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He growls, snatching the phone while keeping his gun trained on the woman at his mercy. He looks hot as fuck under the moonlight in nothing but his boxers, but I don’t focus on it. I can’t, because soon Laney’s cries are all I can hear.
I want to tell her the plans we made to prove to her we are in this for the long haul. I want to show her what we bought and bring her an ounce of peace, but it’s not happening right now because not a single thing I say will take away what just happened.
“I’m sorry,” she says into my chest. “I’m so, so sorry. I’m sorry. I let him steal a part of me that belonged to the two of you, and I’m so flipping sorry it hurts.”
I have no idea what she’s talking about. I don’t even think she knows what she’s saying, but it makes me realize we need help. Real help, professional help. All of us. We need someone to coach us through our feelings so that we can come out of this stronger, instead of being broken in pieces laying in the dirt. Not just for each other, but for ourselves too.
“I’m the one that’s sorry, baby girl. And I’ll spend my whole life proving to you that I never plan to let you go ever again.”
She cries harder while Havoc barks orders over the phone. We have to fix this—now. Whatever it takes.
Chapter 14
After watching Alexi finally shoot the bitch, I storm out of the room. I can’t handle knowing Laney is still a mess and that I’m not there for her. It was hard enough leaving her with Nessa to shower, much less leaving her again once I got here. I made sure she was tucked into bed with Arrow before I left. But now it’s time to fix things.
When I left them, Arrow said we may need to make some changes to the plan. I agree. We can’t show her what we got in hopes of moving forward until we deal with this tension between us. That and the fact that Laney isn’t telling us something.
Which is why I am banging on this woman’s door in the middle of the night.
“Can I help you?” Dr. K asks, stifling a yawn as the door opens.
“Laney needs you.” She nods, tucking her floor length robe around her and shuffling out of the room.
I lead her to our room just down the hall. Once I’ve checked to make sure everyone is clothed, I open the door for her.
“I told you I don’t need to talk to anyone,” Laney says. Her cheeks are pink and puffy from crying, and it takes everything in me not to yell. I am so done with this stupid game. She was just starting to let us in, and now she looks like a fucking zombie of her former self.
Doesn't need to talk, my ass.
“Too bad,” I say, slamming the door behind me. She glares at me as Arrow tries to get me to calm down, but my temper snaps.
“First of all, we almost lost you, and then you start mumbling something about someone having hurt you. Then, we get here and you shut down on us.Again. You won’t talk to me, and I know you’ve been avoiding talking to Arrow. So this is what’s happening right the fuck now.” Grabbing a chair from the wall, I spin it for me to straddle.
“We’re all going to talk to Dr. K, and she is going to help us fix this dynamic. I love the both of you too fucking much to let this keep tearing us apart.” Arrow sits up in the bed and pulls Laney into his lap.
“He’s right, Kitten. You’re scaring us here. We want to help make it better. Tell us what we can do.”
Laney shakes her head as Dr. K takes a seat next to me.
“You can’tdoanything. You can’t fix the past, and I can’t change my mistakes.”
“What mistakes did you make?” I ask.
Laney takes a deep breath then closes her eyes, her head bowing as if she’s ashamed of the information she is about toreveal. I can tell it takes a great deal of effort for her to form the words. It’s like she’s been hiding part of herself from us since the beginning and I don’t want her to feel like she has to do that ever again.
“I let men take advantage of me in order to get information for my father and help him take down his enemies. I let them chain me up and do whatever they wanted to me in order to help get revenge for my brother's death. Then, when I could no longer look at myself in the mirror, I was sterilized so that I never had to worry about the consequences of continuing to do it if it meant I had a part to play in this world.”
Arrow and I freeze as we make eye contact. We knew she had a lot of past partners, but so had I. I never judged her for it, but I never expected that she wasn’t the one in charge the whole time. Hell, from the way she carries herself with us, I would have thought she was a Dominatrix that commanded men to fall to their knees for her.
“That’s why I never wanted to talk.” Laney says to Dr. K. “You helped Evie because what happened to her wasn’t her choice. I chose to put myself in those situations, and if they decided to take advantage, I let them.” She sniffles and wipes at more tears.
“I would lay there and try to picture being anywhere else while they took the only thing they believed I was good for. Then, when I got up to leave, I’d keep running through the information I gathered in my mind, over and over in order to not think about what had just happened.”
“Was it your choice to sleep with them?” Dr. K asks.
“No. But I never told them no.”
Dr. K leans forward. “Did you ever tell them yes? Or did you try to push them away at first?”
