“Everett did it.”
Reese’s jaw hardened. “And…that was him the other day? When you—when he?—”
He couldn’t seem to finish his sentence, just cut off and let the silence eat the rest of it. His thumb moved over damaged tissue that had healed horribly, tracing a memory that hadn’t healed at all.
“Yeah,” I said. “That was him.”
“Why would he do something like this? Was it an accident?”
“No, it wasn’t an accident. Please stay away from him. I mean it, Reese, he’s not good. He’ll hurt you if?—”
I paused, unsure of what to say—which was a first, because I never really thought before I spoke. Or if I did, it was to calculate the perfect weapon of words that would pull the strongest negative reaction from someone. It wasn’t to express concern, not unless the person I was expressing it to was Val.
I didn’t want to admit that I liked Reese in a way I didn’t really understand myself because then he would stop touching me. He’d pull away from me for good.
“Just stay away from him. Please.”
He didn’t respond. It was so quiet in here that all I could hear was my own beating heart.
I clutched his hand and squeezed. “Reese. Promise me you’ll stay away from him. I’m serious. He will fucking hurt you.”
I wanted to glue myself to Reese’s side and make sure that could never happen.
“Okay! Jesus, I promise,” he said with a wealth of exasperation. “I don’t understand, why would he—I mean, the article I read said?—”
His eyes widened, and he covered his mouth with his hand.
So hehadlooked me up.
I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed or flattered. But if he’d read all those horrible lies about me and still believed me now, that had to mean something, right?
“I wouldn’t believe everything you read. Or hear. A lot of it’s just not true,” I said, staring into his wide eyes and hoping he’d believemeover what he’d read.
He lowered his hand and swallowed, then bit down on his bottom lip before asking, “I don’t understand why he would hurt you like that. Was it an accident?” He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair, looking away from me. “Never mind, sorry, that’s really fucking rude of me to?—”
“He did it because he hates me.” Reese’s gaze darted to mine, and his grip on my cheek tightened. “Because he believes I was adopted to replace his twin who had died a few years earlier. And on top of that, Albert and Evelyn would always talk about how much we looked alike, and he hated that. He still does, but he’s happier now that he’s…made some changes.”
The horrified expression on Reese’s face was a reminder that while this type of behavior from Everett was normal to me—because I was used to it after so many years with him—it really wasn’t normal at all.
“What the fuck?” he rasped, his horror slowly shifting to anger. “What thefuck? How is he not behind bars? Are you fucking kidding me? Hold on, hold on—” He scooted closer, and he was so lost in his fury that I wasn’t sure he realized just how close he was to me now. “You’re fucking telling me that everyone thinks you did this to yourself and no one knows it was your brother? How is that possible? I don’t understand how he could’ve gotten away with something like this. This is—” His eyes drifted across my scar, and he stroked it gently with his thumb even though his gaze was burning with a ferocity that was…
Honestly, it was really fucking hot.
His anger on my behalf was starting to turn me on, the heat of it slipping under my skin. His accent had gotten so much thicker, and the gold in his eyes was blazing with his vehemence.
Fuck. No one had ever gotten this upset about something that happened to me before. This new feeling, this strange joy at him getting so worked up over me, began filling me up.
I wondered how mad he’d get if I told him everything Everett had ever done to me.
“This is unforgivable,” he growled. I wanted to let him keep going forever, just listen to him raging about the injustice of my treatment for hours. “Dakota, we need to tell everyone it wasn’t you. We need to fix this, I can’t?—”
“Reese.” I had to stop him because he was getting himself really worked up. His breathing was ragged and his face was so red he looked practically feverish. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago. I tried telling Albert when it first happened, but Everett had already convinced everyone that I’d done it to myself. It didn’t help that I’d just had a breakdown on stage in front of bunch of people, either. I think he knew that.”
Reese placed his other hand on my cheek, cupping my face. He was up on his knees leaning into me, and holy fucking shit, was he going to kiss me?
“I don’t care if it happened yesterday or twenty fucking years ago, he needs to be held accountable for hurting you like that. It’s not okay that he just got away with it! Fuck your parents, fuck everyone, they can go to hell for not believing you. I’ll fucking kill him?—”
“No!” His lips parted at my panicked shout, so I softened my voice and said, “No, you can’t—just don’t go near him, okay? Please? If you see him, turn around and walk the other way.”
