Page 98 of Damaged Princess (New Orleans Malones)

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. A headache thumped in her temples.

Call them.

She’d had that dream again. The one where Liam was there the night she was rescued. Which was utterly ridiculous because she knew he hadn’t been.

You’ll disturb them if you call them.

But she’d be in trouble if she didn’t. And she wanted to hear their voices. Oddly, in only a few short days they’d come to represent safety to her. It had always been this house. Her brothers.

But now, it was starting to become them.

Without thinking about it anymore, she hit call on her phone for Liam’s number. Then she stopped the call after three rings. She wasn’t going to wake them.

She’d managed up until now without any help from them.

Then her phone started buzzing in her hand. She had it on silent. Liam’s name came up.

Shoot.

“Hello?”

“Baby, what’s wrong? You all right?” he asked worriedly.

“I’m fine.”

“Why did you call and hang up?” Nico asked. She must be on speaker.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Charlotte,” Liam told her firmly. “We told you to call us at any time, didn’t we?”

“Yes, but it’s four-thirty in the morning,” she replied. “That seems above the call of duty.”

“There’s no duty here, pretty girl,” Nico murmured. “This is what we want to do.”

“What we need to do,” Liam added.

“Did you have a nightmare, pretty girl?” Nico asked gently.

“Yeah.”

“Tell us,” Liam ordered.

She rolled her eyes at the bossy command.

“No.” How would she explain her stupid, crazy dreams. They didn’t even make sense.

“Are you sure?” Nico pressed. “Sometimes it takes away their power to talk about them.”

“I just . . . I don’t understand them. They’re confusing. I was drugged most of the time and I don’t remember most of it. I think that scares me as much as anything. If I just knew it all, I might feel better. But I don’t. And so I have these crazy dreams.”

“Oh, pretty girl,” Nico crooned.

“I can remember him t-touching me. Holding me down. I can’t stand to have my hands pinned. To be in the dark. I was often in the dark. Tied up. There was no evidence I was raped, but I didn’t feel clean for a long time.”

Liam started swearing. Low, harsh words that made her eyes widen.

“Liam, stop it,” Nico said firmly, making her gasp. She wouldn’t have thought Nico would take that tone with Liam.

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