Chapter Thirty-Four #2
“Sweetheart, look at me,” he commanded softly. I didn’t have the energy to take my eyes off of the wall. I didn’t want to. The wall didn’t have blood on it. It was clean and crisp. Fresh. Undamaged.
My uncle sighed beside me before moving into my line of sight and crouching down. His warm brown eyes and brown skin made my heart flutter. Just once. Sullie made it out okay. He was alive and unharmed. I supposed I had something to thank God for after all.
“Kay, please.”
That was my brother. I refused to look at him or speak to him after what he tried to do.
He kept me away from the man I loved. Maybe we could have gotten out sooner if Jer hadn’t been holding me back.
Maybe I wouldn’t be covered in my lover’s blood.
Maybe we would’ve been back to the island right now, and I could have made everyone dinner.
The staff, the guards, everyone. We could have been starting of the rest of our lives.
“Kay, the doctor is waiting to…examine you,” he said slowly, his face morphing into unease.
That got my attention. “I’m not injured,” I deadpanned, looking at the woman in the white coat who seemed to blend in with the wall. Were all hospitals white? Who designed these places?
“We need to get the rape kit started, Ms. Jones—”
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. He avenged me. 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 the room, 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.
My eyes found the floor again, unable to handle the look on their faces.
Pity. I didn’t want their fucking pity. I was healed, but scars would always remain.
Being a victim of a man’s wants was something that would never fully go away.
There was no “getting over it” when it came to being sexually assaulted or raped.
You learned to live with it, you let the pain you went through transform you into a stronger person.
Those men were burning in hell along with Romano at the hands of my demon.
“I didn’t tell anyone because I was ashamed at first. I went to that party to have a good time and ended up being targeted.
A few days later, I had the worst night of my life.
For a while, I blamed myself I was lost. Damaged.
I went to a clinic and got checked. They offered me a way to file a police report. I declined.”
Another shaky breath. “I just wanted to move on. It felt good to be numb. I picked up extra shifts and got another job so I could move into my apartment. Eventually, when I could afford it, I started therapy. It took me a bit to process the pain I'd been burying," I sighed.
I looked at my family again, raising my chin. “The day I met Collin was the day I felt alive again. He made me braver, stronger. He is a good man, and I love him,” I sobbed, bringing my hands to my face as I crumbled.
“Kay,” Haley and Gwen rasped.
“Karina?” My brother’s broken voice hurt, but Sullie’s deadly silence hurt even more until—
“Give me the names,” he ordered, his deep voice rumbling.
I looked up to find him staring at me, a shadow of hate looming over his shoulder. A small, weak smile spread on my lips. “Already taken care of by the man you all hate,” I whispered, my lip trembling.
“Collin?”
I looked at Haley and Gwen, nodding. “Yes,” I breathed.
“Wait, sis. Are you saying—”
I glared at him. “That the man I confided in—the man I love —when I told him a secret that no one knew, avenged me in the only way he knows how? Yes, Jer. That is exactly what I am saying!” I took a step closer to my brother, laying my hand on his broad chest and meeting his brown eyes.
“What he did to you was awful, and I thought I would never be able to forgive him for it. I nearly lost you, and after everything…I don’t think I could have survived losing you. ”
His eyes flashed with anger as he recalled the memory. A tear fell down my cheek and my breath hitched. “He had no other choice,” I whispered, my lips thinning.
“There is always a choice,” Gwen said softly. No, there wasn’t.
Not for him because he cared for you—all of us. Deep down, Col always cared.
“It was either stab Jer or watch you die, G,” I bit off, looking to her, my best friend, the strong mother, the warrior. She flinched at the truth. Sometimes, the truth was a ruthless bitch, a fastball you didn’t see coming, ready to turn your world upside down.
“What are you saying, Kay?” Haley asked, her voice unsteady.
“He apologized,” I said, casting a look to Jer before continuing.
“Col told me Romano needed Jer out of the way and gave him a choice. He said he tried to angle the knife in a way that wouldn’t cause too much damage.
” My brother’s face remained frozen, but his eyes conveyed what I needed to see. Understanding.
“Karina Jones?”
I turned to find a police officer standing a few feet from us, holding the curtain open. Fuck me sideways.
“Look, I didn’t mean to threaten the doctor. She just wouldn’t shut up, and I've had a very stressful day.”
The middle-aged man raised a single brow and looked at my uncle. “Sullie?”
“She’s kidding. What’s up, David?” he said, clearing his throat.
“Mr. Stevens is asking for her. He said he isn’t answering any questions until he sees her,” the officer said cautiously.
I was already moving, my heart hammering in my chest. “Take me to him.”