Page 43 of Dusty and Dented
“That’s not all, though.”She still wouldn’t meet his gaze but he needed to know.He needed to know if this was going to be more than a brief thing.Hell, he needed to know after last night too.
“What is it, baby?”His voice was so gentle, his hands on her back had become gentle, as if he was afraid she might break.If she thought about what she was about to share, she might.
“He didn’t just sleep with other women.He made me be with his friends.”She couldn’t make her voice any louder than a whisper and as soon as she got the words out, she moved her head from where it had been pressed against his and instead buried her face in his chest.She didn’t want to see his face as he knew what she’d done.Her biggest humiliation laid bare for Dagger to see.
How could anyone care for her, love her, knowing what she’d done?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dagger fought the urgeto stiffen.He didn’t want her to know how her words hit him, how they made him wish he’d been there to put a stop to what he was sure was abuse.If only from the way she talked about it.The way she hid from him, he was 99% sure she hadn’t screwed Montiglio’s friends because she’d wanted to.But he had to be completely sure.Because if it was what he thought, then Montiglio had signed his own death warrant, he just hadn’t known it at the time.
“Baby?”Dagger kept his voice soft.“Andy, please look at me.”He couldn’t let her see the rage he felt believing she’d been forced to do that, but he had to be sure.
Slowly, as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to see his face, she pulled her face away from his chest.Dagger kept the slow, gentle movements of his hand smoothing up and down her back going.He wanted to reassure her as she tilted her head back and met his gaze from inches away.
“You’ll get no judgement from me either way.I’m no saint and I’ve had more than my share of sexual adventures.But everyone involved wanted what was happening.”He paused to let his words sink in.He hoped she would understand what he was trying to say and not freak out when he asked what he had to know.“Did you want to fuck his friends?”
Her face turned bright pink.He didn’t know if it was embarrassment over what they were talking about or the crude way he’d put it.Tears pooled in her eyes, threatening to spill over when she closed her eyes and shook her head.
“No.I hated it.I fought.I begged.I cried.He didn’t care and when he told them to teach me what happened to disobedient little whores, they hurt me more.They seemed to enjoy it more when they got to hurt me.”Her words were barely more than a whisper, as if she couldn’t stand to hear them out loud.Not that he blamed her.
“He’ll never hurt you again.”Dagger pulled her against his chest.He asked a few questions—if she knew who they were, would she recognize them if she saw them again, and a few others—then he held her against him, listening to her breathing and rubbing up and down her back until the fine trembling that started after her confession passed.Until she slipped back into sleep, and still he held her.Once he was sure she was deep asleep, and would likely stay that way for a while, he slid from the bed, careful not to disturb her as he picked up a pair of jeans and stepped into the bathroom to pull them on.He didn’t bother to grab shoes as he padded silently past the bed where Andy lay fast asleep but he did grab his cut on his way by.In the hall, once he’d closed the door as quietly as possible, he shrugged into the familiar leather vest.It rubbed a little weird since he hadn’t bothered to find a t-shirt before leaving the room and he wasn’t going back for one now.
First, he went downstairs to see who was around.As he hit the bottom of the stairs, he checked the clock over the bar and found it wasn’t quite midnight.Good.He might not have to get anyone up for this.In the main room, he looked around and didn’t spot anyone who could help him, so he headed back to the office where Hawkeye kept his computer and did most of his security work for the club.
In there, he found Hawkeye, his feet propped up, laptop in his lap, and his hands flying over the keyboard, pausing here and there to take a pull from the beer bottle on the table beside him.
“What’s up?”Dagger said as he made his way to the sofa that sat along the wall perpendicular to where Hawkeye sat.“Find some game that you can’t break away from?”
“No.”Hawkeye set the bottle aside and stared at Dagger for a moment.“I thought you’d be upstairs with your new girl.”
Dagger forced himself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“She’s asleep.But I learned a couple of things that needed to be shared.Thought I’d come down and see who was around so we could get started on this.”
“I found a few things, too, but I don’t want to have to go over it time and again, so let me get ahold of Raven and see what he wants to do.”He picked up the cell phone sitting on the table beside the beer and typed out a message.Dagger couldn’t take sitting still, not with the anger and need for justice that coursed hot through his veins right now.He pushed himself to his feet and paced the room while he waited for Hawkeye.He wasn’t watching but Dagger assumed he hit SEND before setting it aside and looking back at Dagger.
