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PJ turned off the water and stepped from the shower, taking a deep breath and telling herself to stop the pity party. It wasn’t anything but the truth coming out now. She needed to deal with the choices she’d made when she was young: the choice to get into bed with Jimmy Mondo, the decision to give up her baby.
There wasn’t anything to it other than that. It was simply time for her to deal with the mistakes of her past.
* * *
Gabe dragged himself back to the house. He’d run a lot further than his usual three miles, trying like hell to get the images of Jimmy Mondo seducing a much-too-young PJ, out of his head. What the hell had her parents been thinking about, not pressing charges?
The man had essentially raped Pru, plying her with alcohol. Gabe had a feeling it was most likely Jimmy who had gotten her hooked on alcohol in the first place. That man should have been strung up – not walking around representing other artists.
Strung up.That’s what Gabe wanted to do to him. Hunt him down and tie him up by the balls and leave him to him rot. He stopped just before the back doors and took a few deep breaths.
He had to get ahold of himself before he saw Pru. He opened the French doors and stepped into the kitchen just as she stepped out of her bedroom, carrying her bag.
“What’s wrong, Pru? Where are you going?” Gabe said, watching an almost guilty look wash over her features.
She fidgeted and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m just gonna get out of your hair, Gabe. I’m going to call for a rental car and drive to a spa for a couple of days.” She looked down at her toes as she spoke and Gabe hated to see her so fragile. So alone.
“Hey.” He stepped closer and put a hand to her cheek, brushing her face until she looked up at him. “I don’t want you to go, Pru. I want you to stay here so we can fix this together.”
Her eyes were like giant saucers looking back at him as if she couldn’t believe he wanted her to stay. “But, you...you seemed so angry with me this morning. And, there was that kiss that made things weird....” She let her voice trail off.
Gabe felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. He hadn’t realized PJ would think he was mad at her this morning. How could she not know he’d be mad at what had been done to her, not mad at her? He wanted to step closer, pull her into his arms and breathe in the sweet scent of her skin.
But, he forced himself not to do that to her. God, this woman had been dealing with people taking advantage of her all her life. He didn’t want her to think he was trying to add to that list.
“I wasn't angry with you,” he said shaking his head. “How could I ever be angry with you for what that...” He felt the bitter taste of hatred and disgust on his tongue at the thought of Jimmy Mondo. “What thatassholedid to you. He took advantage of you, Pru. Manipulated and used you when he should have been protecting you. You were fifteen for Christ’s sake.”
"You were so angry when you left here."
He dropped his head, looking down as he realized how that had looked to her when he ran out that morning. "Not at you, Pru. Never at you."
PJ tilted her face up to meet his eyes. "So it's okay if I stay?"
"Of course. How else are we going to solve this problem if you don't stay and help me?" he asked.
“This isn't your problem to fix.” PJ shook her head at him.
He ignored her objection. "The first step is tracking down your ex-manager. We need to see if there's any way to bring charges against him now—and if there isn't, I'll take care of him myself.”
“No, Gabe!” PJ said, a lot more sharply this time, and he could hear the desperation in her voice. What the hell was she trying to hide, and why?
It was stupid, but Gabe actually felt hurt that she wouldn’t open up to him, or trust him, with whatever she was hiding. But really, why should she? They didn’t know each other all that well.
“You can’t do that, Gabe. You need to leave this alone––”
“Are you crazy, Pru? Your parents should have pressed charges against him a long time ago! They should never have let him walk away like they did,” Gabe spit out, and he knew he was doing a piss-poor job of hiding his frustration.
PJ took a deep breath. “Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but you have to trust me on this. The time for going after Jimmy is long past. I'm over what happened and I don't want to bring it up again. Well….” She blew out a rough breath—half laugh, half groan. “Not any more than it's already been dredged up for the world to see."
Gabe opened his mouth to object but she cut him off.
“No. Listen, please.” She softened her tone. “I need you to leave this alone for me. Please?” Her phone beeped again and PJ glanced at the screen. She went stark white, and Gabe didn’t miss the little intake of breath.
“What is it?” he asked.
PJ stammered her response. “N-nothing. Just my manager arranging more interviews for me when I get back. PR, damage control, that kind of thing,” she said weakly and shoved her phone in her back pocket.
She was lying. There was no way texts from her manager would bring that reaction—at least they shouldn’t— not even if they were texts about scheduling interviews PJ didn’t want to do. He crossed his arms and eyed her, but she remained committed to the lie.
