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Even Julian nodded, agreeing with that summation.
So I turned back to Trick and lifted an eyebrow, demanding an answer from him.
He sighed and finally stopped prodding his tender lip to scowl at me. “She wanted you to figure it out your own damn self. That’s how Chloe works. She just wanted someone to honestly fall in love with her.”
“Well, this is howIwork,” I countered, pointing to the ground in front of me. “I need someone to tell me what the fuck is up, and I needed that person to beyou. Don’t you understand, you fucking asshole? How manyyearscould we have saved if I’d known? How many times could we have prevented her from getting hurt by someotherdipshit guy she tried to date? How many basement floors could we have prevented her from getting handcuffed tonaked?”
“Jesus,” someone rasped under his breath, while the other men winced, and Beau straight up said, “She waswhat, now?”
“Yeah,” I growled, looking around at all of them. “That’s how I found her. Spread-eagle on a grimy, concrete basement floor. Bruises and bleeding cuts all over her, her jaw swollen and…and pure fucking panic all over her face because she knew what he was going to do to her next.”
“Fucking hell,” Julian growled, bringing a fisted hand to his mouth.
“I couldn’t find her clothes. There was nothing to cover her with. I couldn’t find a key to unlock the cuffs. And I couldn’t go look for any because she was sobbing and begging me not to leave her side. I just had tostaythere and watch her like that. I covered her with my shirt, but that barely did shit. She was still wet and bloody…and…”
“Wet?” someone asked, sounding confused.
“Oh yeah.” I didn’t realize I had tears in my eyes until I wiped them clear. “He soaked her down and scrubbed her raw with a garden hose and car-cleaning brush; told her he needed to clean all the other men off her before…before he—”
“Son of a bitch.” Looking sick, Gracen turned away and walked a few steps off. Vaughn had to set his hands on his hips and blow out some fresh air from his lungs, and Parker had closed his eyes and was shaking his head slowly as if trying to block all the mental images he was getting.
I glanced at Trick who was white as a sheet. “We could’ve prevented that,” I told him in a rough voice. “We could’ve kept her away from men like thatall these yearsif she’d just been with me. I know I’m no prince, but I sure as hell could’ve treated her better than that. So why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
“I…” Trick shook his head, visibly shaken.
“Don’t ever keep shit like this from me again,” I said.
He nodded and glanced at me, apology thick on his face.
I turned toward the others. “Now all you fuckers listen to me and listen good. I’mgoingto fall passionately in love with her, and then I’m going to marry her. She is too important for me not to. So are you going to help me figure out how to do that or not?”
From there, everything turned all business. About a million suggestions were thrown at me all at once, and most of them were things I could do to make Chloe loveme, not the other way around.
We all returned to our seats, pitchers of beer arrived from two different staff, and meal orders went around. And the only thing I gained in the first five minutes was a damn headache.
Finally, I lifted my arms and waved them all quiet.
“Hey, hey, hey,” I called. “This is getting me nowhere. How about going one at a time?” Pointing at Vaughn across the table from me, I said, “Uncle. You’re the newest one here to fall in love. It should be the freshest in your mind. So how did Lucy snag your heart?”
Vaughn went blank and his mouth opened before he winced and admitted, “I… Honestly, I have no idea. I actually triednotto fall for her.”
“Same with me for Bentley,” Beau spoke up.
“I told you; it’s not something you can consciouslymakeyourself do,” JB said. “It just…”
“Happens,” all the others chimed in for him.
I sighed. “Jesus… You idiots are no help at all.”
“I got it,” Gracen said suddenly and pulled up his phone. “I’ll google it.”
“Dude…” Parker blinked at him in disbelief. “Are you serious right now?”
“What?” Gray shot back, still typing on his phone. “Do you have a better idea?”
“You just fell in love—what—a year ago?” I said. “Why don’t you already know this?”
“Because I didn’t stop to think abouthowit happened,” he grumbled, rolling his eyes. “It just…happened. Here…I found something. Okay…” He glanced up to address me directly, then looked back down to read his screen. “Do you feel euphoric and, like, amped up when she’s around?”
