Page 49 of Dangerous Love

Jarryd and I exchanged a side glance, neither of us correcting him. There were bigger fish to fry. “Not long after Riley and Trey had it out with Hal, he sent me a note reminding me who was in charge.” Jarryd cleared his throat. “He wanted me to know that if Riley played up, he’d lose everything he cared about, starting with his new family.”

“Fucking awesome,” Avery hissed.

His tone grating at me, I jumped to my feet and faced him. “Avery, you need to relax. I have no reason to believe Hal will come after her or anyone. He’s just healing his narcissistic injury right now.”

When Avery froze on the spot, I almost ran into him. He looked up, his glare jet black. “Really? Is that what we’re going with?” He shoved a chair in the middle of the room and pointed at it. “I tell you what. Why don’t you sit the fuck down and I’ll tell you a bedtime story.”

Jarryd took a step until he was right between us. “It’s not his fault, Av. That’s what Hal Cooper does. He destroys everything.”

Avery grabbed another chair, turned it around and straddled it until he faced us. Beads of sweat ran from his forehead and glistened at the base of his throat. The cords around his neck tightened, his lip twitching as he took a couple of deep breaths. “The last time Sienna saw your father is anchored in my mind. Did she tell you about that day?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“It was a couple of days before I sent her to Parmaalone.” Cracks appeared in the usually immovable guy. First in the way his throat closed up, and then in how he played with his wrists. Whatever it was, it hadn’t been a pleasant meeting. My heart skyrocketed in my rib cage, tension increasing in the silence around us. “He turned up in our hotel room.” His gaze scanned the apartment until his eyes landed on the queen-size bed. He whispered, his tone icy, “I can still see her lying there.”

I swallowed hard, my chest locked with shallow breaths.What’s he talking about?

“Your father came to pay me a little visit.” He pointed towards Jarryd. “‘Cause he wasn’t happy about the fake intel I was feeding him. And at some point, it clicked that he wouldn’t get much out of me without a little incentive.” Something shifted in Avery’s eyes as he visualised a scene only he could see.

Fists clenched, I forced a breath in and out of my lungs. “What happened, Avery?”

His eyes were empty, emotions leaving his body as he continued. “He found her hiding in the bathroom. He had me on my knees, my face shoved against a wall, his fucking gun to my temple.” A shaky breath interrupted his nightmare. “Then he got one of his fucking enforcers to give me the fucking incentive I needed.” His voice broke as he said the words.

My world shattered as I pictured Sienna on that bed, my mind begging me to stop the imagery running rampant between my ears. I jumped to my feet, the chair toppling to the ground. “Tell me he didn’t touch her like that.” A sick feeling had me dizzy, and I ran my hands over my face, the despair delving deeper.

He sighed. “I can hear her screaming in my head. I can see him drag her ankles towards him, and how fast he took his fucking belt off.”

“Jesus.” Jarryd covered his mouth with his fist.

“You know what the worst part was?” he asked us both. “When he slid his hands up her shorts, she stopped fighting. It was like she’d resigned.”

Rage building inside me, my thoughts drilling a hole in my brain, I didn’t think twice before my fist connected with the wall. Pain radiated through my knuckles, my heart haemorrhaging with hopelessness. “I’ll kill him,” I screamed. I turned towards Avery. “Which one was it?”

Avery scoffed. “The one who’s now permanently eating out of a straw.” He stepped next to me and pressed a hand to my back. “He didn’t get a chance to go any further, because by then, I didn’t care if we lived or died and I’d smashed him to a pulp before your father had time to press the trigger.”

Though it should have been good news, my body fought me and tightened even more.

It should have been you protecting her.I’d failed her. Again. That’s all I’d been doing since I’d met her. Jarryd was right. I needed to take a step (or ten) back. “I think I’m gonna puke,” I said between clenched teeth.

Avery settled on his chair again. “Yep. Now you know why I won’t risk another chance.”

My hand flew to my mouth as I waited for my stomach to settle.

“Just take deep breaths, Ri,” Jarryd said. “It’s the adrenaline.”

Avery ran his hands over the back of his skull. “As long as Cooper doesn’t think Trey’s back on the Sienna scene, he won’t pay attention to her. He would only look to hurt my sister if he thought it’d make his son pay.”

My heart dropped into my stomach, the nausea rising tenfold. It was time to come clean. I took a deep breath, my mind fighting the emotional fog clouding my thoughts. I sighed. “It’s not Trey he wants to hurt.” Guilt and shame pinned me down like a pair of concrete shoes.

Avery jerked his head towards me. “What do you mean?”

“Trey’s not with Sienna,” Jarryd puffed.

I lifted my eyes until they were levelled with the chef’s. Then I exhaled as I surrendered to the truth. “No. But I am.”

CHAPTER25

Sienna

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