Page 135 of Avenging Azalea

She was one of those large ones with floppy ears. I’d never pictured myself with a rabbit, but Bex had been the best patient and was oddly calming to hold. After locking the cage, I washed my hands and headed straight for Matt’s office before he could slip out and avoid me altogether.

Titus’s words had echoed through my head all night, and like it or not, he was right about threats being everywhere. I’d been naive because he’d sheltered me from all the ugly, but I’d made up my mind to be with him. That meant I could no longer look the other way and had to accept that things were not always going to be fun and easy.

Mending the tension between Matt and me might not fix what Titus had done, but it would keep things from getting worse around here. Not that I expected much. After the scare Titus had given him, I doubted Matt would be eager for a heart-to-heart. I still couldn’t believe Titus had broken into his condo and put a gun to his head. Jesus.

Matt was at his computer when I walked in—without knocking—and closed the door. I shook my head as he opened his mouth. The worried look in his eyes said he was about to kick me out, and I needed to say this first.

“Titus confessed to me what he did. I want you to know that I didn’t have a clue that he was going to do that to you. I certainly didn’t send him, and just so you know, he only did it because he saw you hug me and kiss my cheek in the parking lot and got the wrong idea. I’m not condoning what he did, and I told him off for treating you like that.”

Stepping away from the door, I sat down and took it as a good sign that he hadn’t said anything yet. His eyes had lost the cold hostility.

“If you’ll hear me out, I’d like to tell you something that very few people know about me. It’s to show you that I trust you, value our friendship, and it may help you see why Titus is so protective.”

Matt sat back in his chair and tapped his pen on the desk.

“Alright, but before you do, I want to ask you something.”

“Okay.”

“After Titus visited me, I looked him up. There is nothing specific about him, but there are lots of rumors about his family being part of the mafia. Is that true?”

I stared at Matt, not saying yes or no. When the silence stretched, his eyes grew wide, and he blew out a long stream of air.

“Wow. Your silence says it all. How do you trust him?”

“Let me tell you my story.”

Matt set his pen down and crossed his arms.

“Okay, go ahead.”

“I didn’t grow up around here. I’m sure you’ve picked up on my accent. My mother loved me, but my father died when I was quite young, and for a long time, it was just the two of us. We were barely scraping by, and then one day she married my stepfather. He had a great job with a home in a middle-class neighborhood. For the first time, we always had food on the table, and I went to school without fear.”

I shifted in my seat, not wanting to get into details, but I had to give Matt enough that he would appreciate what I was trying to convey. Looking down at my hands, I didn’t stop them from kneading together. It was an old habit that I thought I had broken, but some things were harder to let go.

“Things took a turn when my stepfather started gambling. I can’t say if he always had or if it was a new thing, but he got into debt over and over again. At first, it wasn’t really a problem, at least not for me, but he and my mother fought all the time. Just before my fourteenth birthday, things began to spiral.” I cleared my throat but couldn’t sit still. I stood up to pace the small room. “That was the first time he came to my room.” I looked at Matt and waited for him to catch on. His mouth eventually dropped, and his arms uncrossed. “I’ll spare you the details.”

“Oh my god, Fawn…”

I held up my hand, stopping him. There it was, the look of pity that I hated so much.

“Don’t…please. Whatever you planned to say, don’t. I just need you to understand the whole picture. I’m not looking for sympathy.” When he didn’t try to interrupt me, I continued. I needed to get this off my chest as quickly as possible before I chickened out. “I was fourteen when he ran up a bunch of debt with some very shady people. He’d already sold everything we had of worth, other than the house and car, and that was when he dragged me to a shady motel room for the first time to be…used as payment.”

Saying it out loud had my heart racing out of control. The room felt stuffy as my body heated. Matt noticed me pulling at the top of my scrub and stood.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, leaving the door open to let in some fresh air. The panic that was trying to surface began to subside. Matt walked back in with a bottle of water.

“Thank you,” I said as he handed it to me.

I cracked the lid and drank down a few large gulps. My dry throat instantly felt better.

Before closing the door, Matt let Winston and Sheba into the room. He sat on the edge of his desk, watching as both dogs nudged at me. I patted their sweet heads, and the touch of their soft fur calmed my mind.

“I thought they might help. Are you okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I will be. Thanks, this isn’t easy to talk about.”

“I’m terrified to find out how Titus got involved,” he said, and I shook my head.