“Yes.” She cracks a lustreless smile, and it fades too fast.
“They told me they’d kill Connor,” she says. “I had to treat them nicely. I had to behave.” She tries to look at me, but she can’t bring herself to meet my eyes.
My stomach knots. “Then you did whatever you had to do. You kept you both safe.”
She nods.
“You’ll need to talk about it. Go through the…procedures.”
“They didn’t…I wasn’t raped,” she says again, pushing the point so hard I have to wonder if it is the truth or if she’s scared of revealing the truth.
“Did they force you to consent? Threatened you to let them touch you?”
“No…nothing sexual. They wanted me to answer questions about you, and Dax, and the business, but I didn’t know anything. I thought they were going to kill Connor, and I had nothing to tell them to make them stop.”
“Sylvie, talk to Aiden’s team. Please? Don’t carry this. Let them deconstruct it with you safely.”
She nods. It’s enough for me. I glance up to find Aiden lingering at the doorway. He nods his head for me to join him outside.
I turn to Sylvie. “I’m going to go check how things are going. Stay here. Will you be alright for a minute or two?”
“Yeah. I’m fine,” she responds automatically, staring at thefloor as if it holds all the answers to the questions in her head.
“Okay. If you need me, I’m right outside.”
“Okay,” she repeats, not really listening.
I slip away and close her door behind me. Aiden lounges against the wall, watching his team take the two men away in cuffs.
“Will they be going to the compound?”
“No, they’ll be taken to a facility outside of Harrison for questioning.”
“And Connor?”
“He’s on his way to the hospital.”
“Was it bad?”
Aiden nods. “Bad enough. The doctor suspects a few broken ribs and a concussion. I should have got here sooner. I should have realised…”
“How? None of us even knew she wasn’t at the hospital.”
“Exactly. I fucking dropped the ball. Dax asked one thing of me. Made me promise to keep her safe from all of this and look what happens. God knows what they did to her. God knows what she went through. My head was so far up my arse just dealing with…”
I interrupt, knowing where this is leading. “With me. With my bullshit.”
“No…” Aiden flashes me a panicked glance. “No, Jules, that’s not what I meant.”
“But it is the truth, right? If we weren’t all so wrapped up in me, someone would have figured Sylvie was gone sooner.”
“None of this is on you.”
“Perhaps not, but things would settle sooner if I weren’t around acting like a bunny flaunting its tail in the wolves’ den.” I rub my forehead then look up to the ceiling and sigh. Arguing about this was pointless. “Forget it. We’re all just playing the blame game.” Silence reigns between us until Aiden clears his throat.
“How is she? What has she said?”
“Not much. She swears they didn’t…” I can’t bring myself to say the words. Funny, I shouted them at Mr Trainor this morning. I guess there’s an entire world of emotion between the threat of something and seeing the possible aftermath of it.
