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“I’m so sorry,” I whisper against her head.
“Don’t let him out now,” she says. “Please. I don’t want him to see me cry.”
I don’t ask if she means Kane or Tobin, but I can only assume she means either of them. We each have our own set of skills, and comforting isn’t something they’re very good at.
“Do you want to talk about anything aside from what you saw in there?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says through a fresh barrage of tears. “Why me?”
“You were just in the wrong diner at the wrong time.”
“No, I’m not talking about getting kidnapped by you three. I mean, why did those men...?” Her voice trails off, and she takes a deep breath. “If I tell you something, can the others hear me?”
I shake my head.
“There was a reason I left college, and it wasn’t because I couldn’t keep my grades up. I’d been at a party, but I got really drunk. Too drunk. When I stumbled back to my dorm room, I didn’t realize someone had followed me home.”
I already know where this story is going, and I don’t like it.
“He was a young jock,” she says. “A real party boy around campus. I guess I forgot to lock my door because one minute, I was ready to pass out on the bed, and the next, his hands were scalding every inch of my body. My tits. My ass. My thighs. I asked him to stop. I even tried to move away from him, but my arms and legs were like lead weights.”
“Sweet girl, I’m so sorry.”
“As fucked up as it sounds, I could have brushed it off if it had just been him. But he wasn’t alone, Jax. I don’t even know how many of his friends had tagged along, but it wasn’t just him.”
She buries her face in my chest and cries, and all I can do is hold her. I can’t take her pain for her the way I can take Kane’s pain. I can’t lock her memories in a box so she can function. She has to do this on her own. All by herself.
For the first time, I realize just how lucky Kane, Tobin, and I are.
“It went on for hours,” she finally says. “Sometimes I would pass out, only to wake up to someone else assaulting me. Jax, I bled for days.”
“Did you report them?”
She shakes her head and sniffles. “I never went to the police because I felt guilty. I’d worn a short skirt and a halter top, and I won’t pretend I hadn’t flirted with the guy that followed me home.”
Rage simmers beneath my skin. How can she blame herself? “It wasn’t your fault. You have to understand that. Being flirtatious doesn’t equal consent.”
“That isn’t how some men see it,” she says with a bitter laugh. She takes another deep breath and lets it out. “You’re the first person I’ve told. I’ve been too ashamed to tell anyone else.”
I place my palm against her back and rub circles over the thin t-shirt. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. You are so incredibly strong, and I’m honored that you trusted me enough to share this with me.”
She snuggles against me, wrapping her arms around my waist. “Can you hold me, Jax? Just for a little while. I know it can’t be forever, but just hold me.”
I lie back on the bed, pull her into me, and I hold her, all while my brain races with ways I can save her from the path of destruction we’ve placed her on.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Aurora
After shedding the weight of my secret, I’m so much lighter. I always thought telling someone would make me feel dirty or ashamed, but I feel neither of these things. Maybe I just needed the right person to talk to.
I wipe the lingering tears from my cheeks and revel in Jax’s warmth behind me. It’s difficult to lie beside a man who saved me from freezing to death in a refrigerated truck when he’s stuck inside the body of the man who put me there, but I know they aren’t the same. Jax doesn’t want to harm me. He protects me in ways no one else has. As strange as it sounds, the same can be said for Tobin. Jax is my safe place to discuss my feelings, and Tobin is my safe place to explore my sexual desires without judgment.
Kane is the only danger.
Jax’s arm drapes over my side, his hand resting on my stomach. Cuddling with Jax somehow feels so natural despite this completely unnatural situation. I don’t know why he bothered to save me, though. I’m fairly certain I’ll end up in that freezer again, especially after seeing the body back there. He can’t stop Kane. I got lucky this time, but I’ve never been a lucky person. If it happens again, I’m fucked.
Pup jumps onto the bed and curls into a fluffy ball by Jax’s hand. She whined incessantly when I first returned to the truck, almost as if she could sense just how close to death I’d come. Now that I’m warm and safe, she’s content. I close my eyes and run my fingers through her soft fur.
