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Growling under his breath, Luke continues, looking over at Evan, “You remember that call at the hospital?”
“Sure.”
“Lily had…” He faces me, his eyes shadowed in anger causing my heart to beat harder. “She’d been hurt.” Goose bumps spread along my skin as he says, “She was at Mom’s and I took her away to the safe house in—”
“Was she seventeen then?” Ty asks, and when Luke nods, he stands up. “You took a fucking minor to the house? That’s why you wanted the guy’s details?”
Luke’s head whips around and I recoil when his chair scrapes along the floor as he stands up too. “Damn fuckin’ right I took a minor out of an abusive house.”
“She’s a fuckin’ minor, Luke! You should have called Charlie.”
“He would have helped,” Kitty chimes in, but I can’t bear to look at any of them, knowing Luke isn’t giving them all the information. He’s shielding me.
“He couldn’t,” Luke growls, the tension in the room becoming so thick it makes me squirm.
This is where I need to speak up. Where I need to own what happened to me and take the control back. Keeping quiet is allowing him to still have a hold over me, and I won’t stand for it anymore.
Taking a deep breath, I prepare myself befo
re whispering the words I never thought I’d say again. “He raped me.”
Luke whips back around before crouching in front of me. “You don’t have to do this, darlin’.”
“I do,” I tell him, looking up and staring into his ice-blue eyes before moving my attention to Ty. “My dad… he raped me.”
Ty’s eyes widen, his face paling as he stumbles forward. All the air is sucked out of the room, but I don’t dare look anywhere else, afraid of what I’ll see on their faces.
“Luke helped me escape but he found me again. He…” I try to keep the sob down that wants to bubble up to the surface. “He locked me in his basement, only this time there was another guy who he was going to marry me to on my birthday.” Luke takes hold of my hand and I squeeze it as hard as I can so I don’t float away. “They took what they wanted. They did things nobody should ever go through. They took everything from me.” My chest heaves, the sob breaking free as tears stream down my face, but something lifts off me. I feel lighter, like somehow if I control who does and doesn’t know, it’s mine. My story, my life.
“He rescued me again.” Looking down at Luke, I lift my hand, laying it on his cheek and lifting my lips into a small smile while the tears continue to trickle down my face. “My very own superhero.”
Luke chuckles. “You don’t need a superhero, darlin’.” He leans forward, whispering, “You could have made it out of there on your own, I just sped up the process.”
I shake my head. He knows as well as I do I wouldn’t have made it out of there—at least not the person I was when I was locked in that room.
“I’m confused,” Evan announces, and when we both turn to face him, he has a frown on his face. “Why did you marry her?”
“Because her dad was gonna marry her to the guy—Jonah. It’s the only way she’ll be free.” Evan tilts his head, his mouth opening, but Luke cuts him off with a growl and, “That’s why.” But the way Evan looks at Luke and then me with a twinkle in his eye tells me he doesn’t believe that’s the reason we got married, and if I really thought about it and was honest with myself, it isn’t the only reason I said yes—not that I’d tell anyone that.
“So, what happens now?” I ask, looking around the table at all the wide eyes and varying expressions. I expect someone to give me a plan, or at least tell me I can’t know what happens now, what I don’t expect is for Ty to walk over to me, placing his hand slowly and gently on my shoulder. “Now we welcome you to the family and introduce you to Eli.”
Looking up at him, I see something shadowed in the depths of his eyes and when he focuses on Luke, they have a silent conversation ending with each of their heads nodding before Kitty stands up. “Well, I live for the drama! You wait until Charlie finds out—”
“He’s already met her,” Luke says, standing up and wrapping his arm around my waist.
Her mouth snaps open. “What?” Pulling her cell out, she clicks some buttons. “Why didn’t he tell—dammit! Why won’t my cell work?”
“Blocked signal,” Evan says, his voice bored. “You gotta go back outside.”
“Ugh.” She huffs a breath before standing up and going to walk out of the room, but turns to face me at the last minute. “Let’s have a girls’ night… I’ll give you all the gossip.” Waggling her brows, she leaves in spectacular fashion, cursing Charlie out.
LUKE
I stare at Lily, her face peaceful and her body still as she sleeps. The idea of getting in bed beside her and resting my body sounds like bliss, but I can’t. I need to have a meeting with Ty, Evan, and Charlie.
After we left Evan’s cabin yesterday, we came right home and haven’t left once. I know Eli wants to see me and will love having another new person around, but making sure Lily is okay and recovering from her injuries is more important right now.
Showing her around the compound and her getting to know everyone can wait… at least for a couple of days.
