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“Scott is a bad man. Dangerous.” She looks to Zeb. “Kaye needs protection.”
“That’s what we want to talk about.” Zeb kicks off from the wall and comes to stand beside me. “I’ve talked this through with the team and Guardian HRS leadership. We need time to investigate Scott, and…”
Rosalie bows her head, then she fixes her gaze on Zeb.
“We’re here because Scott is a threat to us.” She glances at Carmen. “They want us to go back.”
“Back?” Carmen’s half a step behind Rosalie.
“Back to HQ.” Rosalie tugs at the collar of my shirt looking at the extent of the marks.
“Us?” Carmen glances at Rosalie. “Why us?”
I take in a deep breath, not ready to admit everything to my friends, but knowing it’s necessary.
“This was not done willingly.” Rosalie steps in with profound understanding. “I’ve seen other women do things such as this to protect the younger girls.”
“What are you talking about?” Confusion pulls at Carmen’s face.
“Tell her.” Rosalie turns to me, giving me the chance to explain.
Carmen looks to me, not understanding. I swallow my pride and explain.
“Scott ran into me a few weeks ago. It was the day after you moved back and Rosie moved in. He told me what would happen if I didn’t talk with him. I thought nothing of it, figured we’d talk and that would be the end of it.”
“But it wasn’t the end,” Rosalie speaks without judgment. Her affect is strangely flat.
“No. It wasn’t. He told me if I didn’t stay with him, I would regret it. At first, I thought it was just a threat against me, but then he threatened you.”
Rosalie covers her mouth with her hands.
“Yes.” I nod. “He told me what would happen if I didn’t. Every day I told you I was studying at the library, I was in his office. Then he would take me home. Things got weird. The sex…” My voice breaks, and I have to clear my throat.
It feels wrong to talk about having sex with Scott in front of Zeb, but things can’t get any worse than they already are.
“He became more violent. More controlling. He already was controlling, but things changed. The sex got rougher. He punished me for random things.”
“Punished?” Carmen’s eyes grow as big as saucers.
Do I tell them he beats me with his belt? Punches me in the stomach? Grabs me by the throat and shoves me against the wall? Do I tell them about the rest?
I can’t. I just can’t.
“Kaye, why didn’t you tell us? We could’ve done something to help.” Carmen takes both my hands and squeezes tight.
“He said if I mentioned it to anyone, he would make one of you suffer. I couldn’t do that.” Especially now that I know what it means to Scott to make someone suffer.
“You were protecting us.” Rosalie puts her arm around Carmen’s shoulders, hugging her. “Just like the women did for the younger girls—when they could.”
“How did we not know?” Carmen’s eyes shimmer with tears. “Kaye, I’m so sorry. I should’ve known.”
“How could you?”
“I’ve been so focused on my father and what he’s been doing that it never occurred to me something like that could happen here. Let alone to you.” She looks to Zeb. “So what now?”
“Guardian HRS wants the four of you to return to HQ. We’ll keep you on HQ grounds until we can investigate and neutralize the threat from Scott. We’ve classified him as extremely dangerous, and we can’t provide the level of protection you need here. I know you and Rosalie didn’t want to stay at HQ, but…”
“Of course, we’ll go.” Carmen doesn’t hesitate. “There’s no question about it. When?”
