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"Ariel?"
I knew Quinton only asked out of concern. He didn't like the unknown, and I had lived in his version of it for the entire night. Now I showed up looking like the scary version ofCarrieand I couldn't be upset with him for asking.
Still...
No.
There were certain things I would like to take to my grave with me.
Because I knew he'd never let it go, those were the things I would give to Quinton and Quinton alone. When we werealone.
"It's blood," I said in a dead voice I almost didn't recognize as my own. "Some of it's mine. Most of it is not."
Very gently, he asked, "Whose blood is it? Do you know?"
I pulled my face away from his chest and looked up at him. Our eyes met and his head jerked to the side as if I'd slapped him.
"Don't," I whispered in that same dead voice.
He closed his eyes tight. His hand slid up to the back of my head and he pulled me deeper into his chest, shoving my face in his neck and holding me there.
I closed my eyes and let it all out. I cried. I sobbed. I cried so hard I struggled to breathe.
Quinton held me tight the whole time. Rain reached over and placed a comforting hand on my knee that didn't leave until we pulled into the driveway at home.
The rest of the car remained deathly quiet.
I wondered if they would have been so supportive if they'd known the truth of why I cried. I knew the truth and I hated myself for it.
Chapter Twenty
Don’t You Say Her Fucking Name
There was this little voice inside my head that screamed at me to get out of the SUV and run as soon as we pulled into the driveway. I didn't want to face anyone else tonight and I didn't want to have to explain anything.
I didn't run. After everything I'd done and been through to get to this point in my life, being a coward and hiding didn't sit well with me.
Quinton attempted to carry me once more, but at the look on my face he sat me down on my feet just outside of the SUV. Julian was in my face immediately. His hand went to the back of my head and he roughly jerked me forward and into his chest.
He wrapped his arms around me and held on for dear life, attempting to smother the life right out of me. His lips went to my ear where he whispered, "Are you injured? You're covered in blood and I'm hoping it's not yours."
I flinched, that last statement having cut far too close to home for comfort. He didn't know that though, none of them did.
"Her feet are fucked up and she’s going to need you to look at them, but I have a feeling she's not going to let you until after you've looked over Romero and she's showered off all of that blood that thankfully belongs to someone who is not her. She's refusing to tell us who it belongs to," Quinton shared with Jules in a dark voice that held a promise of the violence he'd been reining in for days now. He was barely holding it in check, and sooner than later he was going to explode and that anger would land on someone. I just hoped it wasn't me who got nailed with it. I could take no more emotional baggage or bullshit from anyone, not when I was so busy drowning in my own.
I shrugged my way out of Julian's hold and avoided eye contact with him. I had a feeling I would be doing that with a lot with people for the next several days... or weeks... or however long it took for me to come to terms with everything. Most especially, it'd be my own eyes in the mirror I avoided the most.
I met Rain at the back of the SUV. He had the door up and was helping Romero get out.
"Thanks, Dad," I muttered, sounding unfriendly even to myself. Another set of eyes I failed to meet. I didn't want to see the concern I knew would still be in them.
I had no problem meeting Romero's eyes though.
"So this is the infamous Rain?" Romero mused. "And to think I originally thought you were a lying little bitch like all the rest. So far you've been nothing but the oddest female I've ever met in my entire life. Strange that you're so genuine, you must not have had a normal upbringing."
Oh dear.
Romero had a very unflattering way with words that I had assumed had to do with his years in captivity, but I was beginning to think that perhaps it was simply his personality and something we'd all need to get used to.
