Page 18 of Reaper Razed

“I just can’t stay here forever.” She sighs. “You’ll get fed up with me being a drain on you soon, and I’ll have to go.”

“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on? Honesty, start to finish, and then we can decide what you want to do, but I told you, you can stay as long as you want!” I pinch her chin between my finger and thumb and lift her face to look into my eyes. “No secrets now, but you can stay no matter what you tell me, okay?”

“I know you’ll look at me differently when you know it all. You’ll see me as broken and damaged and send me away!”

“Skye, look around. We're all broken and damaged, but the only way you’re leaving here is if you want to, simple as that. Come on, trust me, and if I can help, I will!”

Looking away from me, it’s barely a whisper. “I think I’m pregnant.”

A lonely tear slides down her face, and she looks at her hands in her lap. I slide my arm around her and pull her to me.

“Just tell me, was it consensual? Was it someone from the club?”

Dropping her head to my shoulder, she shakes her head, and a small sob comes out.

“Skye… I need you to tell me, did one of the guys here force you?”

“No! It was before I was… sold.” She lets out a breath as tears fill her eyes and track down her cheek, pooling at her lips before trailing over her chin and dripping down her neck. “My mum’s boyfriend.”

“Did he force himself on you?” She nods, unable to hold my gaze, grabbing her chin again and raising it up to look me in the eyes. “Don’t do that! Don’t be embarrassed about what someone took from you without your consent! Don’t ever be ashamed of surviving.”

“What am I going to do on my own with a baby?”

“Firstly, you’re nineteen— ”

“Twenty-four,” she interrupts.

“Twenty-four? Okay, secondly, you’re not on your own.” I pinch her chin harder to stop her glancing away. “What do you want?”

“I don’t know!”

“Whatever you need, I’ll help you, but if you’re pregnant, then we need to get you checked out by a doctor, okay?”

“What if they tell him where to find me? I can’t go back! I… ” she trails off and sobs a little more. I pull her closer, holding her to my chest as she sobs some more. Once she’s done, she screws her hoodie sleeves into her hand and wipes her face.

“Firstly, we have a clinic on our payroll. I'll take you there, you'll be safe, and I won’t leave your side while we’re there, okay? Secondly… you want me to kill the bastard?”

Her eyes shoot to mine, searching for the truth in my question. Would I do it? Yep. Would I enjoy it? Yep. Would I let her watch? Hell yep!

“You’d do that?” she asks with a shaky breath.

I wink at her. “Of course not. What kind of person would do that?” I grin at her, and she physically relaxes.

She shakes her head, smiling. “I wish I was strong enough to kill him myself.”

I grin at her. “That I can help with, but you need to tell me everything!” I grip her tight and kiss her head. “Get some sleep, kiddo. We’ll go to the doctor tomorrow, and then we can talk about everything else, okay?”

She nods and scoots down into bed as I get off the bed and reach the door. “Ray?”

“Yeah, kiddo?”

“Thank you. I’m glad you found me! And even though I’m older than you, you're still going with kiddo?”

“Yup! Me too, kiddo! Now, get some sleep. We're gonna have a busy few weeks, okay?”

“Night.” She huffs a laugh.

“Night, Skye.”

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