longer.
“Beautiful, tell me.”
“I told you about my brother, at least a little bit on the phone.”
I wouldn’t forget what he’d done, giving her to his friend to fuck.
“He’s always been in trouble of some kind. Cheating in school when he was a kid. A gambling ring in high school. He went to three different prep schools before he graduated because he kept getting kicked out. He went out of state for college, so I don’t know much of what he did there, but I’m sure it was a lot of the same thing. Only worse.”
I watched as her throat worked when she swallowed.
“Two years ago, he got in over his head with this guy. Owed him tons of money.” Her dark eyes met mine… then dropped,,, then she lifted her chin, so she looked at me dead-on. “I was at a family wedding. A distant cousin. One of the hotels in downtown Denver. I was leaving, going to my car in the parking garage. Cam was there with some men, but I ignored them. I… I don’t like my brother, so I always stayed away from him.”
I didn’t say anything, and I tried as hard as I fucking could not to grip her hips. I had an idea of what was coming next, and while I didn’t want to hear it, to know it had happened to her, it had to come out. Like a damn splinter under the skin.
“The men—not Cam—got in the elevator with me. They stopped it between floors and… came on to me. Said they were taking me back to their boss as payment, but they’d try me out first.” Her eyes went hazy at that, as if going back to that moment in her mind. “I… I panicked, obviously. The one who’d been touching me, I kneed in the crotch. He let go, fell to the floor. The other guy grabbed me, and I fought him. He ripped my dress. It’s a blur after that, but I jammed my stiletto into the top of his foot. It stopped him long enough, so I could push the button to get the elevator moving. I swiped all the floors, and the door opened. By then, one of them had me, and I fell. I screamed, kicked and got away. The doors closed, and I was on the valet level of the parking garage, and they’d continued down. People were there, and I got help.”
Fuck. No wonder she was scared of elevators and freaked out the first time she saw me.
She took a deep breath, all of that having come out in a rush. “The men got away.”
“And your brother?” I stroked my thumb over her cheek.
“When I told the police what happened, that my brother was behind it, my parents got involved. Got him out of the charges by saying I’d willingly gone off with the men.”
My thumb stilled, and I couldn’t help the way my fingers gripped her hip. “Your parents said that? They chose your brother over you?”
She nodded. Her hair was sloppy, as if she’d fallen asleep with it wet at some point, but I wanted to touch it, so I tucked a tendril behind her ear. “They always have.”
“You flew home on Christmas because…”
She bit her lip. “Because I was spending it alone. At least on the flight, they gave out free drinks.”
“Beautiful,” I said, drawing out the word on a sigh. I pulled her head in, our foreheads touching. I could feel her heat, her breath. “All you had to do was come to me. I was waiting for you.”
She pulled back her eyes wide with fear again. “That’s just it. I shouldn’t be here. They’ll hurt you.”
I couldn’t help my eyebrows going up. “The guys in the parking lot?”
“They said they’d been here, but I just hoped maybe they were wrong. If I kept my lights out, stayed hidden, they’d give up.”
I frowned. “You kept your lights out?”
She nodded. “I didn’t want them to know I was home—they might try to get in.”
This was so fucked up. Especially since she thought she was alone in this. Dealing with these assholes.
My mind churned through everything she said. “Wait. What do you mean they said they’d been here? You talked to them?”
Now she looked away. “They were waiting for me at the airport. They… they slashed my tires.”
I knew the men were long gone from the lot by now, Gray and the others ensuring it, but I wanted to hunt them down and