“Rue, do you think you can explain to Monty and me what happened to you as a child?”
Rue wasn’t a fidgeter, so Monty’s nerves stretched to screaming point at how Rue plucked at the velvet throw, his gaze transfixed on the seam like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. He watched as the man seemed to cave in on himself—shrink.
Monty chewed the inside of his cheek to stop himself from prompting Rue when it was evident he was finding this situation difficult. Monty’s chest hurt. The struggle to take a breath was real.
Kendrick shook his head when Monty gave in fifteen seconds later, his lips parting to speak. He closed them and sucked his lower lip in between his teeth, clamping down on that sucker to do as Kendrick wanted—give Rue the time he needed.
Seconds felt like hours as the silence continued, and Rue never once looked at either man, making the sub he’d eaten plunge unpleasantly around his guts.
About to demand somebody say something with how his mouth watered with the desire to vomit, Rue spoke.
“When I was about ten, my parents, who were divergent, got asked to join a crash. They were so happy that they didn’t question why a crash without divergents would suddenly accept them. Then, not long after Mom got pregnant, the crash was super excited until my brother was born.”
His actual parents, he’s talking about his actual parents. A brother? He had a brother before…
Kendrick made a noise in the back of his throat that was more wounded animal than human and effortlessly lifted Rue onto his lap so that his back pressed into his chest, wrapping an arm around his middle. He spread his legs to allow Rue’s to sit between his thighs. Then Kendrick tugged Monty to their sides.
It wasn’t rightly comfortable, but Monty didn’t move. He nestled closer, terror growing as Rue’s breathing became labored.
“I didn’t know at the time but there was a blood test being developed to identify divergent children. I’m sure Mom and Dad would never have agreed to them testing Wade if they had known.”
Wade.Tears burned his nose as they slipped down his cheeks when his mind skipped to what was coming, without his permission.He had a brother called Wade… before.
If Rue heard his hiccupped sob, he saw no signs of it as he continued to speak stiltedly, stopping and starting.
“They wanted me… wanted to breed me with other crash members. Their numbers were failing due to infertility. They weren’t concerned that my parents were divergent because they saw me as a miracle. Strong.” He stared straight ahead, his own tears dripping off his chin unnoticed. “I wasn’t strong, or I’d have been able to stop them… stop them from coming and stampeding through my home… through my family until they were nothing but pulp on the floor. I wasn’t enough… to save my brother.”
The anguish brought Monty up to his knees. His cry came out as a croak of distress at the words plowing into him harder than a battering ram. He straddled Rue’s lap facing both men, unconcerned that he was crushing anyone, when they’d been in the position before. He took hold of icy cheeks, his lips trembling as he worked to hold on to the riot of emotions Rue’s distress caused, or the bloody visual that wanted to paint a macabre picture in his mind, one that Rue had lived with.
Used to shield himself behind.
Oh, goddesses.
Monty could suddenly see exactly why Rue held back. “You answer me this.” He came in so close he could feel Rue’s ragged breaths hitting his wet skin. “How many of them were there?” The urgency pushed him to prove Rue wrong.
“It does—”
“No. No, don’t dismiss it. How many?”I wasn’t enough.Did he believe he wasn’t worthy of… love? It chilled Monty to his very core, despite the rage that fired his soul to seek out the motherfuckers and… there was nothing worse he could think of.
“Ten…”
“Rhino’s?” Monty shuddered, but persisted, needing Rue to hear himself. Fuck, ten rhinos on a rampage, he couldn’t even imagine the carnage. The nightmares such an act would cause for the boy Rue was.
“Y-yes.”
Kendrick moved to grip hold of Monty’s waist, bringing them closer together. Monty didn’t look away from Rue, but he felt the restraint Kendrick was using to stop from hurting him. The fingers dug in as if trying to keep hold of something, to stop the need to crush something. It was how Monty felt.
“As an adult, do you believe you could defeat ten rhinos at the same time?” He had to make Rue see beyond the past pain. The hesitation gave him hope.
“I… no,” Rue whispered, barely loud enough for Monty to hear.
“No. You couldn’t save them, but I’m damn positive your parents would be happy you escaped. That’s important to so many people.” Monty leapt off the cliff without a backward look. “To me.” His hands trembled as he held Rue, kissing him softly.
“I love you. You’re enough for me.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kendrick
