“You don’t know men like that.” I shake my head. “They don’t only take what they want and leave happy. They get greedy.”
“You don’t know what I know, Griffin.”
Hearing my name paired with the way she throws her hair over her shoulder, distracts me from the tension between us. I can't stop myself from fixating on her mouth.
“You know nothing about me. I know this is a shitty situation. I know they aren’t going to be nice about this. But I also know that it’s bigger than me. I tried standing up to him and you saw where it got me. So excuse me if I’m doing the only thing I can to keep it from happening again!” She glares up at me. Her chest is heaving and flushed.
“Like hell I’m gonna sit here while you become their plaything. You think they’re gonna leave you alone because you gave them what they wanted once? They got a taste of somethin’ good.” I’m so close now I'm towering over her. “They’re not gonna be satisfied with your cooperation. Not for long. Men like that always want more. They’ll use you up until you’re nothin’. It’ll be easier if you bend over and spread your legs.”
She shrinks, withdrawing into herself right in front me. Closing her eyes, she blows out a shuddered breath. She shakes as the memories flood in, playing through her head like a horror film on endless repeat.
“Dammit,” I step back so fast you’d think I burned myself. “I’m sorry.” Guilt wraps around my heart like a vice. “I didn’t...” The urge to reach out to her is warring with the knowledge that she’ll probably flinch like she’s been stung again. I stay where I am, torn between giving her space and wanting to haul her close so I can hold her until she stops looking so goddamn broken.
“Hey.” My voice is softer this time, quieter. “Look at me. Please?”
“I threatened him.” She covers her face, as she retreats even more.
“Threatened who?” My fingers twitch. The urge to wrap them around someone’s throat is unbearable. “The guy that did this to you?”
“It was my punishment for standing up to him,” she mutters.
I go absolutely still. The air itself feels like it has frozen around me. My breath comes slow, too slow. I have to manually stop myself from exploding.
“Bullshit, and you know it. He would have taken from you anyway.” I take a second, then make a decision. “Name,” I snarl. “Give me his fuckin’ name.”
“He never told me his name.” She opens her eyes.
The blue-green hue almost glassy, the whites engulfing them. She’s terrified of what they will do if I try to stop them. I rub the scars on my knuckles again.
“Then we find out.” I’ve already decided. “You got security footage? Phone records? Anyway to track them down?”
She shakes her head. And then she does something I didn’t expect. She tells me what happened. The whole story. I listen quietly but hearing it out loud is a lesson in restraint I never knew I needed. It’s exactly what I thought. Alexei Sokolov’s fucking goons expanding territories and shaking down locals. The guilt and rage burn through me again like acid in my veins. She’s wrong though. What happened to her didn’t happen because she told them no. It would have happened eventually even if she did everything they said. These men don’t give a fuck who they destroy.
“I fought but...” She looks down at her broken nails.
She’s so tough, this tiny spitfire. She’s a woman cornered by monsters and forced to fight back with the little she has. My hands are clenched into fists and my muscles are rigid. I want to commit violence so bad I can taste it. She’s battered and exhausted in her home that no longer feels safe and still so damn brave, planning to find a way to beat them on her own. Her nextwords cut even deeper and I have to stop myself before I put my fist through her wall. I feel restless with the need to act, to deal with this in the only way men like me know how.
“The other two planned to take their turn until I agreed to do what they wanted. The leader, the one who...” Tears well up in her eyes. “He said they’d be back with the details. And they left. It happened because I said no. Because I stood up to them. He said he was teaching me a lesson in respect. If you fight them—”
“They aren’t teachin’ you respect,” I rumble. “They’re teachin’ you fear. And they think it worked.” I meet her gaze. “But it didn’t, did it? ‘Cause here you are still fightin’.”
“They can’t have Moonglow.” She looks at the floor. “I only need to figure it out. If you get involved they will kill us both. There’s no point in risking your life over this too.”
I watch her closely and wonder what happened that makes her so damn determined to fight this battle alone.
I shake my head. “You really think it’s smart to play along before you get another chance to run? They won’t give you a minute to catch your breath before they’re back on your doorstep.” I want her to let me fight with her; to convince her she won’t survive this on her own.
“I don’t have any other choice,” she says defiantly. “I can collect evidence, names, intel. They can use my stockroom for meetings and I can put in recording devices. I can keep track of the money I help them launder and the amounts. I can do something.” She cranes her neck to look up at me. “This isn’t the kind of thing where I turn the guy in for assaulting me. Another asshole will take his place next week. I have to get enough to take them all down in one go. And even then I’m probably going to end up dead. But my store is all I have.”
I’m torn between admiration and frustration, because that is the most reckless, fucked up, gutsy as hell plan I’ve ever heard. I sit down on the couch across from her and rub the stubble onmy chin, wanting to know her story. She’s truly prepared to die for this store. She had the option to run and hide and she chose to stay and fight. It’s terrifying and respectable, all at the same time.
“You think they won’t sniff out a recordin’ device?” I grind my teeth. “These aren’t street thugs, they’re professionals. You get caught with intel, and they won’t just kill you.” I lean forward. “They’ll make sure it takes days.”
The idea of walking away from her now is unthinkable. I’d much rather she let me hunt them all down and make sure they’re buried six feet under for what they did to her. But I can tell she’s not going to agree to that. Yet.
“Fine.” I give in against my better judgment. “You want intel? Names? Proof for someone big enough to take them down for good? Then let me fuckin’ help.”
“No.” She squares her shoulders, shaking her head. “I’m not dragging someone else down with me.”
