“I hacked his email. Naylor was up for parole a few months back, the odds of him getting out were stacked against him, but our good friend the mayor put in averygood word for him with the current warden. Seems he still has a few strings to pull from his warden days.”
“Why would he do that?” Sof asks.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” I say.
“My guess is whatever Grimes was using to blackmail Watson, Naylor’s doing the same thing,” Drew explains. “Why else would he help release a guy like him?”
“Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. We need to find her, now!” I shout.
“I’m on it.” Cru sets to work on his laptop, doing what he does best.
Hacking. Tracking.
“Why is he doing this?” Sof asks, her bottom lip trembling. “What does he want with Kaia?”
“Because of me.” I swallow. “For what I did to him.”
“What did you do?” Jett asks.
I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it does.”
“Just fucking leave it! I said it doesn’t matter!” I roar, the room falling silent from my outburst.
I drop onto the couch, tugging at the handfuls of hair balled up in my fist hard enough I feel some rip away from my scalp. I welcome the burn.
“I—I can’t.” My voice cracks, my throat closing up like someone’s got their hand around it, squeezing.
“Kill, whatever it is…” Myles trails off.
I’ve done my damnedest to keep this secret buried but I know what needs to happen. I need to tell them the truth.
“He…” I inhale deeply, trying to steady my racing heart, working myself up to say the words out loud.
I’ve done it once. I told Kaia. I can do it again.
“While we shared a cell, he… he raped me.”
Sof gasps. Cru stops typing, and a deathly silence falls over the room as every set of eyes fall on me.
I don’t look up.
I can’t bring myself to meet anyone’s gaze, the shame of my admission seeping into every fibre of my body. I never wanted it to come to this. I never wanted them to find out the truth. I don’t want them to see me differently, but it’s inevitable now.
“Jesus Christ, kid…” Ray mutters.
I scrub a hand over my face. “He took advantage of me. I was young,scared… He did everything he could to break me during those first few months. The things he did to me, and made me do to him…” I shake the memories away as they begin to surface. “One day it got too much and I hacked off hisdick with a shard of metal I found. He vowed one day he’d make me pay and now he has Kaia and…Fuck...” My face falls into my palms. “That’s why we have to find her. Knowing she’s with that monster, I…”
A hand lands on my shoulder and I look up to find Myles there. “Fuck, Kill. Why didn’t you tell us?”
I shake my head. “I couldn’t. The shame…”
Myles grips my shoulders and turns me towards him, forcing me to look up at him. “There is nothing to be ashamed of. You thought we’d judge you? Think any less of you? We’re your brothers, man. We’re yourfuckingfamily. Your pain isourpain, we share the burden and we fight for each other.”
“Damn fucking straight,” Alex agrees, the others all echoing his words and the weight pressing against my chest lifts.
“If he hurts her… I’ll never forgive myself.”
