “Aside from that, you’re normal. You seem to have life by the balls.”
I chuckled. “I don’t, Andie. I struggle with my demons every day.” I was so grateful she didn’t recall anything after Carl had dragged her upstairs. “Working at the shelter has helped me, but I’m still broken.”
I didn’t want to be, and with my past still present, I was worried I wouldn’t have a future.
Anger colored her guilt for the moment. “I want to cut off his dick. Even though I didn’t see him on top of me, I feel filthy and violated. He needs to feel the same way.”
She wasn’t getting an argument out of me. Sadly, there wasn’t a way to make that asshole feel like he was the one who’d been raped.
But maybe hurting him where it mattered would give him a wake-up call.
5
BRIAN
Iinhaled the myriads of scents wafting around the streets of Boston, filling my soul with happiness. I hadn’t known how much I missed the horns beeping, people hailing cabs, and the hustle and bustle of the city. There was an electric energy in the air that Nashville didn’t have.
I passed pedestrians on my way to Duke’s gym, feeling as though I’d never left. I couldn’t wait to see my best friend, who was like a brother to me, although I’d seen him at Thanksgiving when Fran and I had joined the Hart family for the holiday. But soon I would be able to pop in or hang out with Duke anytime.
Nevertheless, I was supposed to meet him yesterday, but he’d been tied up with an issue with Grace. He hadn’t elaborated over the phone, except to say it was fucking bad. When it came to his sister, Duke was a can of gasoline waiting to blow sky-high with a strike of the match.
I shouldn’t be surprised about whatever Grace had done. The Hart beauty was a force to be reckoned with and one I wanted to tango with badly.
Her looks alone could stop traffic—porcelain skin, legs that went on forever, and curves that would fit nicely in the palms of my hands.
Yeah, that wouldn’t bode well for me. Any notion of me touching her or attempting to would transform Duke into the Tasmanian devil.
Besides, she wasn’t interested in an old man like me. I was seven years her senior. Not that I was out of shape. I worked out any chance I had, and I ate healthy. My only vice—bourbon.
The bigger issue for me with a steady relationship was love. I wouldn’t even know what beingin lovefelt like. In my days with the cartel, I had made it a point not to fall for any lady I’d slept with, mainly because love got a person killed. Duke and I had the same motto and rule—we didn’t sleep with the same woman more than twice, and we kept our feelings in a vault.
Duke mentioned that the love he felt for his wife was like a drug. A powerful addiction that consumed him, filling his world with light and giving him a euphoric high that he couldn’t live without. For a hardened individual like Duke, it took a strong-ass woman like former ATF agent Fallyn Williams to crack his heart. I wasn’t any different. I didn’t like weak women or those who were needy, and Grace wasn’t either of those things.
