“Don’t,” I snap, and she jumps, which makes me feel ten times lower than an asshole. “Don’t say that. You aren’t stupid.” I tuck a piece of her long, dark-blonde hair behind her ear.
“Yes, I am. I knew as soon as I walked inside, I should have turned back around and left. I knew better.”
“Where, Rory?” Dustin prods her.
Aurora heaves a huge intake of air, and I wrap my arm around her, letting her tilt her head to rest it against my chest.
“I stay at the library most nights when I don’t have to work. I hate going home. It was bad before when Mom was there, but now she’s gone, my sister has gotten worse. Angelica had some guy over. They trashed the place. They were both high and drunk. There were beer and drugs everywhere. She wanted money. I told her no. The guy she was with cornered me in the hallway.”
Dustin, Prez, and I look at each other, a trifecta of pure rage at the image of some sleazy fucker putting his hands on Aurora. But we soon find out, that’s not the worst of it.
“He was naked. He started to get turned on when he pushed me up against the wall. He hit me.” Her fingers press harder into the frozen bag of peas. “As soon as I had the chance, I kneed him in the balls and ran like hell.”
“Motherfucker is going to die,” Dustin shouts, spinning around and raking his hands through his hair, pulling at the ends.
“Get in line,” I tell him. I kiss the side of her head. “Aurora, did he do anything else?” I need to make sure.
She lifts her face, those startling blue eyes looking right at me. “No. I kneed him and ran, then texted you.”
Oh, thank Christ.
I ease the peas off her cheek. There’s enough light from the streetlights and gas station to allow me to see the slight swelling on her face and the cut on her bottom lip. I feather a kiss over her bruise. Her eyes flutter close and I press my forehead to hers.
“Come back to my place. Stay the night or however long you need,” I tell her.
“I can’t do that, JD.”
“Yes, you can, and you’re going to do just that.”
“I agree with JD. You can’t go back to that apartment. We should call the police and report that son of a bitch.”
Aurora actually laughs. “Dustin, the police don’t care about what happens to someone like me.”
“We care and we will make them care,” he argues.
I can tell she’s thinking something over by the way she bites the inside of her cheek.
“What is it?”
“I think I know where I can go. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it first. Will you take me there?”
“Sunshine, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I would follow you to the ends of the earth.”
Chapter 13
“When you said your sister was a bitch, you didn’t mention that she was an abusive bitch.”
Fallon leans back against the wall of the family room, his arms crossed over his chest, looking as imposing as he did when I first met him. Trevor left to go back to the apartment to get my bike. It’s the only thing I have left of Cam’s, and I don’t trust my sister not to try and hock it for money. Neither Fallon nor Trevor asked about the bruise on my face. Trevor acknowledged it somewhat before he left when he gently cupped my face and brushed his thumb across the swelling.
I didn’t know how to explain to JD, Dustin, and Prescott about my possible sibling relationship to Trevor and Fallon Montgomery. I just gave JD the address and helped him navigate where to go. I don’t think Dustin or Prescott have blinked once since we arrived.
“It’s fine. I can handle it.”
He lifts off the wall and stalks over. “Not anymore. She’ll never lay another hand on you.”
I meet his stubbornness with my own. “She didn’t. It was the naked guy she was banging for the evening.”
JD tenses up beside me, but I plow on.
