Bradley just sighed. "Fine. Chance, just remember that you invited her here."
"Dez did," Chance corrected. "I'm also not dumb enough to tell her no." So he stepped back, letting Bradley leave and Zara step into his office. As gallantly as he could, he gestured for her to take a chair, then sank down into his own. "What the fuck is going on?" he demanded.
Zara didn't even flinch from the change in his tone. "Dez was raped." Zara dropped that out there without even trying to soften it. "For days, she was put through the kind of hell that no man can ever imagine. It sucked, Chance, but Soul Reaper was there. It's the one time Jason is sure the man was directly involved in any of this. He needs her to relive it, and her? She doesn't want you to know the details."
"I don't fucking care about the details," he insisted.
"She does." Lifting a brow, Zara leaned back, her eyes trapping him. "And you would. Just think about it for a second. If you knew that they bent her over, would you stop walking up behind her? If you heard about how someone had grabbed her breast or shoved his hand into her body, could you honestly touch her that way in love? Or would it sit there in the back of your mind, ruining it, because that thing has become a secret you both share?"
His breath fell out. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because the hardest thing you can do for someone you love is not ask questions," she told him. "Chance, it doesn't matter what they did to her. It only matters that they did it. You don't need to know the how. You only need to know that it broke her, and she's trusting you to leave those demons alone. That makes you her safe space. The one man who doesn't care how her body was abused without her consent."
"Why you?" he asked again.
"Because she won't say that to you. Because I saw the tears in her eyes, and I know what that feels like. No, I wasn't raped. I had a gun to my head instead. But here's the thing. I was saved. My hero? He's the one out there walking Dez through this. He'll also show her his own scars to make it feel a little safer." She paused, her teeth catching her full lower lip. "And she asked me to explain it to you."
"She told you this?" he breathed.
Zara shook her head. "She didn't have to. The shame is still the same, and it's only made worse by showing it off. Pick her up when it's over, Chance, and don't you dare ask what happened. She doesn't want you to know the details, because then she can pretend like it never happened. That was someone else, or a bad dream, you know? But if she ever sees pity in your eyes? It will break her more than what they did."
He dropped his elbows onto his desk and then pushed his face into his raised hands. "I don't know how to do this."
"You do," Zara insisted. "You've been doing it. How long have you two been together?"
"About five years," he admitted.
She nodded. "And that means you know. It doesn't mean you have to like what happened to her. No one does, Chance! But we also know that pouring salt in a wound helps no one."
"What's your wound?" he asked. "Not what they did to you. I'm asking what it is that makes you understand her."
"I know what it's like to be truly terrified," she admitted. "To look death in the eyes and realize there's no way to stop it. I know how it lurks in the shadows of your mind afterwards, waiting for the chance to pounce. It doesn't matter what we're afraid of. The trauma is the same. I also know what it's like to find a man who can make it a little better. One who doesn't care about me because I'm broken, but in spite of it."
"That," he breathed. "Truer words have never been said, and for us it goes both ways." He made a point of dropping his eyes and letting her see him examine her this time. "You know I'm a sex addict?"
"I heard," she admitted.
He chuckled. "That bastard warned you about me, hm?"
"A few people did," she told him. "Riley was one. Murder was another. Yeah, Jason confirmed it. And no, I don't