Page 68 of Complete Me
“Kinsey, this is Lena. My sister. Sis, this is Kinsey. She’s important to me, and I needed you two to meet.”
I keep my arm wrapped around Kinsey’s waist, my other resting on her bare thigh, rubbing my thumb aimlessly over the soft skin there. I swallow hard against the onslaught of emotion.
“Almost ten years ago, I was having dinner with Lena at our parents’ house, after I had to head back to the clubhouse for a party. She begged me to take her with me. We were inseparable. She was my best friend, Kins. There’s not much we didn’t do together. But I hated bringing her here, and I told her no.”
Kinsey listens intently, the light summer breeze caressing her face and whipping her hair around.
“She was secretly seeing Chaos’ younger brother, Lucas, and she snuck out to meet up with him shortly after I left her. Later that night, we got a tip that Lucas and Lena had been picked up by a rival club. By the time we got to the house, it was too late. Chaos carried her out of the house and put her lifeless body in my arms.”
“Reid . . .” Kinsey gasps, covering her mouth and choking on a sob.
“They raped and beat her to death and left her there as a message to us. I’ll spare you what happened to Lucas, but we couldn’t retrieve his body to bring it back here to rest with Lena. I died along with her that day, Kinsey. If I had just said yes and brought her with me. If I hadn’t joined the club at all, she never would have been targeted.”
“Reid, it’s not your fault. There is evil out there that you can’t control. We can’t control other people’s decisions, no matter how much we wish we could sometimes.”
I release a rough breath as her sweet little hands reach up to grasp my face, wiping away the tears that have started to escape my eyes. I didn’t even realize I was crying.
“You need to know what kind of man I am, Kinsey. That club? We hunted them down one by one and killed them all. Their president? I spent days torturing him before his body gave up on him, and he died. I don’t regret any of it.”
I notice her spine stiffen against me, how her breathing has stopped, and my heart starts to break because I know she’s realizing just who Rogue is, the part of me I’ve kept hidden, what I’m capable of, and while it needed to happen, I wanted to be enough for her, I want to begoodenough for her.
“That’s not all,” I say, pausing for a moment. “No one had heard from the Iron Wolves in almost ten years. We assumed we had killed all of them off, or whoever survived went into hiding or joined other clubs. But they’ve regrouped. They hit us a month ago at one of our businesses, we retaliated, and I went in for the job. I let one of them live to send a message, and because of that, they came for me and took you instead.” My voice cracks on the last two words, and my tears flow harder. “It’s my fault you were taken.”
“Reid, hey, I’m okay. It is not your fault. It’s theirs. You saved me. I’m okay.”
“Fuck, Kinsey, if I lost you,” I choke out the words, my heart fracturing further. “I wouldn’t survive it.”
“I’m here. I’m going to be okay. I’m so sorry, Reid. But you are not the things you’ve done. You are the best fucking man I know, do you understand me? You are good.”
“Tell me what happened there, Kinsey. It’s killing me not knowing what they did to you,” I beg her. “My mind is a dangerous, dark place after what I’ve seen and done. No matter what happened, I’m not walking away from this. Anythingdone to us in this life doesn’t define who we are, and it changes nothing.”
She takes a deep, stuttering breath, tears streaming down her pretty face.
“I was upstairs reading when I heard a crash downstairs. It’s Aspen Ridge, Reid, it didn’t cross my mind that it wasn’t you down there, so I went to see if you were okay. I thought maybe you had fallen—anything but what I found. By the time I had opened the door, the crashing and shattering was louder, so I grabbed the baseball bat the boys left me by the front door and snuck down. I have no idea why I didn’t call for help or hide. Stupidity? I’m too young and naive?”
“Baby, don’t talk about yourself like that.”
“It’s true! Never in a million years did I think two lowlife scumbags would be trashing your beautiful studio. I was frozen in shock, and then they saw me, and it was too late.”
“The blood all over the floor? Was that yours?”
“No.” She shakes her head with a devilish smile that makes me so proud. “I didn’t go without a fight. I broke one of their noses. Everything else was kind of a blur. I fought hard, and then they knocked me out. I woke up in the shithole you found me in.”
“And they didn’t touch you?”
She gets quiet, and my heart sinks. I had already had her confirmation they hadn’t raped her, but that doesn’t mean other things didn’t happen.
“Did. They. Touch. You?”
“No. Not in the way you’re asking. Only ever you.”
Relief floods my veins.
“I’m going to kill them all, Kinsey.”
“I know, baby.”
A growl works up my chest, shifting her in my arms by her tiny waist. Her legs wrap around me, settling Kinsey’s ass rightin my lap, her arms curling around my neck. I bend into her, holding her tightly around the waist with my head buried in her neck. I cry for my sister, for Kinsey, for the two pieces of me I’ve struggled to keep separate for a decade, only to have them forcefully fused together. I’ve confessed my sins, and I want to accept her love if she’ll give it to me after this.
