Rock Wedding (Rock Kiss #4) - Nalini Singh Page 0,75
girls as beautiful and as well-developed as Sarah must’ve already been. His muscles bunched, his rage returning on a black roar at the idea of her being hurt that way.
“You okay to keep talking?” Abe would never force her back into hell.
“You might as well know the rest,” she said, her head turned to one side on his chest and her arms down by her sides instead of around him. “I didn’t have any real money. Just a few dollars given to me by a cop who felt sorry for me.”
A short pause, her breathing jagged. The next words she spoke were haunted. “After hours walking down the highway alone in the dark”—echoes of fear in her voice—“I hitched a ride out of town with a trucker. And I gave him what he wanted because he told me we’d be together forever, that he’d take care of me, make sure I never had to be alone in the dark again. I’d watched men make promises to my mom and break them over and over, should’ve known not to believe him, but I was so alone and so scared.”
Abe was so far beyond anger now that there was no word to describe it. What the fuck kind of asshole took advantage of a grieving fifteen-year-old? “If you ever see him, point him out and I’ll break his nose, and you can kick him in the nuts.”
A wet laugh and Sarah’s arms slipped around him at last, as if she finally trusted that he wouldn’t let go, wouldn’t reject her. “He left me in Los Angeles two months later. Just drove out while I was using a restroom.” Nails digging into his skin. “I had such dreams of the big city, of the lights and the pretty people, but I found those things don’t exist for girls with no one.”
His gaze blood red, Abe kissed her temple, braced to hear the worst.
“I was so lonely. Easy prey for the smooth-talking predators.” Another rasping breath. “But I’d learned from my experience with the trucker, and then for the first time in my life, I had a stroke of luck. I was squatting in an abandoned building with a bunch of other kids and getting ready to run to avoid a drug dealer I already knew wanted to pimp me out, when the police raided it.”
Abe kissed her temple again, so fucking scared and angry for the girl she’d been. “That doesn’t sound like good luck.”
“The cops didn’t want to deal with us kids—they were after the narcotics den in the basement. So they handed us over to a local charity organization. Most of the others ran off first chance they got, but I stayed.” She shrugged. “I hadn’t been on the streets long enough to make friends or have other loyalties, and at least with the charity, I had a place to sleep where I didn’t have to worry about being assaulted.”
Abe could feel himself trembling within. “Sarah, sweetheart, why didn’t you ever tell me any of this?” She’d said her parents were dead and that she’d been on her own for a while, never once mentioning that she’d been on her own from the time she was fifteen. “Why, baby?”
Sarah pulled away, her movements jerky as she walked to the sink and began to rinse the dishes, put them into the dishwasher. Abe resisted the temptation to demand more from her, resisted the temptation to be the raging bull he so often was. Instead, he helped clear away the detritus of their meal, then grabbed the magnetic notepad she had on her fridge.
It was one of those novelty items with Shopping List in fancy font on the top. Below, Sarah had jotted down a few items in her distinctive handwriting with its wide loops and generous curves. “Milk,” Abe said, noting it down. “Eggs. Ham, since I ate all of it. Bacon too.” Please, Sarah, talk to me. I won’t let you down this time. “Doughnuts. Cake. Chocolate-covered pretzels.”
“Abe.” Sarah finally spoke, shooting him a scowl at the same time. “Just put vegetables. I’ll pick from whatever they have at the Farmers Market.”
Wanting to hold her again, he forced himself to stay in place. “What else?”
“I’m nearly out of flour.” Dishes all stacked in the dishwasher, Sarah started to open and shut cupboards, calling out items for him to add to the list as she went. “I just wanted to fit in,” she said in the middle of checking the cupboard in