Page 104 of Ashes of Sin

I smile and hiccup at the same time.

“You need to know, you couldn’t have stopped him. And it changes nothing about the way I feel about you.” He reassures me. “When you’re ready, I’m going to make love to every inch of your body and cleanse his evil from you.”

I feel myself react to his words.

But before I can let myself truly feel again, I need to say the words out loud. If I love this man, I will. I have to do my part in healing.

“He found the toy, Maddox.” I say, ashamed. “He put his mouth there.”

His palm cups my face.

“He did much the same to me, but he will die for doing it to you.”

I gasp.

Without asking, I know with every cell in my body that he means it and that he’s capable of it.

Selfishly, I want him to do it.

So I nod.

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MADDOX TRIES TO talk me into having a rape kit done. While Pierce didn’t penetrate me, he says it’s important to go through the process and have it on record.

“We’ll have him charged,” he says the next morning as I lie in his arms surrounded by his crisp white sheets. “I’m going to make sure he spends the rest of his life in prison.”

I wonder if he’s changed his mind about killing him. Perhaps it was just his anger talking.

“He was my fiancé,” I remind Maddox, running my fingers over the tattoo on his pec.

I am slowly coming out of my shell and feeling his power, and the strength of his body helps. He held me all night and I’ve never felt closer to anyone. We’re living in a bubble. Yet again, I don’t have my phone or any belongings. In some ways, it feels like I have started a whole new life.

What it looks like when the bubble bursts, I don’t know.

“That doesn’t give him a right to touch you without permission. No means fucking no,” Maddox says, and I fall in love with him ten times more.

He came for me.

He stopped the worst—second worst—moment of my life happening.

I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to go through a legal battle, but we don’t need to decide right now. But I feel like Maddox needs to vent and fight. It’s his way of dealing with it.

So I don’t commit and just say maybe.

“How did you survive?” I ask, wondering if he’ll talk more about his childhood.

“Travis,” he says. “Parker. Zayne. Killian. Their stories are theirs to tell, but they’re the reason I survived. How we all survived.”

My mouth parts, horrified that all these once little boys came together for what sounds like the same reason. Abuse.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It made us the strong men we are today. We survived, and so will you.”

“Because I have you.” I go to lean against his chest, but he stops me.

“No, because you’re you. Kyra. You’re stronger than you think. I wouldn’t love you if you weren’t. You challenged me. Tried to play me...goddamn, you were a nightmare.”

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