I turned to the woman. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Kay, this isn’t easy for any of us, but—”
That was Gwen’s voice. She was on the other side of me, sitting in a chair in the corner. I took a second to look around. I wasn’t in the hospital waiting room…I was in the E.R. My eyes drifted down. I was still fully clothed but sitting on a bed. A hand touched my arm. A soft, smaller hand. I followed it up until I met Haley’s kind, green eyes.
“Hi, Kay,” she whispered.
“What the fuck is going on?”
The doctor murmured something to Sullie about trauma and memory loss.
“Kay,” Gwen said, coming to me as Haley shifted to my front so I could see both of them. My best friends.
“We love you. You know that? Whatever has happened to you doesn’t make us love you any less. You are always our beautiful, strong friend. Okay?”
I leaned back. “You guys are scaring me.”
“Reliving something horrible can be scary,” Haley said gently, giving me a sad smile.
I swallowed. “Where is he?”
“On a special floor for prisoners.”
Panic coursed through me, zapping me out of the funk I was in. I tried to slide off the bed, but they stopped me.
“Darling, they need to do that rape kit,” Gwen urged gently.
I froze and looked at her. “What the fuck are you talking about? I wasn’t raped!”
Haley’s chin wobbled. “Karina, Ray Romano said he sent men—”
Realization dawned. Romano’s words he spit out to try and get a rise out of me…and then Collin stepped in.
They thought that I was raped when I was traveling with Collin.
I shook my head and looked to the floor. “Do you honestly think he would do something like that to me? Let anyone touch me?”
“You were missing for three months, Kay,” my uncle murmured. I pushed off the bed and away from my friends.
“Where is Collin?” I snapped.
“Waiting for surgery. Then, once he's out of recovery, he is going to prison,” Jer answered simply.
“No!” I shouted as I darted for the curtains that separated the beds. My brother grabbed me, but I turned and yanked free of his hold. “Stop! What happened to me was a long time ago—”
“Time can—”
I pointed to the doctor. “You say another fucking word, belittling me and what I know, and I will break your jaw,” I hissed. Her eyes went wide, and Gwen whistled under her breath. The room fell silent, and the doctor excused herself in a rush. Probably going to get a sedative because I was about to get locked up in a straitjacket.
Like. Hell.
I turned to my family. “Collin is a good man. He loves me. He protects me. Heavengedme. What that dark, twisted Romano fucker said about me earlier…” I trailed off to suck in a breath. It was time to tell them the truth. I was done hiding behind my fears. I just wanted to get to Col. My eyes drifted across theroom, meeting each pair of eyes briefly before I looked to the ground.
“I was raped ten years ago.”
Collin’s eyes flashed in my vision, his anger, his protectiveness. His promise.
Tears welled in my eyes, and I let them fall freely, landing on the scuffed hospital floor. When I looked up, each one of them flinched. I found it difficult to tell them this, it was much easier for me to admit my pain and nightmares to my man—a man consumed in darkness. The irony of it.
