Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
SLOANE
Dread coated my stomach and itched to crawl up my throat. It had been one thing to storm the clubhouse and drag an uncooperative Toby back to the compound. It was another to face him head-on without adrenaline pumping through my veins, knowing what he’d done to me.
I was thankful my team had my back, and they would step in if things got to be too much for me.
"You're going to regret this." Toby's cocky voice did the job and put me in the right frame of mind to deal with him. My fear receded to the back of my mind, and anger took hold.
"Really?" I asked calmly. Almost conversationally. "Because from where I stand, the little club you belonged to wants nothing to do with you now that they know what a sick fuck you are."
Crimes against children was where most criminals drew the line. There was a reason child molesters were put into protective custody in prisons. They were at the bottom of the food chain
Toby might not've raped a young child, but he butchered them all in the name of earning a living.
He didn't even bother to lie. He was too busy gloating when he spoke, "Those kids were nothing more than a burden on society.
I did them a favor by ending their miserable lives before they could comprehend how worthless they really were.
" Toby laughed like a hyena. "Unwanted. But, hey, in the end they were good for something.
People paid a pretty penny for their organs. "
The word “unwanted” was a kick to the sternum. There would come a day when a certain someone from my past would think that was exactly what they meant to me.
I shook the feeling away and focused back on the task. "How did The Givers know which children to target?"
Organ trafficking wasn't a random crime. You couldn't pick just any person off the street and hope they would be a match. Not to mention they needed to be healthy. Many factors went into finding a donor match.
"Ah, so you do know about my friends." I wanted to punch the smug smirk off his face. "Then you know just how screwed you are."
Nyx chuckled from her spot against her table of weapons. She was just waiting for her opportunity to get started. "Good to know you're as dumb as you look."
"Fuck you, bitch."
"No, thank you," Nyx singsonged. "I have standards and you, sir, don't meet them."
The vein in Toby's temple throbbed. Hopefully, the situation he found himself in was starting to register. The Givers would never help a weasel like him, and he already showed his true colors back with his confession, so even Hayes would turn his back on Toby.
"You won't be saying that when I shove my cock down your throat and make you choke on it," Toby lashed out at Nyx.
I saw red. There was no other explanation for the slip of my control. That one sentence was all it took, and everything I pushed down over the last ten years came flooding back.
Toby managed to cackle for all of three seconds before I roundhouse-kicked him in the throat and sent him crashing backward into the wall. I was raining Hail Mary's down on him until someone had the nerve to pull me off. I fought to get back to him, but the arm locked around my chest held firm.
"Fucking whore!" Toby spat. "Jealous, huh? Don't want to share me with your friends." He baited me. And like an idiot I let him.
"Sloane."
I didn't heed Anita's warning. I was too far gone in my pissed-off state to register I had a crowd.
"A whore? Really, Toby? I guess that's one way to describe being forced to lose your virginity to your fiancé's best friend while said fiancé's recovering from getting the shit kicked out of him by his drunken father.
" I laughed manically. My sanity was completely shot, and I was left with nothing but venom in my veins.
"But sure. Let's call me a fucking whore rather than admit you're a fucking rapist." My rant left me gasping for air, and my heart racing like I just ran ten miles.
I wanted Anita to let me go so I could finish what I started.
"He fucking raped you?"
The little air left in my lungs evaporated, and the reality of my situation hit me like a ton of bricks.
I made a colossal mistake. Anita tried to warn me, but I hadn't listened.
In my fucked-up state, I forgot Hayes was in the room with me.
This was exactly what I tried to save him from.
But in the end, it was no use. I, once again, hurt him.
When I turned around, Hayes was being held back by Beckett. My anger flitted away, and now my only concern was settling Hayes down before he did something he couldn't take back.
"Hayes." I tried to get his attention, but his was locked in on Toby.
"Is it fucking true?"
"Hayes…" I tried again to get his attention, but he wouldn't even look at me.
"Tell me, Toby. Is it fucking true?"
Toby had the nerve to laugh even as his face was covered in blood from my attack.
"How does it feel knowing I had her before you, huh?
Perfect little couple. The rich girl and the poor boy," Toby mocked.
"Everyone was so sure the two of you were what relationships were made of, but I proved them wrong.
I showed them all how fickle her love really was. "
"Fickle my ass," I snapped. "You stripped the best fucking thing from me and left me with a mess to clean up."
"Sloane!" Anita didn't give me the opportunity to shake her warning off this time. She was in my face and shouldering me to the corner before I could continue my rant. "You might want to think for a second before you finish that train of thought," she hissed.
I took a big gulp of air and trapped it in my lungs. If it weren't for Anita stopping me, I would've exposed another one of my secrets. And I was damn sure this one would break Hayes in a way he would never be able to heal from.
Thankfully Hayes didn't pay any attention to me. He was too focused on Toby to hear my blunder.
"This whole fucking time you knew why she left and you acted like she was the problem." Hayes didn't stop in his attempt to get to Toby. Nyx had abandoned her post and was helping Beckett keep him contained. "When, really, it was your damn fault. How could you? We were fucking friends."
"Friends?" Toby sneered. "We stopped being friends when you ditched me for that bitch." He jutted his chin in my direction. "A pretty girl comes along, and suddenly, you're too good for us over in Kennedy and started spending all your time in Rosemount."
Kennedy was the shit part of our area or like the kids used to call “the wrong side of the tracks.” It was where Hayes and Toby had grown up. My family was from Rosemount, a high-class, gated community that only the elite could enter.
Hayes hadn't actually spent time there since no guard in their right mind would've allowed it without prior approval from the HOA. Hayes did, however, start spending more time with me downtown. Mostly in the library, diner, or movie theater.
"I asked you to come with me every damn time, but you refused. You had the chance to avoid that hellhole as much as I did, but you wouldn't do it."
Hayes' words surprised me. I hadn't known at the time he asked Toby to come with him. It didn't mean I never met his best friend. There were certainly a handful of times while I dated Hayes that Toby was around. But I always got the feeling Toby hated me. He proved me right the night he raped me.
"And be your third wheel? No fucking thank you. They were pity invites, and you know it. Besides, I liked Kennedy. You were the one who felt you were too good for that place. Always talked about getting out when there was nothing wrong with our lives."
I scoffed loud enough to get Toby's attention. "Sure, because getting the shit kicked out of you on a weekly basis was completely normal."
My parents were by no means great. They lived in such a way I would never agree with, but at least I could say they never physically hurt me. Psychologically, sure, but not physically.
"Bitch, you don't know fucking shit," Toby rasped. "But I was more than happy to teach you a fucking lesson that night. I made sure your happily ever after went up in smoke."
I watched the color drain from Hayes' face the second he realized what Toby's words meant, and I wished more than anything I could take his pain away.