Page 45 of Their Defiant Mate

Focusing on the sequence of events, Tara stubbornly distanced herself from the past. “Ethan was physically attractive, charming, and well spoken. People were just drawn to him.”

“You became lovers?” Jon’s features were carefully guarded, but his tone was tight.

“Eventually.” Jealousy flashed across their link, but Jon quickly controlled the emotion. Tara indulged in an inward smile. It was refreshing to have someone care about her enough to feel jealousy. “We went out for drinks with others from the group, then started to date a few weeks later. Ethan seemed perfect at first, caring, and genuine.”

“He took advantage of your vulnerability,” Jon growled out the conclusion as he gently rubbed her back.

They were shielding their emotions. She could sense their minds, but they felt distant, muted. Did they already blame her for the disaster that followed?

“We don’t want our emotions to influence what you’re explaining,” Kyle told her. “But I’ve already heard enough to know for sure that you werenotresponsible.”

Her smile was a bit broader this time, but it still felt odd to have someone respond to something she’d thought rather than said. She hadn’t intentionally passed the thought to him, but the link was basically automatic when she was upset. “Ethan was everything I wanted in a life partner. Strong, dependable, with just enough bad boy mixed in to keep things interesting. He moved in with me three months after we met and I honestly expected to spend the rest of my life with him.” She lapsed into silence as scenes from the past washed over her.

“Hemoved in withyou?” Isaac asked suspiciously. “Didn’t this deadbeat have a place of his own?”

“He claimed that his roommate fell hopelessly in love and wanted to live with his girlfriend. The girlfriend would only do it if they could have the apartment to themselves.”

Kyle studied her, eyes slightly narrowed. “The story is plausible. Did he lie about that too?”

She sighed and lowered her gaze. “Looking back, there were all sorts of red flags, but I was too infatuated to see them.”

“Go on,” Jon urged. “How did you find out who he really was?”

Tara cleared her throat and raised her gaze, but still found it hard to admit how foolish she’d been while looking at her mates. “Dr. Korstan, the woman who ran the crisis center, asked me to attend a meeting across town. The support group was run by one of her colleagues and he’d asked for Dr. Korstan’s help. The group was struggling, and he wasn’t sure why. Dr. Korstan thought an objective perspective might give them some ideas on how to make the program more successful.”

“Did Ethan go with you?” Isaac sat up, drawing her with him. It was obvious this wasn’t going to be a quick discussion, so they all shifted to a more conversational arrangement.

Tara drew the sheet up and covered her nudity. She wasn’t ashamed of her body. She just felt less vulnerable with her lady parts covered. “I went with a female friend, and we were chatting with one of the participants after the meeting. I mentioned Ethan’s name and she freaked out. Apparently, the asshole targeted women like me. He traveled around from city to city joining support groups,; grief, rape, addiction, he exploited them all. He’d find people who were struggling and in pain and…” Emotion thickened her voice, and she had to pause for a deep breath. “He talked them out of money and affection. Heconvinced one woman to take out a second mortgage on her house, claimed he needed financing for a business venture. And it wasn’t just money. He got off on people’s pain. He was the worst sort of?—”

“Parasite,” Jon finished for her. “Anyone who targets victims is a waste of oxygen.”

“Their group had sent out warnings and plastered his picture all over social media, but the bastard always managed to find a group that didn’t know who he was. Our group was a perfect example. The organizers knew each other, but Dr. Korstan never saw the messages.”

“Did you go to the police?” Isaac wanted to know.

She made a helpless gesture as frustration surged. “I spoke with a detective, but Ethan hadn’t broken any laws. Even the mortgage had been taken out voluntarily and new business ventures fail all the time. Being a selfish, twisted asshole isn’t illegal.” She felt a faint ripple of emotions too conflicted to decipher. The worst of the story was out, but there was one final hurt. “When I told my parents about Ethan and that I’d applied to Nuevo Biotech, they accused me of running away.”

“You had no choice,” Kyle defended, but he didn’t really understand her motivation.

“I didn’t run away,” she insisted. “I wanted to make damn sure he didn’t victimize anyone else. I kicked him out of my apartment, then personally contacted the leaders of every support group in our state. Ethan retaliated with a social media blitz the likes of which you’ve never seen before. He accused me of harassing and stalking him. He insisted that I was mentally unstable and warned people to steer clear of me.”

“Did the detective react to any of this?” Isaac’s tense expression told her that he already knew what she’d say.

“Of course he did. He investigated both our claims and found Ethan more credible. The courts issued a restraining orderagainst me. The situation got really ugly after that. Ethan would catch people in the parking lot or contact them on social media and warn them about the psychotic counselor. We saw participation drop significantly and I was spending more time battling Ethan than counseling the few clients we had left. I was an employee, but Dr. Korstan’s professional reputation was tied up in the crisis center. I was harming her, and I couldn’t allow that to continue.”

“So you applied to Nuevo Biotech,” Kyle concluded. “You weren’t running away. You were protecting your friend and mentor.”

She nodded. “Distancing myself from the situation allowed everyone to calm down so Dr. Korstan could rebuild.”

“Did your parents apologize?” Kyle asked hopefully.

“In a way.” Tara sighed. She hadn’t spoken to either of her parents since she was arrested, and now it was unlikely that she ever would. “They were polite, even friendly when I left for the outpost. But when all hell broke loose at Nuevo, they were quick to point out that I wouldn’t have ended up in jail if I hadn’t ‘run away’ from my problems.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Isaac snarled, shaking his head.

“What happened to the asshole?” Jon wanted to know.

“He was robbed at knifepoint. The mugger stabbed him repeatedly and left him to bleed to death in an alley. I don’t know if one of his victims arranged the crime or if karma justcaught up to him.” She shrugged and released the past with a shuddering sigh. “It was not my place to punish him, but I’m glad he can’t hurt anyone else.”

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