Jack’s response sounded more like a growl than a man’s voice. Stormy-eyed, he pulled the Hummer off the parkway at the next exit, and parked next to a gas station-convenience store. Jase stayed right behind them. Jack got out of the vehicle and approached Jase’s car. They spoke for a moment, then Jack motioned for Zoe to get out.
Zoe slunk further into the front seat and stared at the roof.Okay, you pissed him off. Mission accomplished. Now what?
He crossed his arms across his chest and waited. When she didn’t move, he opened the passenger door.
“Get out so I can talk to you. You’re impossible today. I don’t feel comfortable stopping here but I can’t drive when you’re like this.”
“You know, Jack, you can be pretty unreasonable too. Every time I try to explain stuff to you, you get mad.” Her throat tightened and she squeezed her eyes shut, willing the tears back into her head.
“Crying won't solve anything. Get out and talk to me.” Jack reached up, cupped her butt, and tugged her forward. He lifted her by the waist and their bodies rubbed intimately as she dropped to the ground. “Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”
Zoe wished she had nothing to confess except her blossoming love. Why had she brought this up to begin with? Erina peeked her head over the seat, and Zoe remembered.
“You won't want to stay with me if I tell you.” She looked down and fidgeted with a button on his shirt.
Jack pulled up on her chin. “Tell me what’s bothering you. Whatever it is, at least give me the chance to try and fix it.”
Fix it?She shook her head. There was no fixing the brokenness inside her. “I c-can’t. You’ll despise me.”
“Never.” He cupped her cheeks with his palms and shook his head vehemently.
She needed to just spit it out. Get it out of the way, so it wouldn’t hang between them. She took a deep breath.
“I was abused as a kid.” She bit her lip hard and tasted blood. Her throat constricted. She looked over to the vehicle where Erina watched them with wide, uncertain eyes. “I was a bit younger than the girl when it started. My father–” She winced. “Now I know he was my adoptive father, but it doesn’t make it any less wrong.”
“He hit you?”
“No.”
Zoe knew when he understood because his face turned white and his breath came out in a hiss.
“Fuck.” Jack scrubbed his fingers through his hair and blew out a long breath. “Did he…did he rape you?”
“No, but, in a way, it was worse. He touched me. Always and often. It went on for years. As long as I can remember until I finally left home.” She hunted his expression and only saw eyes that were filled with silent compassion. That gave her courage to continue. “I’ve never told anybody how young I was. Not even my therapist. I was nine or ten, maybe less. I honestly don’t remember. I was too little to even understand the nature of that kind of touching. He told me it was normal and that he loved me.”
“Didn’t your mother know?”
“She walked in on it more than once, but pretended she saw nothing.” Zoe frowned, pursed her lips together and squeezed her eyes shut. Memories sucked.
“Did you ever try to tell someone?”
Zoe studied the ant hole at her feet. She sympathized with how they worked like hell to fix damage that could never be undone.
“I tried to confront my mother in my teens and get her to help me. She refused. So when I was old enough I left. I’ve been on my own ever since.”
Jase tapped the roof and lifted his eyebrows.
“I’m sorry angel, but we need to get back on the road.” Jack hugged her tight and then motioned for her to get back in the car.
When they were on the road for a while, he asked into the lengthening silence, “Did you try the authorities?”
“Why? My mother was under his power, too. She’d lie to protect him. It would be my word against hisandhers. I had no proof.”
“How did you survive?”
“I’d been stealing a little from his bank account for years and had his bank card. I cleaned him out, went to New York, and started working at the only thing I knew how to do. Breaking and entering networks.” She paused and grinned. “Craigslist is full of opportunities for an enterprising sort. That’s where I met Nan. We were breaking into the same network.”
Jack didn’t smile back. He just drove with his jaw ticking.
