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When he put the bottle down again, it thumped on the table.
“Right after my aunt arrived at the house, she drugged me with some shit. It messed up my head. Made me horny as hell. No matter what she did to me. And she did like to play with those adult toys she had. She pushed as many of them as she could inside me and took pictures of it. Enough pictures, enough poses, that it looked like I was enjoying the hell out of it. ”
Jaci was going to throw up. She had to force back the gagging reflex as she thought of the horror, the humiliation he must have felt.
“And here was the deal,” he continued. “I could do what she told me to, when she told me to, or she would make sure Chase got those pictures. Chase and every friend I had. See, she wasn’t in the pictures. And who would believe sweet Davinda Morris had done something so vile?” His laugh was bitter, furious. “The fucking bitch. ”
Her soul was writhing inside her, shrieking with pain, as she somehow managed to stay silent. Managed to hold back her screams of agony.
“I went to the sheriff and I made him swear on Dad’s grave to keep the secret I was about to tell him. He and Dad were friends. ” He shrugged again, his voice nearly a monotone, cold and unemotional. “I told him what happened. He came to the house, found the pictures, and forced her to leave. But I had to tell him what happened. ” His jaw bunched then. “I had to sit in front of a man that loved my father like a brother, and I had to tell him what I allowed to happen. And I saw the pity in his eyes. The pity and the shame. And I swore I’d never see that in another living soul’s eyes again. ” He turned to her, stared at her. “I was a whore, Jaci. For three years. Now, do you feel any better knowing?”
The tears slipped from her eyes. “I love you, Cam. I love you no matter what. I don’t pity you, and I don’t feel shame. You survived. ” Her voice broke as she reached out to touch him. His strong jaw, the corners of his icy eyes. “You waited for me. ” She had prayed he would.
A grimace twisted his face as he turned his away from her again, and he reached for the whisky once more.
“You don’t need the whisky. ” She slapped his hand back. “Does getting drunk make it easier to face, Cam?”
“Getting drunk?” He flicked her a harsh look. “That shit doesn’t do anything to take my mind off the fact that I fucked up,” he snarled, that edge of fury showing again. “I fucked up, Jaci. I let her use me, and I was too damned brick-dumb to stop it. And too fucking weak to kill the bitch. ”
“Try too fucking filled with false pride to live!” Chase’s voice was demented with anger, and it echoed through the sudden silence of the apartment as Jaci and Cam both jumped to their feet and turned to him.
And Jaci knew he had heard it all, as Cam stared at the keys in his brother’s hands before lifting his gaze to the fire burning in Chase’s eyes.
“Find another entrance in,” Cam said coldly. “I’m fucking sick of you sneaking in this house and butting your nose in my damned business. ”
Testosterone and fury filled the air now. Jaci watched the metamorphosis as Cam and Chase stared back at each other, as animosity, anger, pain, and some kind of driving need to smash things seemed to pump up their bodies.
She had heard of the fights these two had as young men. It hadn’t been an unusual occurrence to see their faces bruised or to hear that they had fought each other, rather than others.
“Cam. ” She touched his arm warningly, feeling the bunched muscles and vibrating fury.
He wasn’t angry with Chase, not really. He was angry with himself, with Davinda, and with the pride that was so much a part of him. The guilt and the pain had eaten at him for so many years, and now that it was out in the open, she could feel the fight burning between both men.
“Step away from him, Jaci,” Chase growled. “You don’t want to get between the two of us right now. ”
“And I don’t want you fighting, either,” she snapped back at him. “Sit down and discuss this. ”
Cam’s gaze swung toward her, disbelief and astonishment filling his expression.
“Discuss what?” he bit out. “The eavesdropping bastard can’t seem to keep his nose in his own business. I’m going to break it for him. ”
He turned back to Chase, a hard, mocking smile on his face as his fists bunched at his side.
“You two are not going to fight. ”
“The hell we’re not. ” Cam lifted her and set her aside.
The smile on his face was tight, but something in his eyes caught hers. A lifting of the ice, a resolution. A part of him glorying at the chance to use his fists to pound out the rage inside him.
God, men were so dumb sometimes.
“Chase. ” She turned to his brother desperately. “Now isn’t the time to fight. This is wrong. ”
“No, this isn’t wrong,” he snarled. “Wrong was when he kept his yap shut and didn’t let me help him. Wrong was leaving me alone and shutting down that bond I needed at the time. Fuck him, Jaci. Wrong was when he ignored the fact that he had a fucking brother. ” The last sentence was a war cry, as they rushed each other.
Fists, steel hard and filled with male rage, slammed. Chase’s head went back with Cam’s first blow; Cam stumbled back after a particularly brutal blow to his ribs.
And they were off and fighting. Bar stools slammed to the floor and slid across the hardwood floor as they wrestled each other onto the kitchen island and Jaci screamed as Chase’s next punch sent Cam to the floor.
