Page 249 of Wicked Brutal

“Baby.” She sighs, props the phone against something, and pushes her sleeve up. Finger-shaped bruises circle her upper arm. I stop breathing. “Other one.” She hesitates. “Ally.” She pushes up the other sleeve. More.

“He grabbed that one when I tried to turn back toward Tobias.”

I make myself keep my voice level, because if I don’t she’ll stop showing me. “How hard did he shake you?” Her silence answers before she does. “Ally.”

“Hard. Hard enough that my teeth hit together.”

My eyes go to her mouth. “And then he hit you.”

“Yes.”

I turn away from the phone. Just for a second. One fucking second with my hand over my mouth while every violent thought I’ve ever had lines up neatly in my head and volunteers for the job.

Then I turn back, and I make myself do the only thing that’s actually useful right now. “Okay. I need you to answer me about the baby.”

Her expression softens. “Okay.”

“Did you fall?”

“No.”

“Hit anything when he shook you?”

“No.”

“Did he touch your stomach?”

“No.”

“Any cramping? Bleeding? Pressure, pain, anything different at all?”

She shakes her head through all of it. “No. Nothing.” Her hand settles over her stomach. “We’re okay.”

We’re. Fuck me. I sit down on the edge of the bed before my legs decide to do it for me.

“Give me a second, baby.” I stare at the hand resting over our kid until the pressure in my chest backs off enough to let me breathe. Then I look at her face again. “What happened after he hit you?”

Her expression changes. “Mom lost it. She came at him.”

I sit straighter. “Jane came at Roman?”

“She grabbed him and pulled him off me. She was screaming at him. He shoved her into the island.”

“What the fuck?”

“She got back up.” I stare at her. “He told her to stay out of it. She wouldn’t. She kept yelling that he’d hit both of us, that we were scared of him because of him.”

That sounds so far from the Jane I know that for a second I can’t picture it. Not because I think she doesn’t love Ally. Because every time I’ve seen that woman near Roman, she looks like she’s trying to take up as little space as a person can occupy.

“He grabbed her. Threw her into the wall. She got back up again. Then he threw her into the table.” My stomach turns. “And hit her.”

I stare at Ally. “Roman hit your mom?”

“It wasn’t the first time.”

Everything goes quiet. Even the shit in my head. “What?”

“I didn’t know.”