Chapter 30
I froze, ice sliding through my veins. How could I have been so stupid? I hadn’t been thinking when I’d grabbed this shirt. The cotton had just been so comfortable that I hadn’t seen past that. Hadn’t thought that the neck of the tee would be wide enough to expose my scars. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Quickly straightening, I hurried to right my T-shirt. “Nothing. Will you hand me the mixer?”
I couldn’t force myself to meet Ronan’s eyes. Wouldn’t be able to handle the disgust there. But his ragged breathing was all I could hear.
“Turn. Around,” he growled.
My hands gripped the counter, the edge of the marble digging into them.
“Now!”
The fury in his tone had me jerking and whirling. My breaths came faster and faster.
“Did someone do this to you?” His fingers locked in the cotton of my T-shirt, pulling it down and exposing a section of gnarled skin on my shoulder.
I hated the idea of anyone seeing it, especially him. When you didn’t get proper medical attention quickly after receiving third-degree burns, there was only so much they could do.
I would always carry the mark of my mother’s torture. Every time my fingers skated over the mangled skin in the shower, memories would assault me, one after the other, each one worse than the previous. So, even now, more than one thousand miles from her, I wasn’t truly free.
The fury on her face flashed in my mind. “You’re of the Devil! I’ll burn it out of you!”
My ribs constricted, making it harder to breathe.
Burn it out of me. Whatever invisible thing she’d seen, she had done just that. The memory of the pain sliced through me.
“Who?” Ronan demanded, his voice echoing off the walls. “Tell me who, and I’ll fucking end them.”
Tears leaked out of my eyes, streaking down my face. I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. My entire body trembled.
Footsteps echoed on the floor, but I couldn’t make myself look, couldn’t see anything but that horrific morning.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Dash yelled at Ronan. “Can’t you tell she’s fucking terrified?”
The shaking only intensified.
“Someone burned her,” Ronan gritted out.
Gentle arms came around me. “It’s okay, Leighton. You’re safe.”
I thrashed in Dash’s hold, striking out as if even though my brain knew it was him, my body saw everything as an attack. He cursed but held on.
“It’s me, Leighton. I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe.”
Dash said the words over and over as he held me. “Get Colt,” he barked.
A few moments later, footsteps thundered against the floor. “Jesus! What did you do?”
“She has burns on her back,” Ronan said, pure pain in his voice. “Someone did it to her. I just wanted to know who…”
Colt cursed, and then cool hands were pressed to my face. “Breathe, LeeLee. You have to breathe, or you’re going to pass out.”
My muscles just shook worse, and my legs started to give out.
Colt scooped me up in his arms, and then we were moving. But my breaths wouldn’t slow. I was too far gone.
“Maybe we should call Doc,” Dash muttered.
“Give me a minute,” Colt snapped.
A second later, he was lowering us to a couch, but he didn’t let go of me. He rocked me back and forth, whispering over and over again to breathe, telling me I was safe, that no one would hurt me here.
I wanted so badly to believe him.
“Someone burned her?” Trace’s cool, gritty tone just barely pierced my haze.
“There’s a damned perfect circle branded on her back,” Ronan snapped.
The pot. The boiling water had done its own damage, but the pot had been the worst.
My tears came faster, harder. Why did she hate me so much? Her own daughter? How could anyone be that cruel? What was it about me that was so unlovable?
“Who?” Trace demanded, such fury in his tone.
“That’s what I was trying to figure out,” Ronan barked.
“But you sent Leighton into a panic attack with all your questions,” Dash accused.
“We need to know who this was,” Ronan defended. “So we can protect her.”
“Not like this. Not when it terrifies her.”
Colt curled himself around me more, pressing his lips to my temple. “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
Ronan and Dash kept fighting. I couldn’t stand them being at odds. All because I was weak, falling apart at the drop of a hat.
I struggled to get words out. To give voice to what I needed to.
“Shut up,” Colt yelled in the guys’ direction. Then he was back to nuzzling my neck. “Try again, LeeLee.”
“It was my mom,” I croaked.
And then everyone exploded.