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“Me too. The thing is, I’m worried, Asia. So, fucking scared.”
“You’ll be safe now. He’llneverhurt you again.”
“That’s not what I mean. I think he has his sights set on someone else. The last time he beat me he said that it would be the last time I’d feel his hands on me, that he has plans for someone else. I should’ve told you earlier, but I was too fucked up. Someone here is in danger… I think that someone might be you,” she hushes out, covering her mouth with a shaking hand.
I laugh. I can’t help it. It bursts from my lips before I can stop it. It slashes at Ruby’s fear, belittling it, making it a mockery and I immediately feel guilty. My cheeks flush with shame.
“Ruby, I shouldn’t have laughed. I’m sorry.” I lift her chin forcing her to look at me. “Listen. I’m not scared of that little prick. He won’t hurt me, and I swear to fucking God, if he tries I’ll kill him.”
“I believe you.” She grips my hand in hers squeezing it tightly as a sudden tremulous smile fights through the darkness shadowing her features.
“Do you know what I thought when the air was leaving my lungs?” she chokes out, tears spilling down her cheeks despite the smile. It’s a rhetorical question, so I don’t respond. Instead, I wait for her to find the courage to continue.
“I thought ofyou. I remembered how you stood fearless before Monk. I remembered how you took every punch then hit him back twice as hard. I remembered the sound your fist made when it met his body. I remembered how that made me feel strong even though it was you, not me, hitting him back. You made me remember what it felt like tofight, to bestrong.You laughed in the face of his evil. Just like now. Don’t be sorry for it.”
“Ruby. I don’t know what to say.” My throat constricts with tears a moment away from falling. I lock them down for her. I need to show the same strength she presents to me now.
“In the beginning I was just like you. I wasfearless. I wasn’t so very different from you once upon a time. Slowly he took that from me, but somehow at my lowest moment that strength you showed pierced through the pain and the self-destruction I felt. You made me want to live, you made me want to fight.You, Asia.”
“I didn’t doanything… I should’ve. I should’ve done something about Monk the second you told me about how he was hurting you,” I say, a sudden rush of anger bubbling in my veins.
Ruby shakes her head violently. “Don’t take the blame. Don’t do that.” She grips my hand tightly. “But promise me something.”
“I will, whatever you need…”
“Don’t let Monk hurt you like he hurt me.”
“There’s no way he’ll get close enough to even try.”
“And find a way to stop the King from hurting Camden’s mum. Set her free, then you can set Camden free.”
I squeeze her hand back tightly. “We’ll deal with the King, but I wantyouto makemea promise, right here, right now…”
“What’s that?”
“That you’ll get strong again and thenyou’llmake Monk pay,” I say, fiercely. “Retribution, payback, that belongs to you and you alone.”
She grits her jaw, swipes away at the tears and nods her head. “I’ll make him pay. Iswear.”
And when I look in her eyes I know she means to keep her promise, and that strength,thatis just as powerful as anything I hold inside.
