spot on the floor. He grew worried she would change her mind and run from the room, and then finally she spoke. “She was my best friend.” A tear ran down her face.
Dr. Rawlins waited a moment and then asked. “What was her name?”
“Jenny.” A few seconds and then, “We met in kindergarten. We were inseparable. Sleepovers every weekend at her house or mine. She was like a sister. My parents said they had two daughters instead of one. So did hers.” Bex smiled a little, but then her face dropped and she sucked in a breath.
Bracken was beyond certain of two things. Jenny was dead and Bex had been there when it happened.
“We went to a party that night. We were sixteen. I’d just gotten my license. We thought we were so old.”
Dr. Rawlins smiled gently. “We all think we are old when we reach sixteen, don’t we?” A few seconds went by again. “Where was the party?”
“At a friend’s house. Her parents were out of town. It was crowded. The typical teenage party with far too many people. Underage drinking. People making out all over the house. It was the first time we’d gone to one of these.”
Bracken suspected it was also the last. Fuck.
“Our high school was kind of large, but I was still surprised to see several people we didn’t know.” Bex lifted her hands and ran them over her face before clasping them in front of her. She didn’t lower her legs but at least she wasn’t balled up quite as tight. Or maybe this was worse. What did he know?
“These two guys were flirting with us. We had no experience with guys. We were both late bloomers. We’d spent ten years often just the two of us. We’d sometimes point out cute guys at lunch, but we hadn’t dated yet.”
Dr. Rawlins swallowed, as visibly concerned as Bracken was with the path they were headed down, but she said nothing, and Bex wasn’t looking at her, so she wasn’t aware of her reaction.
“We shouldn’t have left the living room with them. They weren’t even from our school. They were from another high school. Why did we leave the room?” A tear ran down her face, but she made no move to wipe it away.
Bracken’s heart was breaking. He wanted to run from this office. Run ten miles. He would do anything to stop this train wreck, but the only way to stop it was for it to never have happened in the first place.
He was a grown man. He’d seen a lot of horror in his chosen career. More than he cared to remember. But none had ever come this close to his own door and touched him like this.
Dr. Rawlins spoke. “You were young, Bex. It was a party. You said it was crowded. Whatever happened you couldn’t have anticipated.”
Bex nodded slightly. More tears fell.
“What happened next?” Dr. Rawlins prompted.
Bex swallowed, her spine stiffening as if she was going to spew it all out there on a breath. “We went into a guest room, giggling, flirting, talking. We both thought we were just going to make out with these guys. Get our first kisses out of the way at the same time.”
More tears fell.
Bracken wanted to touch her so badly, but he held himself in check.
Bex set her hands on her head and sobbed. “I want to go back in time and not go into that room.”
“I know you do, Bex,” Dr. Rawlins soothed. “I wish you could. Can you tell us what happened?”
Bex looked like she might explode and run from the room again, but she finally drew in a breath. “As soon as they shut the door, I knew something was wrong. One of them locked the door and then slammed me against the wall. It happened so fast. He held me with one hand over my mouth and the other tight against my throat. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t.”
Now Bracken understood why Bex always seemed like she couldn’t breathe. He wanted to kill two teenage boys right about now. He fisted his hands at his sides and forced himself to remain outwardly calm. Inside he was screaming.
“I was so scared. And then he stepped to the side and angled my face so that I could see Jenny. The other guy had shoved her onto the bed. He was on top of her, straddling her. His hand over her mouth too. She was fighting him with all her strength, but