Page 66 of Duke
He blows out a breath. “I need to know more. What else can you tell me?”
Oh god. Oh god.I really feel like I’m going to throw up now. I look down at my hands, grimacing. “I promised her.” A shuddery breath passes between my lips as my hands shake. “We made a pact. We said we’d never tell.” After several moments of silence, I lift my head to see all three staring intently at me. “I don’t know how to do this. I feel like I’m going to break.” Tears well in my eyes.
Mason looks at me dead-on. “Listen to me, Kintsukuroi. There’s a reason I gave you that nickname. You are strong enough. And if you break, if you shatter, we will put you back together. Piece by piece. Promise.”
I nod. There’s a buzzing loud in my ears, and I give myself a shake, trying to get it to stop. “They had us wearing these… revealing outfits. Kinda slutty, honestly. And these guys, they thought nothing of touching our legs or sliding their hands up under our skirts while we had our hands full of drinks.” I take a deep breath. “At one point in the evening, someone offered me a drink. And I was so nervous about what I should or shouldn’t do, I accepted and downed it. Really fast. Thanked him. Walked away.” Closing my eyes for a moment, I attempt to breathe deeply to calm myself, because I know what’s coming in my sick little story. “After that, I remember flickering lights. Certain smells. Cigars. Booze. Herky-jerky movement, like disjointed flashes of what was happening around me. Masks. I remember masks. But that’s it. Nothing to focus on. And then nothing. Just nothing.” My throat is so dry, I have to force a swallow. “Juliette and I woke up in her car in the parking lot of the diner, sick and with our heads pounding.”
Bear is the first to move, rubbing his hands over his face in disbelief. Mason grips his hair and tugs on it as he stares at me through wounded, worried eyes. And Duke… he’s still as a stone statue. Unmoving. Hardly even breathing.
“I…” I may as well tell them the rest. “We’re almost certain we were raped after we were drugged with whatever they slipped in our drinks. Juliette might not have been quite as sure as I was, but I—” I let a heavy breath stutter from me, and my cheeks flame red as my gaze travels to each of my guys in turn. “I’d been a virgin before that night, so—” Before I can finish, Duke has hauled me onto his lap, where he holds me so fucking tight I can hardly breathe.
He’s not exactly crying, but I can feel how affected he is by the jerking of his chest and the way his fingers dig into my back as he holds me. It’s as if he’s trying to reassure himself that I’m there in his arms. Whole. Unharmed. Alive.
Mason’s hands cup my shoulders, his lips finding the base of my neck as he whispers, “Kin, I’m so fucking sorry that happened to you. So sorry.” He wraps his arms around both of us, his warmth envelopes me as he curls around my back.
Bear kneels where he can look into my eyes. He touches a few fingers to my trembling chin. “Sweet girl, I hope you know this changes nothing at all. Not a damn thing about how we feel about you. You’re ours. And we’re yours. Until the end.” He leans in, taking my lips in the sweetest of kisses before putting his arms around all of us.
When I said those words, when I told them the truth, it was like all the air had left the room. But now, in their embrace and surrounded by their love, I feel strangely calm. Like I can take on whatever I need to. Because I know they’re in this with me. Forever.
After several minutes, Bear brushes a tendril of hair out of my eyes, then quietly asks, “Did you recognize anyone there that night? Have you met them since?”
“We never saw the guy Juliette had been talking to that I know of.” I suck in a harsh, wet-sounding breath. “But… I think Hunter was the one who came around after. To the diner. He kept an eye on Juliette. He was scaring her, but she didn’t know what to do.”
I get another flash of memory, this time a younger Hunter sidling up to Juliette before he left the diner. Touching her back. Whispering in her ear. My chest clenches. I should have done more. If I’d known what was coming… I would have.
Yesterday, Hunter had finally gotten a fraction of what he deserves. After the beating Mason gave him, the guys had taken him into the pool house and tied him up to deal with sometime later today. He’s in pain, I’m certain. Suffering. And he deserves every bit of it.
“Sounds like something he’d do,” Mason murmurs, a hint of anger lacing his voice.
I press my lips together. “I’m almost positive it was him. He would’ve been like twenty-one. So maybe a little thinner, and a slightly different haircut. But yeah. Had I met him before yesterday, I might have made the connection sooner.”
Duke presses kisses in my hair. “She was acting strangely.” And then, like he’s asking no one in particular… or maybe just himself, he whispers, “Is this why she killed herself?”
I don’t answer because I can’t do that for Juliette. My tears wet his skin, “Do you h-hate me for keeping quiet? I-I promised her. We s-swore to each other that we’d n-never tell. I didn’t know w-what she was going to do.”
“Never, Stella Bella. You're not the one who’s at fault here.”
Sobs rack my body, and I hold onto the knowledge that Duke and Mason and Bear have me. No matter what. Theyhaveme.
THIRTY-FOUR
BEAR
My stomach is tiedup in knots. I rub my hand over my jaw as I sit on the couch in my room, trying to decide on a course of action. We need to do something about Hunter. Fast. We’ve pissed off the OG Bastards multiple times in the last week, and I assume they’re gearing up to strike back at us. I work my jaw to the side, knowing deep in my heart of hearts this war was always coming. We were simply too young and blind to see it before now. Go figure that we thought our parents were going to be there for us, that they’d be men we could look up to. Painful lessons we’ve been learning these last few years, but especially as this final year at Bainbridge Hall has started.
Glancing down at Hunter’s phone, I punch in his passcode. Yesterday, we’d taken it from him, only to see a notification from Tristan, checking in to see if Hunter had spoken to Quincy and Arik. Obviously, we had to respond, but Mason had fucked up Hunter’s face too bad to use the facial identification to open the phone. We’d finally wrangled the number from him with a knife to his throat.
Yep, I pulled his own goddamn knife out of his pocket to use on him. It was probably the one he used to control Lennon. I’d say he deserved it.
I want to make sure there’s nothing else I need to respond to, so I take another look at that thread of messages.
Q & A?
Made contact. Lazy fuckers.
See you tomorrow at the club.
Good. No response, so there’s no need for another text.Thank fuck.The less information we give them, the better.
