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I couldn’t hear him in this moment.
I couldn’t be reasoned with.
Because there was no reasoning to explain away what she had done to him.
It angered me that he couldn’t see just how badly he’d been taken advantage of. It infuriated me to the point that I felt like physically lashing out at them both, which was an abhorrent feeling for me.
I’d slapped a grand total of one person in my whole life, and I still felt guilty for doing it. Still, it didn’t stop the urge I had to claw her pervy eyes out of their pervy sockets.
“You need to make this right,” I warned her, holding a hand up. “You need to go to the Gards and make a statement.”
“Absolutely not,” Gerard cut in, shutting me down in a commanding tone. “If you love me, Claire.” He grabbed my face between his hands and forced me to look at him. “If you love me like you say you do, then you won’t tell anyone.” His chest was heaving, his eyes wild with a mixture of betrayal and panic. “If you do that to me, if you break my trust like that, I don’t think I’ll be able to get past it.”
“Don’t say that!” I strangled out, feeling helpless as he backed me into a corner with his unspoken threat. “It’s emotional blackmail.”
“It’s my truth,” he replied, still holding my face. “You need to hear me.”
“I am hearing you, Gerard.”
“Then do what I’m telling you I need you to do,” he urged hoarsely. “Please, Claire!”
“Okay, I won’t tell!” I cried out, feeling like a complete failure. Because I was a failure. I was failing the boy standing in front of me. “On one condition.”
“Name it,” he said with a relieved nod. “It’s yours.”
Sniffling, I pointed to his abuser. “She quits her job at Tommen.”
“I’m not going to quit my job.”
“Either you resign from your post with immediate effect,” I snarled, breaking free from Gerard’s hold to swing my glare on her. “Or I’ll make sure that you’re behind bars by the end of the day.”
70
What a Disaster
GIBSIE
“What in the name of God was I thinking?” Lying on top of my bed in my tux, several hours later, I howled like a banshee into the phone, repeating the same question I’d been asking myself all day. “Why, god, why do bad things happen to good people?”
“Because she’s not a good person, Gibs, and your girlfriend was right when she called her a pervert.”
I narrowed my eyes and glared at my phone. “Not fucking helping, Cap.”
“I told you that you never should’ve touched that woman. From day one, I told you, but you wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Now you’re really not fucking helping,” I huffed. “I’ve a good mind to hang up on you.”
“That wouldn’t be such a terrible thing, lad, considering I need to take a shower and get ready for this bleeding dance.”
“Don’t you dare hang up on me in my need,” I warned, pointing a finger at the phone, even though he couldn’t see me. “I’m warning ya, Cap. I’ll cry.”
“Jesus, fine,” I heard my best friend groan. “You can stay on the line while I take a shower.”
Nodding my approval, I resumed my tale of woe, rehashing the same argument over and over until I ran out of steam.
“Do you want to hear something positive?” I heard Johnny ask over the sound of a shower motor running.
“Yes,” I begged. “Badly.”
