She doesn’t look at us when she answers softly, “I’m not sure, to be honest.”
Hudson and I tell her it’s understandable to feel that way.
“I want to apologize,” I say.
Her deep-green eyes look at me in surprise. I’m not sure we’ve made any sort of deep, meaningful eye contact tonight until this moment.
I catch my breath, then say, “I overreacted to everything with Hudson and Eva.”
She shakes her head. “No, you didn’t. You had every right to be upset.”
“Maybe, but none of it was your fault.”
She scoffs. “I think it was all my fault.”
Hudson asks, “How?”
“What do you mean? The three of you wouldn’t be involved in any of this if it wasn’t for me.”
“I’m pretty sure we forced our way in,” I say gently. Pippa pauses, then gives me a small smile before she agrees. That smile lights me from the inside.
“Yeah, I mean, you did warn us,” Hudson says, now smiling, too.
She laughs cautiously. “I really did.”
After a beat, I say, “I have another question about last night.”
This causes her to tense a little, but she waits for me to continue.
“You don’t have to share anything you don’t want to, but before we learned the truth tonight, when you were talking in the van about Maribel and Troy, Hudson and I jumped to a different conclusion. We thought maybe you were a victim of Troy’s.”
“You were really upset last night,” Hudson adds, “and we don’t want to force you to share anything, but…did anything happen to you or your sisters on that island?”
She swallows. “Yes.” Her voice is low, quiet, raspy. My heart fractures apart. I see Hudson’s eyes close. “To me. Not to Jules or Luna. Sophie made Jules help with…recruitinggirls. And that traumatized her in other ways, but I was the only one who…” she trails off.
I tilt my head in understanding.
Hudson joins her on her chair. He picks her up and sets her on his lap.
Pippa lets him. This impossibly strong, formidable woman lets herself be held.
He wraps his arms around her middle, and she leans her head on his shoulder. They look gorgeous together. Truly stunning. “I’m so sorry, baby,” Hudson says into her hair.
I sit, taking them in for a few minutes. Then I say, “It was Troy, then.” Not a question, a statement.
She looks at me and, in that look, I know.
Magnus Troy needs to fucking die.
I already knew he was a predator. A fucking horrible president. An evil billionaire. But Pippa was right to call us out the very first night at the warehouse. We haven’t done nearly enough. Fuck, we haven’t done anything at all. All these predators walk the streets of my city, and I’ve sat back and let it happen.
No more.
“I know he and Jared were best friends, but how could Jared pawn off his own daughter?” I ask.
“It wasn’t him; it was Sophie.”
“The fuck?” Hudson curses.
