Chapter Twenty-Two
She flinches at Nitro's tone, and I clear my throat, getting his attention. I shake my head at him then tip my head toward her, indicating for him to go easy.
"Sorry, that was a little aggressive."
"It's okay," she tells him, barely above a whisper.
"How long have you been at your aunt and uncle’s house?” he asks her.
"Erm, almost six years. We moved in a few weeks after I found my parents..." She trails off as she appears to get lost in the memory.
"Prez…" He holds one finger up at me.
"When did the beatings start?" Fucking hell, I can't believe he just came right out with that.
Her head shoots up to look at him, then she turns to me. I don't know if she's looking for support, and I would love to stop this questioning here, but I kind of also want to know the answer. She bites the inside of her cheek then drops her head to look at her still locked hands.
"It started about a month after we moved in, Mason wouldn’t stop crying once and they screamed at him, then my aunt slapped him a couple of times.
I jumped in front of him to stop her, so she slapped me instead.
I told her if she wanted to hit someone, she had to hit me.
It just kind of escalated from there." She's like a robot as she recounts what happened.
At this point I don't know who's angrier, me or Nitro. I know how angry I feel, but his face is getting redder by the second. I try again, "Prez," but he shoots me a look.
"How often?" he asks.
"What?" she asks him.
"How often do they beat you?" he grinds out.
"I don't know. Just whenever they feel like it."
"Monthly, weekly?" he pushes.
She swallows. "Weekly. Sometimes daily. It would just depend how mad they got." She glances up at him, then back down.
"Prez, she's had enough," I tell him. He blinks and gives me a nod, pulling out his phone and shooting off a text before turning back to her.
"Nova, Ice is right, you need a break, there are things we still need to talk about, but for now I just have one more question."
"Okay," she says into her hands.
"Did they do anything else?" he asks her, and we both shoot him a look. I can't believe he just fucking asked her that.
"What do you mean?" she questions.
He leans forward on his desk, his eyes fixed on hers. "Your aunt and uncle, I know they used to beat you, but did they do anything to you? Have they hurt you any other way?"
She shakes her head. "No, they knock me about a bit but that’s all." He stares at her and she shifts in her chair, straightening up. "I promise, Nitro. They didn't do what you're asking."
He doesn't get a chance to respond, a light knock on the door stops the conversation and we turn to see Wrath and Marissa enter the room.
"Hey, girl," Marissa says. "Let’s go get some food." She reaches out her hand to help Nova up, then grabs the plate of untouched food from the table.
Nitro, Wrath and I watch the girls leave, waiting until the door is closed before we start talking.
"What the fuck was that?" I snap at Prez. "You asked her if they'd ever fucking raped her?"
"Watch your mouth," he tells me calmly. "I didn't technically ask her that."
"No, but it was implied," I say. I'm angry, although I'm not sure why. I wanted to know too, but I didn't think he'd just come out and say it.
"We needed to know, Ice. We needed to know just how far the abuse went."
"You think she told you the truth?" Wrath asks, and we both look over to him. It never occurred to me she might have lied. I'm pretty sure she was telling the truth and Nitro's response tells me he believes her too.
"Nah, she was pretty shocked when I asked. And very clear on her answer. When she told us about the beatings, she seemed embarrassed, but when I asked if it went further than that she seemed surprised that it would have even crossed anyone’s mind."
Prez turns to me. "What’s going on with you and her? Anything we need to know about?"
"Nothing, Prez. I just want to take care of her and the kid. Just like you." He raises an eyebrow, clearly not believing what I've said. "Don't get me wrong, she's hot, but I wouldn't go there."
"Why?" Wrath asks, surprised.
I don't have an answer for them. The truth is, I don't know why I wouldn’t go there. "I don't know. Maybe it's because she's too skittish," I say. Nitro lets out a laugh, followed by Wrath a second later. "What the fuck are you two laughing at?" I snap.
"You," they both say in unison.
"Yeah, she's fucking skittish, with good reason," Nitro states.
"But we've been watching you. You watch her every move.
You're there when she freaks, you make her a drink every morning when you've gotten back. And that’s after you've spent half your night in her room watching her sleep, like a god damn fucking stalker. "
"I'm not a fucking stalker," I state.
"But you're not denying anything else," Wrath points out between laughing.
"I like her, I want to protect her," I tell them.
Nitro nods at me. "And we will."
"Really?" Wrath asks. “Even knowing who her uncle is?"
"Yeah. He ain’t some big shot, he's a street cop," Nitro says. He lets out a sigh, then looks between Wrath and I. "Seems he has a few scumbags on the force with him."
"What do you mean?" I ask, not liking the look he's giving me.
"There's a reason I asked her if she had suffered anything else." His gaze snaps to Wrath who sits up straighter. "There are rumours that some of his buddies like to erm… indulge in some sick shit."
"What the fuck do you mean by sick shit?" I snap.
"I mean there’s talk that they like to rape women and video it."
"What the fuck?" Wrath breathes out.
"Is her uncle involved?" I ask, not really wanting to know the answer.
"I don't know, I have Data doing some digging, but he's having to dig in places he's never been, and I think he might be struggling," he tells us.
"What do you mean digging in places he's never been before?" Wrath asks.
"The dark web, brother. Deep in the dark web. The shit he's coming up against is eating him up." Nitro stands and we follow. "I know what I want to do, I know what we need to do, but we need to take this to Church. Doing this is a risk, but the decision can't be ours."
"Wait, Prez." I stop him at the door. "Are we going in there with half the information?"
He closes his eyes for a brief second, but then looks back at me.
"Talk to her, someone needs to explain to her what happens next.
I'm calling Church for one this afternoon, you have until then to explain to her.
" He walks out the door without waiting for me to respond.
Wrath gives me a nod and half a smile before following Prez.
Great, now I need to convince her she has to tell a room full of men she doesn't know everything she's ever been through.