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They immediately separated, looking sheepish. Duke sent Hack a surprised look.
“Is it your fault that Greer got hurt, Cash?” Sav demanded.
Cash just glared at him. Fuck. This wasn’t going well. And he wasn’t happy with Cash either.
“Aidan, no,” Greer said. “This isn’t on Cash. It’s my fault. He saved me.”
“I didn’t save you,” Cash said. “I didn’t get there until after you’d gotten away from that bastard.”
“Who? Who did this to her?” Hack demanded.
“I don’t know who it was,” she whispered. “I didn’t see their face.”
“Why don’t we all settle down for a moment,” Duke said calmly. “Greer, do you feel up to telling us what happened? And then Cash can tell us what he knows? Sound good?”
Everyone nodded.
“Just . . . don’t be mad at me? Please?” she whispered.
“No one is going to be mad at you,” Hack reassured her. “Just tell us what happened.”
“I . . . I came back to Billings for a number of reasons. But one thing I wanted to do is push past what . . . what happened to me.” She glanced over at Cash. “I wasn’t sure if you knew what happened.”
“You were raped,” he said in a harsh voice. “By Matthew Jorgen. Didn’t know him, but his death was far too quick and easy.”
Greer sucked in a breath and Hack rested his hand on hers. He wanted to take her into his arms, to hug her tight. But if she had cracked ribs, he could cause her a great deal of pain.
“Right.” She licked her lips, not looking at anyone. “He beat and raped me because I followed him that night. I . . . I thought he was cheating on me. God, if only.”
“What happened?” Cash asked with a frown. “He caught you following him and got mad at you?”
“Yes. I think so . . . see, I couldn’t really remember. I could barely remember escaping and making my way to that bar to call Aidan. Matthew must have caught me and taken me back to his place . . . where he hurt me. Then he left me there to party with his friends. But there were always these blank spots in my memory about what I’d seen or done. Or what he’d done.”
“Did you remember what happened?” Duke asked. “Is that what you were doing today?”
“No. I . . . I wanted to get past what he did to me. I’ve let what happened affect me for so long. I had to move across the country, get as far away from here as I could. The guilt of Aidan going to jail, along with the fear of something like that happening again . . . it was all I could do to get up in the morning. But I wasn’t really living. It was a fight to leave my apartment. I didn’t have friends. I was hurting myself to make myself feel better.”
“Fuck, Greer,” Sav said in a pained voice. He ran his hand over his face. “God, Squirt. What happened to me wasn’t your fault. I made the decision to beat Jorgen until he could barely breathe. But that isn’t on you. And hurting yourself . . . fuck!” He turned away and started pacing back and forth. “Fuck.”
“It’s all right,” she said.
“It’s not all right.” He whirled back, his face filled with fury and Hack felt her flinch.
He jumped up so he was standing between them. “Calm the fuck down or get out!”
“What? She’s my sister!”
“And she’s going to be my wife. You will not speak to her like that. Got me?”
“Your wife?” Cash asked. “You’ve proposed? You’ve only known each other a few weeks.”
“Not yet. But I will. And she will say yes. Greer is moving here to live with me. She’s mine. And I won’t let anyone fucking scare her. Not even the two of you.”
“All right, let’s all just calm down, yeah?” Duke said. “The last thing that Greer needs right now is for you all to be fighting.”
“Do you ever get tired of playing peacemaker?” Greer asked Duke.
He grinned ruefully. “It’s not a job I thought I’d ever have. More often than not, I feel like a kindergarten teacher. Now, we’re all going to let Greer keep going. All right? She’s exhausted and hurt. No doubt she wants to go home and get some sleep.”
