Page 59 of Wild, Wild Cowboy

Jeremiah snorted. “Yeah, she told you.”

She had hit the highlights, but there was a lot she had left unsaid. Not like she was purposefully keeping things from me. Judging from the conversations wehadhad on the subject, I suspected she simply hated talking about it. That was fair. I wasn’t going to make her relive it just to satisfy my curiosity.

Except it wasn’t just curiosity. I cared about her, dammit. I wanted to understand. She had asked for my help, and the more facts I had, the better I could do that. Right now, I didn’t have all the facts.

And I had a lot of questions.

“She told me,” I said. “But I still don’t understand. How did they get away with it? Fourteen years old. It was fucking illegal what they did to her.”

Jeremiah looked to the mountains and blew out a harsh breath. “Yeah, it was illegal, but she didn’t know that. She didn’t know there was a town an hour from there that had police and teachers and social workers who could help her. We were born and raised completely outside the system. No birth certificates, no social security numbers, nothing. Someone has to report it for the authorities to do anything. There were rumors, sure. But they can’t just walk into your home and check for child brides based on a rumor.”

I shook my head incredulously. “And your parents fucking allowed it? They just let some old ass dude take their little girl as his fuckingwife?”

“He was a high-ranking elder of the community.” Jeremiah followed the rim of his beer can with his middle finger in slow, methodical circles. “He was a predator, in the kind of community that allows predators to flourish. Child-rearing was the responsibility of the older kids and the lower-ranked wives. It was rare for adults and children to interact, but he was connected to her family, so he was just always around. Hannah was probably only eight or nine when she started minding his children in addition to her own younger siblings. His status in the community…his connection to her family…They allowed it. I allowed it.” He rolled his shoulders like he still carried the weight of that choice. The guilt.

Logically, I knew that Jeremiah had been only a kid himself at the time and didn’t deserve that weight. But a small, mean part of me was glad he suffered from it. Because Hannah suffered, too, and I fucking hated that.

“Through his connection to her family, he had always been around since she was a baby. He was like a father figure to her. Looking back, of course it was odd that he gave her so much attention. Maybe our parents thought it was a good thing for her, that he’d find her a good husband when the time came. I guess I thought that, too. When I was sent away, he promised to protect her.” Jeremiah’s voice went tight with fury. “Instead he fucking married her.”

“But fourteen…” I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. “She was still a kid. Why didn’t your parents tell him to wait?”

He snorted. “Oh, he fed them some lines about keeping her soul pure. She was too pretty, he said. Her beauty tempted boys off the path of righteousness and straight into damnation.”

Ice slid down my spine. “That’s what her uncle said, too.”

For a moment Jeremiah stared at me, his eyebrows knit together in a frown. “Yeah, he was her uncle.”

I stared back, refusing to comprehend his meaning. Because what he was saying was that?—

“The fuck?” I shot to my feet. “They married her off to her fuckinguncle?”

“Uncle by marriage,” Jeremiah clarified, like that made it better.

Which, okay, it did, actually because at least we weren’t talking about literal incest. But that was like sayingoh, my arm is on fire, but at least my legs are okay.Yeah, sure, it was better, but you were still on fuckingfire.

“Our aunt—our mother’s sister—was his second wife. He took Hannah as his fourth.”

Fury still pounding in my veins, I looked down at him. “You keep sayingwaslike this is all in the past. Hewasher uncle. Your auntwashis second wife. But he can still go to prison for it.”

“Well, no. He can’t go to prison. I keep sayingwasbecause he’s dead.”

“How did that happen?” Not that I cared about his life being cut short, but damn. What was I supposed to do with all this helpless rage if I couldn’t drag him into a jail cell with my own two hands?

Jeremiah’s gaze flicked away. “He made a choice.”

Suicide? My eyes narrowed. Had Jeremiah helped him make that choice? I wasn’t going to ask. It wouldn’t matter if I did; Jeremiah wouldn’t tell me if he had.

“Does Hannah know?” I asked.

“Hannah knows.”

I nodded.

Fuck.Fuck.

Because now I understood.

She had grown up thinking her uncle was a family member. She loved him. She trusted him. And he had donethat. Betrayed her childhood devotion to him. The person who was supposed to protect her and keep her safe had stolen her innocence.

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