“Not unless you say it’s okay.”
She bites her cheek, giving me a wide berth as she sits on the bed. I wait, but her words don’t come, so I gently push.
“Who did that to you?”
“They all did... Well, not Blaze. He wasn’t home.” She scoots out of the dip my weight’s leaving in the mattress. “There’s a ballroom with an enormous rug in that mansion. Chairs and sofas line the walls... and a table with leather belts, long whips, riding crops, carpet beaters...”
“Whips?” I echo, the images filling my mind wake the merciless beast inside me. “That’s what they did?”
“They had a delivery... thirty girls about my age. Some younger. From what I understood, they’ll be sold—weresold last night at an auction.”
I nod, well versed in Blaze’s business activities.
“They seemed okay until Jax said something in Russian,” she continues, absentmindedly accordioning the comforter. “Then the girls started crying and the men... the men dragged them into the ballroom. Darius said they do it with every batch of new girls.”
A single tear slides down her cheek, but she swats it away, inhaling sharply. I’m coiled so tight my back hurts. Her words aren’t the only thing driving me wild. It’s the fact she’s had to live through this, and that, even though she’s here, right next to me, I can’t pull her into my arms and feel her relax under my touch.
“He said they break them in before they’re sold. The men all stand around the carpet...” Another pause to calm her breaking voice. “They lift one end, shove a girl or two underneath, and make them crawl.”
Fuck. I think I know where she’s going with this. The image she painted describing the room is enough to fill in the blanks. I picture Hailey under the rug. I picture those sadistic fuckers raining whips and carpet beaters down on her.
It fits. The long purple bruises down her back...
Bile scratches my throat when my imagination whirls out of control, showing me her fear, her tears, her beautiful facecontorted in pain. My hands ball into tight fists, my teeth clenched so hard they’re not far off shattering.
“They crawl until they get to the edge, and then—” Hailey continues quietly, lifting both hands to swat her tears away. “As soon as their head peeks from under the rug, whoever’s closest drags the girl out and he... and he...” She shuts her eyes tight, like she’s blocking unwanted memories. “He rapes her.”
My heart leaps out of my chest. The bruises on her back prove she was under that rug. That she went through the same ordeal the girl she describes did.
I grab her hand, to gently maneuver her onto my lap and mold her trembling body into mine, but she shakes me off, scooting away.
Fuck that hurts.
Everything hurts... what she went through, that she’s not letting me close, that she doesn’t trust me to comfort her.
“I’m so fucking sorry, Hailey...” I croak, frustration and rage layering my tone in equal measure. “You’re okay now. It’s over. I won’t let them hurt you.”
She sniffles, nodding along. I reach for her again, on instinct, and watch her flinch away, unknowingly stabbing me with a twelve-inch blade.
“They... they didn’t rape me. Blaze turned up while I was still under the rug and took me away.” Her voice softens when she mentions that motherfucker and my jaw clamps, jealousy simmering beneath my rage. It’s a separate being inside me but my overpowering relief wins the spotlight.
Sleazy fucker or not, Blaze didn’t let his men touch my girl.
I can’t begin to imagine the hell Hailey lived through under that rug or the scars it’ll leave on her psyche, but it would’ve been ten times worse had they raped her.
“Did Blaze touch you?” I ask, curling my finger under her chin so she’ll look at me. “I need to know if anyone did.”So I can plan their slow, most painful deaths.
“One of his men...” she says, eyes darting away, shame heating her cheeks. “I refused to get in the shower, so he—he dragged me in there to scrub me down.”
“Do you know his name?”
She bobs her head, meeting my gaze when I gently turn her back to face me. “He’s dead now. Blaze killed him for forcing me under the rug.”
That’s one sin off the long list attached to Blaze’s name. He took what I most care about from me. Used extreme measures to ensure Matthews would bring her straight to his house. The list goes on, but protecting Hailey while she was under his roof should earn him a more merciful death, right?
Wrong.
Hailey’s fondness for the fucker tips the scales the other way. He tricked her into trusting him and he’ll suffer.
