Chapter 53
FIFTY-THREE
kendra
“Nice G-Wagon,” Kelsey said as she slid into the passenger seat. I had offered to drive, and Kylie and Kelsey took advantage of it.
“Nice hickey,” I answered, pointing to the red mark on her neck. “Next thing you’re going to tell me is that your husband has a breeding kink.”
“All men do,” Kylie added to the conversation after getting settled in the backseat. Adding further evidence to the theory that I never wanted to prove. Well, maybe it would be hot to have Jonathan go feral for me if I were pregnant. All thoughts I would never have entertained before he and I met.
“Well, I’m going to enjoy my wine with dinner while you two sip ginger ale. And guess what? I’m still getting bent over a piece of furniture later.”
“Ooh, nice. Hawk is decent. You did well.” Kylie joked, and Kelsey gave her a knowing smile.
I nearly slammed on the brakes. “Damn, stop acting like I’m doing charity work. Have you seen him?”
“She’s just teasing. But what we really wanted to ask—should we be getting attached?” We had always found a way to signal to each other how deep our feelings ran.
“Well, I have—do with that what you must.”
“I heard you’re moving in with him?” Kelsey questioned, and Kylie’s eyes bugged out of her head.
“Yeah. From whom?” It had only barely been decided. How had the news already spread through my entire family?
“Mom.”
“How the hell did Mom find out? I didn’t tell her.”
“She had lunch with Jonathan’s mother. She was happy to have the scoop, but she was insulted that she didn’t hear it from you,” Kylie said. They must have swapped numbers at the game right after the marathon.
“I guess we need to plan the family dinner sooner rather than later.”
“Yes, everyone wants to see that penthouse bought with baseball money.”
“Oh, sorry. I forget you two are destitute and forced to cry about it on your damn private rooftop patios.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew I had taken it too far.
Kelsey had been living in a sad one-bedroom apartment with Crew before she met Sam.
She hadn’t walked into the wealthy WAG life without reservations and spent countless hours doing everything possible to help other struggling single mothers.
She drove the BMW Sam bought her, but would be just as happy in her old Honda.
Changing the subject, Kelsey brought up the one thing I couldn’t talk about. “There’s some shit going on with the team. Sam is tight-lipped. Either of you hear anything?”
Kylie nodded. “I couldn’t get anything out of Luc. But something is stressing him out.”
“I couldn’t tell you anything even if I had information.”
“I figured as much.” Kelsey’s disappointment lasted only a few moments. “I guess I’ll have to trust that Sam will let me know if it’s something that would impact me.”
“How is it with Tom living with you guys?” Crew’s father had been staying with Kelsey and Sam until he could find a summer rental in Boston.
While I commended Kelsey and Sam for doing everything they could to help Crew establish a relationship with his biological father, I think the living arrangement pushed a bunch of boundaries.
Apparently, Sam and Tom had become friends.
“We found a place for him. It’s going to be ready in another week. But he and Sam work out together almost daily.”
“Strange,” Kylie said. Kelsey glared at her in response. But damn, I was glad someone said it.
“Now we’re on a mission to find him a nanny. I won’t be able to travel too far into the fall; we need someone to travel back and forth with Crew.”
While everyone was thrilled about Kelsey’s pregnancy, she had been traveling between Colorado and Boston, and everywhere in between, during the hockey season.
“No news on a trade?”
“I don’t think Tom is in a position to negotiate. To be honest, the contract negotiations confuse me. I’m glad that Sam had his settled before we met.”
And I was thankful that a negotiation with my brother-in-law wasn’t on the horizon. I wouldn’t want to be involved, and neither would Jonathan.
“Why couldn’t you find a restaurant with valet parking?” I asked, circling the block for the fifth time, trying to find a spot on the street.
“What’s wrong with that spot right there?” Kelsey asked.
Ducking my head in embarrassment, I felt my cheeks go warm. “I don’t know how to park this thing.”
“There’s a lot over there. Just pull in.” Kylie pointed out the lot with plenty of available spots.
“It’s $50.”
“Girl, you’re driving a G-Wagon. Pay the $50. Besides, you don’t want to make your pregnant sisters waddle around town, do you?”
We all waddled out of dinner because we had all indulged every craving my two sisters had. I dropped them off and then headed home. Looking forward to decompressing with Jonathan after a long fucking day.
When I opened the door, I dropped the keys and placed my purse on the chair, surprised to find it dark. Huh, he would have told me if he were staying late or stopping somewhere after work.
My eyes were drawn to the movement across the room, and I found him sitting in the dark and staring into space.
“J—are you okay?”
“No.” One simple word, but it carried the weight of what sounded like absolute torment.
I rushed over to him, sat on the edge of the coffee table, and took in his red-rimmed eyes.
“What happened?” I heard the quiver in my voice, revealing the fear I wanted to hide from him.
He gestured to his phone, without watching as I picked it up. “What am I looking at?”
The screen had been cracked since I’d last seen him. If Jonathan had been angry enough to throw his phone, I could only imagine what I was about to see.
“Texts.” He directed me where to look, the word tearing bitterly from his mouth.
I punched in his password and opened the messaging app. There was an unknown number that stood out from his messages to the team’s chief counsel, and another from his grandfather that had gone unopened.
When I opened the message from the unknown number, the sounds of me pleading with Tucker filled the quiet room. I had seen this film before; the phone slipped out of my hand, and the video kept playing. The sounds were mixed; he must have edited several videos together.
“Please shut it up, Ken.”
I reached for the phone, fumbling as I tried to turn it off. “I never wanted you to see that.”
“Why the fuck would he have sent clips of your fucking rape?” His tortured eyes stared into me.
“How do you know it’s the rape?”
“God, Kendra. I know what you sound like. I’ve memorized everything about you. Every whimper, how you beg for more. I can’t unsee that.” His fist flew to his mouth, his knuckles white with rage as a sob tore out of him. “I can’t un-fucking hear that. I want that motherfucker to suffer.”
Tears rolled down my face. My stomach turned, and my dinner threatened to come up. “I can’t let that tape see the light of day. You know what that is—but a stranger? A jury? It looks like it was roleplay.”
“I fucking know that.” The bitterness in his voice was unmasked. “God, you don’t deserve this, and I have no idea how to fix it, how to protect you. You let me in, Ken. And I’ve got nothing. No solution.”
I crawled into his lap and we held each other and cried. It was unclear who was comforting whom.