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I don’t even want to imagine what it must have been like for her to tell relative strangers what happened to her. The anger flowing through me is beyond anything I’ve ever felt. Not even the night with my dad compares to this feeling. I scrub my palm over my face as I stand up, knowing I can’t go there, not right now… not ever.
Closing the bedroom door softly, I walk down the stairs where Kay is sitting with Eli next to her.
“Uncle Luke!” Holding my arms open, I bend at the knees, ready to catch him as he launches himself at me. “It’s been forever!”
“I know,” I grunt, wrapping my arms around him and closing my eyes. “I’m sorry, lil’ dude. I’ve had some stuff going—”
“Mom said you got married.” He pulls back, frowning and searching my face for what I’m not sure of. “Why couldn’t I be there?”
Moving my attention over to Kay, I beg her silently to help me out, but when she shrugs and grins, I know I won’t get any help from her.
“I… it was…” I let him down, feeling like the kid in this situation as he stares up at me with his hands on his hips. “I… fuck.”
He gasps. “Uncle Luke!”
“Crap, sorry.” I let my head drop back and exhale a puff of air before looking back at him. “It was last minute, but—”
“When can I meet her?”
“I… you’re just full of questions today, huh?” I ruffle his hair.
“I missed you.” He shrugs, sadness shining through his green eyes. “I wanna meet her. She’s named after a flower, right?”
Chuckling, I nod before crouching down. “She sure is.” Pausing, I think about my words carefully. “She’s a little hurt at the moment but as soon as she’s feeling better, she’s gonna be so excited to meet you.”
He blinks several times. “She’s hurt?”
“Yeah. Her… someone hurt her.”
“Like Dad did with Mom?”
All the air is sucked out of the room, and when I look over at Kay, I see her pale face and the sadness emanating from her. Her mouth opens and closes several times, but her body is as still as a statue.
“Yeah,” I say, looking back at Eli. “But remember how we got you and Mom safe?” He nods. “That’s what we’re doing for Lily, but she needs a little time, okay?”
He watches me for a beat, the wheels in his head turning before he announces, “We’ll look after her until you’re back.”
He pushes his shoulders back, making himself as tall as he can be. “Thanks, bud. You’re the man of the house right now. You know the drill, right?”
“Yep.” He taps the side of his head. “It’s all up here.”
Holding my hand out for a high five, he slaps his against mine before sitting down next to Kay and taking her hand in his before looking back at the TV.
“You okay?” I mouth to Kay. She looks down at Eli and back at me before nodding with a small but sad smile on her face. “I won’t be long,” I tell them before heading out of the house and back to Evan’s cabin, not knocking as I walk inside and down into his safe room.
They’re all sitting at the table, silence between them, but when my gaze clashes with Charlie’s, he stands up, practically running at me before grabbing my t-shirt.
“Why the fuck wouldn’t you call me?!” I let him hold me against the wall, when in reality I could get out of his hold with one hand. “He needs to be locked up. We’re meant to get the bad guys off the streets not help them fuckin’ stay there!”
“No,” I say, my voice calm. “My job is to protect my wife, and that means not having everyone question her, examine her, making her go over and over it again and a-fuckin-gain.”
He grabs me tighter, pushing me as he growls out, “He’s a rapist.”
My breaths come harsher. “Yeah, I fuckin’ know. I see what he did to her—the scars he’s left, the choices he took.” My voice gets louder the longer I talk. “But she’s more important than him… he’ll get what’s coming to him.”
Charlie eases up. “Don’t say that to me, I can’t know your plan.” I stand at my full height before shrugging. I’m a couple of inches taller than him but with the way he commands the room you’d never know. “Can we talk about what we need to now?”
Raising a brow, I wait as he grips me tighter for a beat before huffing and letting me go. I raise my brow as he stomps over to his chair and yanks it out before throwing himself down in it.
