Page 117 of Totally Wrecked
Pulling the brakes on my fury is not easy, but I manage—barely. “Gray is right, we wait until tomorrow. We also need to hear what Daisy wants, and we need to discuss how to protect Key through all this. What’s it gonna do to her psyche if all her uncles are killers?”
Gray kicks a stone and it flies off into the distance.
“Gray, think of Keyara and Daisy.Theyare our priorities, not this piece of shit,” I kick Harvey in the ribs, just once. I can’t help it. “And our own anger and need to kill him cannot be our priority either. The girls, Gray, it’s the girls we gotta think of.”
“He’s right,” Leander says. “Fuck, I can’t believe I was laughing with him, I want to cut my own tongue out, goddamit.”
“So much for ‘Dartington boys have to stick together’,” mutters Harvey. Leander readies another kick, but I stop him.
Even though cloth is at a premium, I pull off my shirt, walk over to Harvey and stuff it in his mouth. “We don’t need to hear from him. Let's regroup by the fire.”
I don’t wait for them, just make my way over to where Killian and Daisy are now sitting. Her eyes are bloodshot and puffy, and she’s wiping snot on the sleeve of her shirt.
I squat in front of her and closing my eyes, I try to keep the white-hot rage from bursting out again. Fuck, it’s real hard.
But then I can feel her hot breath as her head moves closer to mine. Her voice is soft, “Rex? Sit with me?”
Slowly she runs her hand through my hair, I move closer until I pressed beside her, drawing her body away from Killian and into me. Gray is pacing up and down. He’ll settle in his own time.
“Are you able to tell me what happened?” I don’t want to push her, but I need to know.
“I should tell you and Leander together, so I don’t have to repeat it.”
“Of course, baby, or course.”
I press myself against her and inhale her scent: woodsmoke, salt, and something else, sweet and light. Tears form in the back of my throat and I swallow them down.
Gray throws some more wood on the fire, then Leander picks up one of his booze bottles.
“Yes or no?”
“Fuck, yes,” says Killian, putting out his hand.
“Me too,” agrees Daisy.
With a sad smile, Leander starts collecting up the remaining hooch and handing it out. Then we sit in silence, in a circle, sipping our drinks and listening to the waves.
An overwhelming sense of love washes over me; these people are my family. Killian and Daisy too.
Daisy starts to speak and she tells of how convincing Harvey was. How he gagged her, choked her. Then Harvey had begged Daisy to keep quiet about the assault, as it was mistaken identity, and he hadn’t really done anything wrong. Daisy had agreed because she had been convinced, beyond doubt, that Brooke had a rape-fantasy kink, and Harvey was just fulfilling it.
“She is very…extreme,” Daisy says, “and she hates not being the boss, so it kind of made sense that she’d want to lose all control in a fantasy situation.”
With a tremor in her voice, she asks, “What’s going to happen now? It’s obvious he knew it was me all along, so just did all that to punish me.”
“He tried to rape you because he thought he had the ideal set up to get away with it,” I tell her. “And in the morning we will listen to what he has to say, and then, I dunno… probably kill him? Thoughts?”
There are general grunts of agreement from around the circle, but Daisy is shaking her head. “And then what? When we are rescued, everyone goes to prison? And what are we teaching Keyara in that scenario? I know he’s awful, but this is a man’s life.”
“We are teaching her that no one messes with our family,” Gray growls.
“Daisy’s right,” Killian says. “This is worth more than a five-minute, knee-jerk conversation. Especially taking Keyara into consideration.”
As much as I hate to admit it, I know he’s right.
“But beating him the fuck up?” I ask the group in general, but especially Daisy.
“That seems like appropriate island justice,” Daisy replies, looking me straight in the eye.
