Chapter 18 #2
“He followed me out,” she finally said. Bringing the bottle to her lips, she started to drink, and the first touch to her tongue was like a trigger.
She drank half the bottle before she stopped, her breath heaving as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
“I was running here, taking the shortcut under the bleachers so I could hit the field that took me out to the highway. I was trying to get through one of the cross sections, and my laces got tangled in one of the big screw things. I hit the dirt. I twisted and tried to untangle myself, but he was right there, his face inches from mine as he pushed my legs…” Sloane swallowed deeply and shook her head.
I knew not a second of this would be considered easy for her, but I was proud of her for talking. Even to an audience of two. “It’s okay.”
“He held me down, his hand slipping between us, and I could feel him grabbing and pinching… you know… there. It was like he was having more fun when I was scared. I tried to get away but his fingers got inside my underwear, and he kept saying ugly, ugly things, and that’s when I screamed.
I screamed as long and loud as I could, but he put his hand over my mouth, and that’s when everything became real twisted.
I fought him. I fought so hard and twisted under his grip, my arms and legs kicking with everything I had.
I kept thinking the worst he can do is hit me.
As long as I keep moving, he can’t do anything.
I have to fight. I have to fight. I have to fight. ”
I pushed up on my knees as she went on like a broken record, and I held her to me. Rage was now a ball in the center of my gut, the flame blue and white-hot. “It’s okay, just breathe, honey.”
Glancing up at Drew, I knew what the next question had to be, even though I was sure it would earn someone the beating of a lifetime.
“Sloane, who did this?”
“I don’t know him.”
“Sloane…”
“I really don’t. He must have been a senior or something. I don’t know him.”
“Would you know him if you saw him again?” I asked, leaning back so I could see her face.
“I’m not going to go looking for him. For all I know he could have been there fixing the plumbing. I’ve never seen him before.”
She was lying. I knew that by the way her eyes darted away from mine and stayed in the corner of the room.
There was a wince of pain on her face as though it went against her better judgment to keep quiet, but her chin came up in resolve, and I knew we’d gotten as much from her as we were going to get.
I glanced up at Drew, wondering if he had another stroke of genius to get her to open up again.
“Sloane,” he began cautiously, leaning closer.
“I’ve seen a lot of bad things in my life.
I’ve lived a lot of them, too. I may not know what you’re feeling right now, but I know the thoughts going through your head.
Who will get hurt if I talk? What will my loved ones think?
Will I be seen differently? Can I just forget it happened and go back to how things were yesterday?
Believe me, I know the answers, too. Who will get hurt if you talk?
Only the person who hurt you. What will your loved ones think?
Absolutely nothing but relief that you’re okay and that you’re not letting evil assholes get away with evil acts.
Will you be seen differently? Yes. As strong.
As defiant. As someone who refuses to let this shit happen.
Can you just forget it happened and go back to how things were yesterday?
” He let out a weighty exhale and shook his head.
“No, darlin’. No. Nothing can ever go back.
I ain’t gonna lie to you and let you pretend it can.
You’ve been treated with disrespect. Now it’s about how we can heal you moving forward.
But trust me, if you keep this hidden… if you keep this tucked away like a poisonous secret that only you know, that only you remember, that only you think about…
it will destroy you. Maybe not now. Maybe not tomorrow.
But it will happen… and, sweetheart, you’ll wish you’d talked. ”
I glanced up at Drew and watched him as we waited.
He wasn’t a man of many words. In fact, he wasn’t a man who let people in very often.
I’d always thought it would be hard to love someone who kept so many walls in place, but the longer I was with him, the more I realized that those walls weren’t just to keep people out.
Once you were allowed to climb them, they kept you inside, too.
They kept you close enough to see the parts he was striving to hide from his enemies, but those walls were starting to expand, and all four of the Sutton family were now included in the safety of those walls.
All I could think as I looked at him was: I love you.
It was on repeat over and over again, even when I looked back to the girl leaning on me for strength.
“Sloane?” I nudged gently.
“I… You don’t understand. You don’t know—”
We never found out what she was about to say.
Our bedroom door practically imploded only seconds before half the MC flowed in through the opening and closed in around Drew like a rockslide.
The words asshole, fucker, and worried, were the most overused as they all talked at once, not one of them seeing the anger burning in Drew’s eyes.
It was only when Kenny pushed through the group and fell to his knees next to me that the room fell into a temporary silence.
“What’s happened?” he asked, looking manically between Drew and me.
“I’ll tell you what hasn’t happened,” Slater growled from the door. “No one has answered their fucking phone when we’ve been fucking ringing it after expecting our fucking president to be on a fucking job, leaving us to imagine all sorts of fucking nightmares all over again.”
“Jesus, Slate!” Drew snapped, his head snapping up to him and his frown deep. “Sense the tone, you fucking dipshit.”
“Listen,” Slater snapped back. I’d never seen him looking so angry.
His finger pointed straight at Drew, all his muscles tensed and the veins in his neck stretched.
“I don’t have a clue what’s gone on here, and I know it ain’t good, but don’t you ever, ever, do that to me again.
I thought it was the Emps attack, part two.
Only this time I thought you were already dead.
” And with that, he marched away, leaving Jedd and Harry in the doorway while I looked back at Kenny with concerned eyes.
With the new interruption, we weren’t going to get anything more from Sloane. I could see the way she and Kenny looked at one another. “Can you take her into my room? I think she needs some company, but just don’t push too hard, okay?”
Kenny nodded, and it didn’t take much for Sloane to fall into his arms almost naturally.
If those two hadn’t already formed some kind of a relationship, I would eat my own foot.
This complicated things on a hundred different levels, but the biggest one was who was going to need retribution the most. Howard or Kenny?
I pushed up to my feet, unsurprised when Kenny lifted her into his arms and slipped past the others standing at the door. Once they were gone, all eyes turned on Drew.