“We know that. Does she?” North asked.
“I do,” she said quietly. “My therapist and I worked through it all. For some time I was . . . I was confused. I was young and he was my husband. He’d tell me it was my duty. I don’t know. I knew it was wrong. But he would just have my brain in such a mess that I couldn’t think properly.”
Yeah, his father had been a master manipulator. He knew that better than anyone.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” Jared told her. “I won’t come near you again if that’s what you want.”
“Jared,” North said with a sigh. “He doesn’t mean that, Angie. Believe it or not, he thinks that promise will make things better.”
“It won’t?” Jared asked.
“Fuck no. It will just make her think she did something wrong.”
The jacket moved and Angie’s pale face peered out at them. But she was staring up at North instead of Jared.
“How did you know?” she asked.
North shrugged. “I wasn’t abused in the way that you were. But I’ve had people touch me without my permission. Hurt me when I was a child. And I thought it was something I did. My fault. But it wasn’t my fault. And it certainly wasn’t yours. And you cannot blame yourself for your reaction just now. You can’t help reacting like that.”
She nodded, then turned her gaze toward Jared. “I really didn’t mean to panic. I know you’d never hurt me. But when you loomed over me, I just . . . I saw him. Fergus. I understand if you never want to touch me again.”
Jared stared at her in sadness. Then he opened his arms. “Come here, baby girl.”
For a moment he didn’t think she would move. Then she crawled out from under the coat and made her way to him. He drew her onto his lap, holding her tight and rocking her gently.
“I’m so sorry I scared you, no wait, don’t say anything,” he said when she made a protesting noise. “I know you didn’t realize it was me. And I’m not upset with you at all. All of my anger is aimed at myself. I most definitely will be touching you again.”
North handed him a blanket and her two whales. Was that what he’d gone to get before?
Okay, now Jared felt terrible for what he’d thought.
He wrapped the blanket around their girl and tucked in the two toys. Then he held her for a long time, crooning softly under his breath until he felt her slump in his arms.
“Thank you,” he said to North quietly.
“What for?”
“For supporting me. In everything. You are important. To me. To her. To us.”
North just stared at him for a long moment before nodding then turning and leaving. Jared sighed.
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
And neither was a menage relationship between three people who were filled with trauma from their pasts.
But he wouldn’t have his life any other way.
51
The next afternoon, Jared leaned back in his chair with a headache.
Fuck.
They had no leads on Beltran. He had to have been the one to have Rex killed. Sure, Jared had other enemies, so he had to keep an open mind.
Although he doubted Beltran actually killed Rex himself. He’d likely hired someone. Someone who was very good at hiding their tracks since he’d been unable to find them. North had had no luck, either.
He’d been to visit the doctor that Rex had had his appointment with. The receptionist had seen Rex leave but there had been nothing else to report. Rex had apparently gotten into his car and then disappeared.
