“I told him about Luis,” Addie says softly, pulling back from me. “You have to tell them.”
“Riley Barry guarded the door for them,” I sigh.
“I think that it’s time McCreuger confessed to the police then,” Miles grunts.
“I have paper,” Marilyn rasps, stepping forward. She’s not wearing heels today, and I can’t believe no one noticed her. Even Miles turns in shock, and she shakes her head. “I’ll block off this hallway. No one will come down here. Levon has to be losing his mind after I told him to hurry up. I got way more than I bargained for when I opened the door to the locker room.”
Santo snorts, shaking his head, and I can only imagine how many dicks Marilyn must have seen.
Handing Santo her clipboard and pen, she steps back and glares at McCreuger.
“This sport has some serious issues,” she mutters, shaking her head. “I’ll radio to maintenance to close off the public facing entrance. Caelia, you were close to the staff sections. If you’d kept going, you’d have been safe.”
“He grabbed my hair,” I explain, pulling on the pins of my ruined buns so that it comes tumbling down. Maybe it’ll help hide the fact that my face is so bruised. “I never would have made it.”
Marilyn bites back whatever she has to say, turning away as she pulls out her radio, speaking into it to seal the hallway.
Miles crouches in front of me where Addie sits close to me, his fingers on my chin to push my face up. His thumb rubs over my cheek, blowing out a breath as he gazes at me.
“I can see the red spot on McCreuger’s face where you headbutted him,” he mutters. “You’re insane, you know that?”
My lips twitch in amusement, because he’s not wrong. All I wanted to do was hurt McCreuger and survive my run-in with him. I feel as if I’m going through a rollercoaster of emotions right now, and none of it makes much sense.
“Fuck, I don’t think I’d be able to survive if something happened to you,” he says, hugging me. Santo pushes my hair off my shoulder so he can bury his face where my scent is strongest behind me.
“Me either,” he says.
“Me three,” Addie sniffles, which makes me burst into tears. “Sorry, that was my fault. We always trigger the other person when we start to cry.”
“It’s true,” I wail, leaning against Santo’s chest.
“Write it all down,” he says, pressing the clipboard into my lap.
“Maybe skip the incriminating parts,” Addie adds, making me laugh. It’s unhinged and slightly hysterical, a testament to how shaky I feel. “Keep breathing for me, okay?”
Nodding, I take the pen from Santo as well and begin writing down what happened to me when I was eighteen. The tears flow as I remember it all, and Miles sits beside me with his back against the wall. McCreuger remains passed out, his tooth on the ground still, where I try not to glance over at.
It’s disgusting and freaking me out.
“Caelia,” Levon says worriedly, running down the halls to join us.
“She’s okay,” Miles says. “Sit down but don’t bug her.”
“She’s not okay,” he growls. “McCreuger is laying on the ground and bruised all to shit. Who did that?”
“She did, and I finished it,” Miles says calmly. It’s a false calmness, and I twitch violently as I think about that. My writing is messy scrawl at this point, and I have to hope that it’s evenlegible as I keep the majority of the tears from falling on the paper.
Taking a shaky breath, I continue to write as Levon drops onto his ass in front of me. His fingers run over my ankle, helping to ground me in the midst of so much chaos in my mind. I’m trying to make sure I get down all of the details of what happened while also desperately hoping that Miles doesn’t get in trouble for this.
Swallowing hard, I flick my gaze up to meet his fierce dark blue eyes.
“Do we need to take you to the hospital?” he asks softly. There’s no anger there about why I didn’t tell him about the men who hurt me, just concern for me.
“I hate the hospital,” I admit, shuddering violently.
“You have a huge knot on your forehead,” Santo says. “Did you lose consciousness at all?”
“No,” I say, allowing Miles to take the clipboard from me. “I don’t think I’d be sitting here if I had. He was going to rape me again.”
