Page 91 of Breaker

The way her face remains frozen, emotionless, stirs up my thoughts, making me uneasy. There’s no lust in her gaze as I remove my slacks and stand before her naked. No, she’s got that slightly wild look in her eyes she gets when she’s panicking.

It sets my teeth on edge because I don’t understand why she’s upset about being in the bathroom with me.

I point again to the stall at the back of the restroom. “Go.”

The need to remind her that she’s prone to UTIs sits at the tip of my tongue, but I keep the reminder in my mouth. Now’s not the time to reveal how much I know about her. We followed her to every doctor’s appointment, and I hacked the computers at the offices to see what prescription she was getting filled because the thought of her being sick made me ill.

It’s best to keep that to myself since the look on her face already screams with anxiety. The last thing she needs to know is the man she’s just fucked knows things about her that even Delilah doesn’t.

With a deep breath, she finally does as I ask, walking to the back of the room and closing the stall behind her. I step underthe shower spray, my stomach in knots, as I watch her emerge from the stall a minute later.

There’s something wrong.

“Come here,” I say, crooking my finger. She doesn’t move. My teeth grind. “Cora.”

My tone makes her bite her lip. Unease grips my gut.

She said he didn’t violate her last night, but I swear to god I think she’s lying. If I just fucked her after she was abused, I may actually have to—

“I don’t have any clothes,” she says, watching me watch her.

“I’m going to leave and grab you something to wear before Harlow arrives,” I tell her, trying to keep my shit together as I turn my face to the warm spray. I let the rushing water slip over me for a minute, waiting for her to join me. She’ doesn’t. When I blink away the water drops to look at her, I see she’s still not moved.

Knots. My stomach, my chest, my heart is twisted into a painful knot. “Harlow texted me this morning. He’ll be here soon. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Still no movement. I’m used to our Little Red not obeying orders, but this is different. This isn’t her being defiant to irritate me. She’s worried about something.Scared.

“Did you follow him too?” she asks, clutching again at the shirt. It falls to her knees and she’s so tiny, it would be adorable and sexy if she wasn’t making me so nervous.

I take another deep breath, letting her take the conversation in another direction. It’s possible everything I told her last night is hitting home and that’s why she looks like she’s about to dart for the door. “Harlow has helped us gather intel for the last four years. We’ve kept an eye on him as well. He’s known all along we followed him too.”

I watch her face as she absorbs this, her fingers curling into the sides of her shirt.Shit. Something happened. And she’s hiding it under that shirt.

“Little Red,” I snap, my voice too harsh as I step from under the water and stalk toward her. The woman can’t seem to help herself because her eyes fall to between my legs. If I wasn’t so eaten up with worry, I’d be hard with the way she’s looking at me but she’s hiding something. “Take off your shirt off.”

She shakes her head.

“Cora.”

“I told you they didn’t touch me in that way,” Cora says. My shoulders ease. “Clyde stopped them.”

Them. Jesus Christ. I’m just now realizing she’s been sayingthem.

“I swear nothing happened last night,” she says like she can read my thoughts. I must look relieved because she continues. “But Rune…”

Fucking Christ. I grip the shirt and rip it over her head, not caring about her protests, her angry little cry of alarm, or that fact I’m being too rough with her.

I scan her body, looking for signs of abuse when I see it.

Rage is a strange emotion. It can hit all at once or sneak up on a person like a rising tide, slowly, until it covers your mouth and eyes, and you’re suddenly drowning.

“Hebityou?“ It’s not so much a question as a hiss of air exiting my lungs, tainted with disbelief. We suspected Rune may have been hurting her over the years, but I never once thought it was sexual. The thought never crossed my mind. It was too horrific.

When she told us about him, I think I must have gone into shock because I could barely comprehend what she was saying.

He was hurting her.

Rune hurt our girl.

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