Page 74 of Velvet Cruelty

My hands ball into fists. I want to kill Parker. Go back in time and murder him when I was seventeen. All this time planning and fucking around. Meanwhile, he stole our drug and used it on the girl I love.

“What happened next?” Doc asks. His voice is sharp, but I can hear something else creeping in at the edges. Fear or maybe just softness.

“I felt sick. I was so scared I was going to ruin my dress.”

“You mean you wanted to puke?”

She nods, her eyes huge in the semi-darkness.

“Did you?”

“No, my mom found us and got really angry. She and Mr. Parker went somewhere else, and then she came back and told me we were going home.”

“What happened when you got home?”

January looks away, gnawing her lower lip.

“I don’t give a shit how embarrassed you are, Tesorina. What happened next?”

She cringes and I shove Doc’s shoulder. “Watch how you talk to her.”

He rounds on me, eyes narrowed. “Or what?”

I square my shoulders. Doc’s vicious in a fight, and not above hair-pulling and groin-punching, but I’m bigger and he knows it. Adri’s always been his muscle. Question is would he step in if we fought now? I glance at Adriano, and he stares back, blank as a statue.

“Enough,” Eli says. “The two of you are acting like fools.”

“Basher’s acting like a fool,” Doc snarls. “Tell him to go pull his dick and come back with a clear head.”

“Go fuck your—”

“I touched myself,” January blurts out. “When I got home.”

Doc and I turn back to her. She’s flushing. “I touched myself, then I threw up. I was up all night doing it.”

The corner of Doc’s mouth kicks up. “Puking or touching yourself?”

“Both.” She shakes her head as though trying to dislodge the memories. “Zia Teresa wanted me to go to the hospital, but mom wouldn’t let her take me. She said I had food poisoning. I was so scared because all the while they were talking by my bed, I couldn’t stop… you know.” Her eyes grow bright with tears. “…I was under the covers, and I don’t think they saw me, but it was humiliating. I didn’t know what was happening.”

I tense my arm, ready to punch Doc for laughing, but for once he looks as horrified as I feel.

“Go on,” Eli prompts.

January draws in a shaking breath. “Eventually I stopped being sick and… you know… but I was exhausted. I didn’t feel better for almost a week.”

“Did you throw up the next day?” Doc asks.

“No, but I felt like I had the flu.”

“And your mood? Were you depressed? Did you have trouble sleeping?”

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him like this. Professional. Take away the tattoos and the cigarette and he could be a doctor doing hospital rounds.

“Um, just tired I think.” January seems a new kind of nervous as though Doc asking sensible questions is more disturbing than him taking his cock out. “Do you think Mr. Parker gave me Orchard?”

Doc looks out the dark rain-flecked window. “Did your mom talk to you about what happened?”

“No.”

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