Page 12 of Signed For Him

"What do you mean he wouldn't give me up?" I ask, the anger that's been building within me brimming to the surface.

There are so many parts of me that hate this man in front of me but I know, without a doubt, that in his own fucked up way he cares for me beyond measure, and whatever happened to cause this, this pain that he's in, just shows the lengths he's willing to go to protect me.

"She doesn't need to know the rest," Liam tells him, his voice sounding as broken and exhausted as I was when I first came into this apartment.

"For once in your life, Liam, give up the pretence and tell me what the hell happened. Please," I ask, needing to understand.

I was under the impression that he was one of the perpetrators in this scenario, but if they're willing and able to hurt him this badly because of me then that surely isn't the case. Maybe Gray wasn't as far off the truth as I thought he was when he suggested that Liam had as little choice in being here as we did.

"It was me or you. Either I gave you up for them to have you or I gave myself up. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. I just need to go lay down for a bit and then I'll be fine," he tells me as he rises to his feet, his stance unsteady as he does.

"That wasn't fucking it, and you know it," Gray says.

Liam’s eyes become deadly as his head rises to find Gray’s eyes, the argument passing between them needing no words.

"I said that was it so that was fucking it. Say another word about it and I'll fucking end you here, Gray. I might not be in charge, but I've got more fucking power than you do," he tells him, his eyes lethal and filled with promise.

"I'll get him to the bedroom. Stay here." Gray huffs out as he takes Liam's arm over his shoulder and leads him away from me, cussing and muttering something to him that I'm not close enough to hear.

From behind I see even more damage. His clothes are completely covered in dirt and blood, the jeans he's wearing showing none of the denim blue that was there just this morning.

I take the bowl of water and the unused first aid kit to the kitchen as I run over the situation in my mind. There's not a single part of me that can look at Liam when he's like that, when he so willingly goes through so much torment and pain for me and want anything but better for him. I have no idea how he got here or why, but I do know that he doesn't deserve it.

I realise now that until I'd come here and spent time with Liam and Gray in a hostile environment that I looked at Liam and his wrongdoings as so black and white and yet when I look at him now, I know for a fact that he didn't get here, to this place mentally or physically because of his evil but rather for reasons he won't share with us.

"He's in the shower. I put the chair in there which will probably be ruined in minutes but he wanted to get in there and couldn't exactly stand, so yeah," Gray tells me as he walks out, his eyes casting glances in each direction as he walks towards me as if checking the room for possible danger.

"I'm going to go, but call me off Liam’s phone if either of you need me, yeah?"

"Yeah, of course. Thank you for helping me with him. Can you come back tomorrow?" I ask, wondering if Liam will finally allow the pretence he's used for so long down now that we seem to be on the same side or as close to it as anyone can be in such extreme circumstances.

"I don't think Liam has the energy to care if I come by or not anymore. He wants out as badly as we do," he tells me.

I nod and take him into a hug at the door before he leaves, hating that he's alone.

"They did to him what they did to you when we found you. It's not the first time. He's a monster, but he's a monster that is somehow in love with you and willing to go through anything so you don't." He holds my head close in his embrace as he whispers the words to me before looking into my eyes, nodding when I'm sure mine are wide as saucers in realisation of what he's admitting to me.

"They raped him?" I ask, my words barely there as tears spring to my eyes, unable to comprehend the pain he's repeatedly allowed himself to go through to keep me here. Safe.

Gray nods, his eyes dark, angry I realise. I doubt anyone will ever understand it, but I know as well as he does that we both care for Liam far more than either of us would care to admit. It's fucked, like completely and utterly deranged of us to care, but the longer I'm here, the more I see and get to know the Liam that is truly him rather the one I thought I had known my whole life, the more I realise that he's an entirely different man under the armour.

"He spent his childhood being abused in the same way. Dad told me about it years ago and now here… he went through it over and over again before you got here. They kept telling him if he did then they wouldn't take you and when they did, he knew it wouldn't end. Now you're here, they use you as his weakness. They know they can do anything to him because he'll allow it to protect you from the same fate. They've just not gone this far before by beating him too." His words stun me as I take in the reality of what they mean. My stomach drops, feeling empty and hollow yet so sickly at the same time as I think of what he's repeatedly been through, not just throughout his childhood but since being here, for me.

"How have I never noticed?" I ask aloud, unsure if I truly want the answer or not.

"He's used to putting up a front. It's something he's done for years, Char. I don't have a fucking clue who he really is, but I have a feeling it's not someone that's as bad as we think, or at least not someone that's just bad, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah I understand." He gives me another hug, waves goodbye, and walks away as I shut the door and find myself on the floor with my back to it, my knees curled up to my chest as I contemplate the information I've just been given.

I hear a door shut in the apartment and as my head lifts, my eyes connect with Liam’s, his body now clean of blood as he stands in the doorway to the living room with nothing but boxers covering him, the bruises and damage from the torture he's endured clear on his skin.

"Don't you fucking dare, Charlie." His voice is ice cold and filled with venom as he stares at me, his words making no sense in my mind.

"I'm not doing anything." It's as I speak the words that I realise I'm crying, the tears causing my voice to crack.

"He told you. I fucking told him not to say anything, the stupid fucking bastard." he mutters as he walks towards me, his steps still a little unsteady but far better than when he walked in.

"Stop looking at me like that. Stop feeling sorry for me, I don't need it and I don't fucking deserve it. Stop it," he orders as he crouches down in front of me with a hiss, the movement obviously causing him pain which only fills me with more sorrow and sadness.

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