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Serves his ass right for pushing me to talk about it.
She didn’t expound. She didn’t need to. One word would do. “Jake.”
She didn’t miss the sharp intake of his breath as he internalized her answer. If possible, his deep green eyes turned black in the dim light. She got the impression he was working hard to maintain his temper before quietly replying. “I thought he’d only hurt Brianna. I didn’t know he’d touched you, too. Tell me every single thing that prick did to you, baby.”
Tiff was acutely aware that for the first time, she was talking about Jake’s abuse to a man who not only actually gave a shit about how fucked up both she and Brianna were over Jake’s abuse, but she was talking to a man who was more than prepared to actuallydo somethingabout it. That realization was both exhilarating and frightening. As much as she’d love for Jake to pay for all he’d done to terrorize them, she didn’t want Lukus to do anything stupid that’d get him in trouble… or worse… hurt.
“Lukus, please. It’s in the past. Let it go.”
“The hell it’s in the past. You had the dream tonight. Lying inmybed… inmyarms.” His calm was eroding. She felt the hurricane brewing behind his response. “Markus and I are gonna deal with the bastard. Now, tell meexactlywhat he’s done to you. Don’t leave anything out, do you hear me?”
“Lukus, believe me. I want to see Jake pay for all the pain he’s caused, but I don’t want you to do anything stupid. Please…”
“I’m not gonna do anything stupid. I just need facts.”
“Well, the fact is he never really touched me… not physically, anyway. Sometimes I think it might have been easier if he had.”
Tiff felt his grip on her upper arm constricting as he replied. “I don’t want to hear you ever say that again, Tiff. I’ve heard firsthand what he’s done to Brianna so I don’t ever want you to wish that for yourself.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I just get mad at myself for letting him scare me so much. He loved to torture Bri both physically and mentally. He just took joy in torturing me emotionally.”
“I need specifics. What did he doexactly?”
Tiff knew Lukus was trying to help, but his pushing was making things worse. She felt like a spineless dishrag when more hot tears burned her eyes. She’d already cried more times in front of this man than she had in the last six months put together. She didn’t like playing the role of the damsel in distress, but taking another look into Lukus’s dark eyes, she could see he was not going to back down.
With a deep sigh, Tiff plunged into the story. “He never touched me. In the beginning, he tried hard to hide what he was doing to Brianna. Eventually, though, he knew I was trying to get her to leave him. I didn’t like the changes I was seeing in her. I knew he was abusing her. One night, when he brought her home with a big bruise across her cheek and… she was unable to sit down, I made the mistake of screaming at him to get out and never call her again. I threatened if he didn’t leave her alone, I was going to call my brothers and tell them what he was doing to Bri and he’d be sorry. He knew most of my brothers were cops and I thought he’d be too afraid of getting them on his case. Little did I know, he’d figure out I was bluffing and actually use it against me.”
“What do you mean, you were bluffing? You damn well should’ve asked them for help.”
“You have no idea how much I wish I would’ve, but at the time I was too ashamed to go to them and Jake knew it.”
“Ashamed of what? That you knew he was abusing Bri?”
“No… it’s just… well.” He was patiently waiting for her to finish. “You won’t understand.”
“The hell I won’t.”
“We barely know each other, Lukus. You have no idea about my childhood… my family life, just like I have no idea about yours.”
“I don’t need to know about your family life, Tiff. I know this. If you’d gone to one of your brothers with this story, cop or no cop, they would’ve damn well helped you take care of the problem.”
“Exactly.”
“So…”
“So, I couldn’t let them get in trouble. I knew how protective they are of Bri and me. She’d been home with me dozens of times through our college years. They love her like a sister. Jake would’ve ended up in a shallow grave somewhere and they’d have ended up kicked off the force… in jail.”
“Not if they’re even half as smart as you are, baby.” Lukus’s sly grin told Tiff she had been right to worry about telling him the story.
“Believe me, I hate him so much, I entertained the idea a few times myself, but it’s not that simple. Jake is… well, he’s… devious.” She took a break in hopes he’d let it drop. His probing glare was unwavering. He would hear the story.
Tiff continued on, the defeat evident in her voice. “He recorded a tape. He showed it to me once… you now… to make sure I knew he was telling the truth. It had him outlining how Brianna was his willing sub and he was her Dom. In it, he made sure to talk about many of the depraved things he did to her, but he said how much she loved the submission and the pain… that she actually got off on it.” Her voice took on a wicked edge as she continued. “The bastard even recorded several sessions where she was enjoying… well… you know how she is.” Tiff could feel herself blushing as she took a short break to make sure Lukus was with her. She prayed he didn’t ask her for the gory details of how the tape showed Brianna coming while being strapped and spanked to bruising with a heavy wooden paddle.
Thankfully, Lukus seemed to have a good handle on Brianna’s particular pain tolerance as he nodded her to continue. “Of course, he never included the true abuse on the tape. The things he was doing to her without her consent—that shedidn’tenjoy. That was bad enough, but the worst part of the tape was when he went on to say he felt threatened and harassed by my family of cops and if anything should ever happen to him, the police should investigate them as they would most likely be responsible. He had a copy of the tape left sealed at his lawyer’s office to be opened in the event of his death.”
“That fucker. He knew you’d never want to risk getting your brothers involved.”
“Exactly. Once he had me backed into the corner, his gloves came off. He went out of his way to make sure I knew every sick detail he was doing to Bri because he’d made sure I’d be too afraid to stop him. I got to the point where I would’ve gladly risked getting myself in trouble, but never my brothers. The bastard called me that Valentine’s weekend when he was on the way back with Brianna beaten and bleeding. He took joy in making sure I’d be home to witness his handiwork firsthand. Thankfully, Bri had finally had enough and I thought we’d finally seen the last of him. But even after Bri finally got away from him, I still lived in fear some other woman he was terrorizing would finally have enough and take him out and it would still drag my poor brothers into this mess.”
