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“That’s understandable,” Bender said to him.
“I think Shelby needs to be informed of a few rules as well,” Kenneth said.
“We’ll take care of that,” Tazer said to him.
“It’s our job to,” Bender said.
“Not right now, and not when that’s another reason she doesn’t want you involved,” Parker said.
“What do you mean?” Kenneth asked.
“It means, she knows how badly Caroline felt for nearly getting C.J. killed. Shelby doesn’t want you guys or her sister in the line of fire or in any danger of potentially getting hurt,” Tazer told them.
“Damn. She’s really hurting,” Bender said.
“Well, you guys need to make Shelby understand that she’s your woman and you would do anything for her, so it’s not her decision to protect you. You’re the ones that protect her,” C.J told them.
“It isn’t going to be easy to do. Not with her feeling like she needs to take off and run from us,” Kenneth said to them.
“She doesn’t want you to know about what happened to her, that’s obvious. I’ll get a hold of Caroline, then I’ll call you,” C.J. promised but it seemed that none of them were really content with the women out on their own, even if they were still in Chance.
* * * *
Caroline parked the car a little ways into the woods amongst the brush and where it couldn’t be seen from the road. It was a little spot C.J. showed her one day so they could talk about how he was shot and how he didn’t blame her but blamed Cameron.
She didn’t know why she thought of this place to take Shelby right away. Maybe subconsciously she knew C.J. would figure out where they were in case her sister was in some kind of trouble and Skip was looking for her.
She turned off the engine and then looked at Shelby. Her sister had cried her eyes out the whole way.
“Okay, I expect the truth this time. Don’t you dare leave anything out, or I swear, Shelby, there’ll be hell to pay. Because right now I guarantee my men are having a conniption. So start talking.”
Shelby looked at her and sniffled then used the back of her arm to wipe her tears and her nose. She leaned her head back and looked forward.
“I wasn’t so honest about my relationship with Skip and why I had to disappear.”
Caroline felt her heart racing. She was so worried.
“My head is pounding. There’s so much to try and explain.”
“Why don’t you start with what sent you running from New York and Skip? What ended it all?”
“Basically, it hadn’t been enough that Skip liked to knock me around and was involved in some illegal activities. When he made some deal with Mickie, for I don’t know what, I was offered as part of the payoff.”
“What?”
“It’s exactly as degrading and low as it sounds,” she said and sniffled again. She looked at Caroline and more tears spilled from her eyes.
“It was terrible and I couldn’t do a thing to stop them, Caroline. Skip tricked me. He told me how sorry he was and how he was going to make things up to me. He begged for forgiveness after he struck me and as he hugged me in bed, he handcuffed one wrist to one post and then the other.
“He pulled the sheets from my body and stared at me. ‘No matter what, you’ll always belong to me. No matter what. But I had no choice,’ he said to me.”
Caroline stared at her and listened.
“Blade, his friend and his protector came in.” She sniffled. “Skip didn’t cover me up, Caroline. He let them touch me, look at my body, and I knew they were going to rape me.”
“They?” Caroline asked, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Mickie, too. He was the one who left when Blade pulled out the knife and cut me.”
