Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
KIT
PRESENT DAY
“ S o, you do what you needed to?” Alana asks. We’re both leaning against the rental Grant and Rafe got me and I nod.
“I did. I told a bitch to die.”
“I think that’s healthy.”
“Yeah, but she did it,” I whisper.
Alana’s eyes widen and she comes close to me. “What do you mean she did it ?”
The wail of an ambulance sounds next and a second later the ambulance screeches into the parking lot and parks on the curb. We watch paramedics scramble out and race into the assisted living center.
“Kit…”
“She raped them.”
Alana freezes and stares at me. “ What ?”
“Dottie Bee raped Grant and Rafe,” I tell her. “She was waking up. I couldn’t let her get away with what she did, Alana.”
“Oh holy shit, you’re serious.” Alana rubs her forehead and then nods. “Okay, this is fine. This is fine.”
“Ladies, are we done here?” Jax asks and we both jump in surprise. I’d known the bodyguards had been keeping an eye on us but I hadn’t kept an eye on them. Not with telling Alana the truth. I hadn’t even known that I was going to do it. It had all just tumbled out before I could stop myself.
“Yeah, we’re good. Thank you,” Alana gives Jax a wink and ushers me towards the car, opening the passenger door for me. “I’ll be driving the rest of the way, though. Do y’all mind if we stop for some food before we go back?”
Jax inclines his head. “Absolutely. What would you like us to get?”
“Pizza. Pasta. Carbs. Lots of carbs and cheese,” Alana says without hesitation and I feel a surge of gratitude for her. She’s going straight for the comfort food.
“Thank you.” I hug her and get into the car while she hashes out the details with Jax. Scott comes into view in the side view mirror. He’s watching me. I wave my hand and he returns it before he turns away. I watch him while he walks the length of the car and joins Jax where he’s talking to Alana.
I sink lower in my seat and drop my eyes to the dark GPS. I know Dottie’s dead, the same way I knew Mark was when I saw him lying with his cracked open beside the pool. Alana gets in the car a minute later and gives me a tight smile.
“We’re going to swing by an Italian place. Scott already put in an order for us.” Alana punches in the address to a restaurant and throws the car into drive. “But while we drive you’re going to tell me what the fuck happened in there.”
A fire truck pulls up with its lights flashing, a cop car following close behind and I’m surprised by how I’m not worried about any of it. The only thing I feel is relief. It’s the same feeling I felt with Mark.
Good.
That’s the only word that comes to mind.
“She hurt them,” I say after a deep breath. “When they were new to Hollywood and just starting out, both of them were on Lighthouse Dreams. You remember that, right?” I ask and Alana nods.
“I do.”
“That’s where Dottie Bee met them and-and she forced them to do things they didn’t want. That’s what I mean by raped. Sh-she forced them to be with her if they wanted to make it.” I look out the window and think about the stilted conversations Rafe and Grant had about her with me. It had only been one time but they’d given it to me.
“Never felt more fucking disgusted by myself.”
“I can still feel her on me sometimes.”
I love my men so much. Knowing that a part of their soul wasn’t right because of something Dottie Bee had done to them was more than I can take. It sat with me, weighed heavy. Every single day that went by it tightened its grip on me. Grant and Rafe took care of me, there wasn’t a person that could touch me because of them, because they loved me.
It hurt that I couldn’t do the same for them.
“I couldn’t let her get away with it. Not anymore, not with her waking up and walking out of there. I had to make sure.”
The light in front of us turns red and Alana slows the car to a stop. Behind us Jax and Scott are close enough that I can see their faces. They look intent, focused as they scan the road.
Alana turns to look at me. “Make sure of what, Kit?”
“I had to make sure she never left that facility. That she wouldn’t get to be free and live the rest of her shitty life with what she did to them. She deserved to die, Alana.”
“Shit, Kit.”
I turn in my seat and look at Alana. “Listen I know it’s fucked up but it’s the truth. That bitch deserved to die and that’s what I told her. I told her she was better off dead because everything she did to Rafe and Grant was going to come out. I’d make sure of it. She was going to be ruined.”
The light flashes green and Alana jumps in surprise. “Shit,” she whispers again and starts driving. “So that’s what you told her? What happened next?”
“She stabbed herself with a pair of scissors I left for her.”
Alana accidently hits the gas pedal when I tell her that but slows back down again. “Holy fuck!”
“I know.”
“You really, she-that’s what the ambulance was there for, wasn’t it?” Alana swears and slams on the brakes to turn into the parking lot of the restaurant. Nick’s Italian shines bright over the front door in neon lights. We park in a spot close to the door and Jax and Scott park next to us.
“Yes. I had to do it. I had to finally protect them. I had to do it.”
“She-what did she say?” Alana’s been my best friend for years and this is why. She knows the questions to ask.
“She said they loved her. That they wanted it.”
Alana rubs her temples and leans over the steering wheel. “Oh god.”
“I’ve never been that angry, Alana.”
She lifts her head and looks at me. There’s confusion in her eyes but it’s only there for a second before she blinks it away and nods at me. “I get it. I’m sorry.” She pauses and puts her hand on mine. “Did anyone see you talk to her?”
“No. Well, there was a nurse but she only saw me for a minute. She didn’t hear anything I said to her and I was gone before she did it.”
“Good, that's good.” Alana nods and takes a deep breath. “We are going to be fine. I’ll say I was with you. That you thought you had a relative there. That’s why we stopped. That bitch killed herself on her own. You had nothing to do with it.”
“I don’t want you to have to lie. I’m not trying to drag you into this.”
“And I’m not letting my best friend go to fucking jail for a rapist. I’m fucking lying. I don’t give a fuck, Kit.”
“You don’t think I’m a monster?” I whisper. Tears well up in my eyes and I have to blink them back. I want to tell her about Mark and what happened that night before I met her. She would keep that secret, too. I don’t, though. I can’t put any more on her.
“No,” she answers me immediately and hugs me to her. The center console is smashed between us and digs into my hip but I don’t move away. I hug her tighter. “I could never think of you like that. I love you. You’re my sister.”
“Alana…” my shoulders shake and I can’t hold the tears back anymore. They come fast and hot. “Thank you.”
Alana lets me go and wipes at my tears. “Listen, you're my family. I don’t give a fuck about the world. Besides, if you knew half the shady shit my family has covered up over the years, you would know that lying about telling some piece of shit to off themselves is nothing.”
I huff out a laugh and swipe at my tears with the back of my sleeve. “I love you so much. I swear I would bury a body in the woods for you.”
There’s a tap at the window and we both scream and jump. It’s Jax. He holds up a bag full of food and gives us a thumbs up. Alana winks at him and gives me a look.
“We should probably keep the death and murder talk to a minimum while my action hero boyfriends are around.”
I nod. “Yeah, good idea.”
A few minutes later we’re back on the road and on our way to the house. Alana flips on the radio and pop music fills the car.
“I’m glad she’s dead.”
I turn in surprise to look at Alana. “What?”
“Dottie Bee. I’m glad she’s dead. I’m glad she did it herself and didn’t put that on you.”
“I would have done it.” It’s the truth, I would have.
“I know. That’s why I’m glad she did it. Some people deserve to die. I know that.” She glances over at me. “But I also know that something like that changes you, Kit.” There’s a note of finality to her words that makes me look my friend over.
“I know,” I tell her, because I do know it. I know exactly what happens to your soul after you kill someone. It’s not the same. It fractures and breaks, splinters like brittle glass under too much pressure. What does it say about me that I’ve managed to go on all these years?
That Mark’s death didn’t change me? Not entirely.
I still love and dream. I still have hope and get scared and when I wake up every morning and look at Grant and Rafe, my heart feels close to bursting. If those photos from my stalker hadn’t started popping up, I would have been blessedly and happily lost in the dream I’m living because like Alana said, sometimes people deserve to die.