Page 30 of The Ruthless Guardian

"He raped Rose,” Phoebe whispers, drawing her arms around herself tightly. “I didn't stop him. I didn't know how to and then she… shekilled herself.I told the cops and he went to prison and now, he's getting out isn't he? He’s going to come after me. I sent him to prison."

My mind is running a hundred miles an hour trying to keep up with what she’s telling me. Eight years ago Phoebe would’ve been fifteen. Pres said she was a witness in a trial. Now it’s all adding up.Shit!My chest aches watching her break down as these revelations unfurl between us. "You were there?"

"He told her 'dont scream', and when he was done… he told me 'you're next. You have to wait 'til tomorrow',” she recites, and my stomach turns. This man is the cause of her nightmares and panic attacks. “That's why the note, but he- Is that right now?” She points behind me. “If he's just getting out then how did he leave me the note?"

"I don’t know.” That’s the kind of information I intend to force out of him when I get the chance.

"I didn't know how to stop him!” Tears have started streaming down her perfect cheeks, and I take a step closer to see if she’ll cower away. She doesn’t. “I was so scared! I know I should've helped her. If I could go back, I swear I would do something to make it stop. I didn't know-"

I squish her head against my chest with my arms behind her head.She’s safe. I take comfort in that, forcing my breaths to go deeper into my lungs so I don’t have my own panic attack. "Rose was my sister." The confession makes Phoebe tense in my arms, going stock-still against me.

"What?"

"Rose was my sister. She took her own life because that bastard hurt her. He didn't touch you?" I’ve asked that question a few times and she hasn’t answered yet. I’m crawling out of my fucking skin waiting for her to tell me how brutally I’m going to torture the waste of space. All the things I wanted to do to my Rose’s abuser are combining with the things I’ve been wanting to do to Phoebe’s stalker and it’s adding up to a really bad day, maybe week, for Tony.

"She was really your sister? Were you in foster care too?"

My jaw clenches and I inhale through my teeth. She avoided answeringagain."No. Did. he.touch. you?”

“Um, no, not really,” she answers, clenching her arms around me. “He didn’t do anything like that to me. But he covered my mouth that night and it freaks me out. It’s-it’s… irrational and stupid but that’s why I panicked when I woke up to you holding me down. It was like he found me and-”

“Fuck.” Releasing her from the tight squeeze of my arms, I cup her cheeks gently and back away a step, trying to give her space. “I didn’t know. You know I didn’t mean to upset you, right? I would never do anything to hurt you. I wouldn’t have done it if I knew.”

Water pools in her eyes and she wraps her arms around my waist, crushing my chest against hers. “I thought I did the right thing. I could have saved her and I didn’t. I failed her. I’m so sorry, Josiah.”

“Stop apologizing. You were a kid. Don’t ever fucking apologize for that shit again. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I left her alone. I asked her to run with me and she wouldn’t. She said she was okay.”

“Shit, Phoebe.” That’s so much more than I expected her to say. It sounds like she might have been the last person to speak to Rose and the one to find her, but I can’t ask. My stomach is cramping so intensely already that I don’t think I can take much more without vomiting.

“Is he coming? Is he coming for me?” Her calm in this situation is making me even more nauseous. She’s had so much time to come to terms with all this. She’s been preparing herself for this possibility for years.

“He would never get to you, baby. You know that, right? He would never get in here. I would never let anything hurt you.”

“I know.” Her arms tighten around me and she rests her head against my chest.

Leaning down, I press my lips to the top of her head and run through how the fuck we’re going to work this out. Tony has to die, but not today. He can have today. I’ve got someone more important to give my attention to right now.

Chapter Twenty-three

Phoebe

“Rose told me she was an orphan like me. What happened to your parents?” I ask, tucking my legs under me on the couch as Josiah clicks around on the computer. It took a few hours before he calmed down enough to let me go, but he’s been doing research silently for a long time now and I need to talk.

I know he’s got a lot of things to deal with, but I feel so much lighter now that the secret is out. I feel like I can breathe better. I want to know more about him. I didn’t realize how little I truly know about him because of how much I’ve hidden of myself, but things are starting to click together. He moved into this place nine years ago, a year before Rose died. That seems significant to me.

Josiah lets out a pent up breath and looks over his shoulder at me. “I don’t think you need more today.”

“No, I do. I need all of it. I want to know.”

He shakes his head and turns back to the computer. “Phoebe, it’s… it’s not a pretty story. It’s disgusting and gory. It was a long time ago.”

“My parents died in a fire. I was six. I didn’t even know anything was burning until the firefighter pulled me out. My Aunt Sofie took me in but I was angry. I caused too many problems. She tried hard, but she eventually put me in the system. That’s what happened to my parents. So what about yours?”

“I’m sorry that happened. You can’t say that shit in a bubbly voice and think it’s going to hide the pain from me. My parents are dead too, and for now that’s all you need to know.”

“Josiah, I know I hid stuff from you, and I’m sorry. I need you to talk to me. I need you to tell me something else to make this feeling in my stomach go away.”

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