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“He was fucked in the head,” Opal said. “You were his toy. He wanted to give you out to others to play with, but at the same time was jealous that you gave them your attention.”
Lilac took in a sharp breath. He wrapped his arms tight around her.
“Yeah. I guess you’re right. Stefan was an expert at reading people. Early on, he figured out that the way to punish me was to hurt people I cared about. Sometimes, he’d hit me. Usually when he couldn’t hold back his temper. But often, he’d find some way to strike deeper. So, I knew it was a really dumb idea to let him know how much I cared for Opal. For Ryleigh. Interrupting him, strangling Ryleigh could have backfired, yet there was nothing else I could do. Mentioning Don’s name was also a dumb move. I knew it would upset him if I seemed to favor one of them. And like I said, Don was the best of the lot. I didn’t want Stefan to hurt him. So I told Stefan I needed help choosing a dress that didn’t show too much skin because the way Don looked at me grossed me out. He liked that.”
“He laughed,” Ryleigh said.
“Yeah. He did. Then he let Ryleigh go and took me upstairs to choose a dress. But I knew . . . I knew I had to somehow get Ryleigh and Opal out of there. He’d pulled the rose-colored glasses off Ryleigh’s eyes. And he wouldn’t play nice anymore. Plus, he was becoming increasingly violent toward Opal. I was worried that he’d . . . that he’d kill her one day and I wouldn’t be there to save her.”
“Wasn’t your job, Lilac,” Opal told her. “You think you had to save both of us, but you needed saving just as much.”
“I came up with a plan,” Lilac said. “I just needed Don’s help. God, I was so scared to ask him. He might have told Stefan. But for some reason, he agreed to help. He got us some false identities and a pile of cash. Then I just needed a distraction for the guards. But Don had that under control too. Stefan had gone out to his club that night, and Don decided to join him to provide himself with an alibi. Not that Stefan would likely guess he’d helped us, but better safe than sorry. Don paid some young guys to ram the front gate, then take off. As security responded, I grabbed Ryleigh and Opal and our stuff that I’d had the cook keep safe for me. She always liked me.”
“All the staff did,” Ryleigh added.
“Yeah. And then we ran. And I foolishly thought we were free,” Lilac added. “But we weren’t.”
“He came after us,” Opal said.
“It didn’t take his goons long to find us the first time,” Lilac said. “We only managed to get away that time because we spotted them outside the motel we’d been staying at. We were on our way back from dinner. We got in the car and left without our stuff. I had all of our money and identities, but none of our clothes. We had to start over with new phones and new IDs. We sold our car and bought Sugar. But we managed to pick up jobs here and there. I thought we were going to be okay.”
“Until I did something really stupid,” Ryleigh said.
“It wasn’t stupid,” Lilac insisted. “Not when it brought us Kye.”
“No, you’re right, I could never regret him.” Ryleigh gazed at Kye with love. “I decided I needed to lose my virginity. It was something Stefan prized. The fact that I was untouched. So, I went out one night and I found a guy to fuck. I know that sounds terrible. But I was just . . . I was so angry. Then, six weeks later I took a pregnancy test and found out I was pregnant with Kye.”
“The dad?” Linc asked.
Ryleigh winced.“I wouldn’t even know how to find him if I wanted to.”
Linc just nodded, not showing any emotion either way.
“We knew that we couldn’t run forever,” Lilac said. “Not with Ryleigh pregnant. And that’s when she told us about her brothers. We weren’t even entirely sure that her dad had been telling the truth about you guys or whether he made everything up just to make her feel better when she was younger. We had to do some research first. Luckily, he told Ryleigh their names and it wasn’t hard to find out that Tanner and Raid would be in a rodeo in about six weeks’ time. We drove to Hopesville, and debated what to do.”
“I knew it should’ve been me that came to see you,” Ryleigh said, looking over at Tanner. “I shouldn’t have let Lilac do that. But I just . . . I didn’t know what to say. What if you weren’t great guys? What if my dad had made it all up? I didn’t think he had. I knew he wouldn’t lie to me, but I was still too scared. What if you were like Stefan? So, instead, Lilac said she would go and try to figure out what sort of men you were.”
“And what happened then?” Alec asked. “Instead of telling Tanner the truth, why did you run off like that?”
Lilac tensed and Tanner shot Alec a look, not liking the accusatory tone to his voice. None of this was Lilac’s fault.
“Stefan’s men found us again,” Lilac said. “I already told Tanner this part. But I was on the way to the bar to meet him when I saw Stefan’s guys. I ditched my phone, and we ran. We couldn’t risk them finding us. They would’ve killed both of you.” She turned to Tanner as she said that.
“I would have protected you all.”
“No. No, that just wasn’t an option. He would have sliced you up into pieces and made me watch as punishment. And he would have enjoyed it.” Lilac felt ill at the thought. The memory of her nightmare was still fresh in her mind.
Nothing could happen to Tanner.
“Stefan isn’t going to harm me. And he’s definitely not going to harm you,” Tanner told her firmly.
Lord. She wished she could have that sort of faith.
“And then you decided to come here?” Alec asked. “Why wait six months?”
“Because we were worried that his guys might find our trail again. So, we knew we had to go to ground. We couldn’t pop up in any town. Certainly not one close to Hopesville,” Lilac told them.
“And I was scared,” Ryleigh said. “I couldn’t take my baby into another bad situation. We traveled north to Montana. We kept out of the big towns. It was only as I became more pregnant that we knew we had to get close to a hospital. Kye was born a bit early, and he needed some help. We were so terrified that Stefan would find us, even though Lilac got us some new identities.”
