Page 63 of Corrupted Bride

He strokes a thumb down my cheek. “What happened?”

“I was young and stupid. I met this older guy named Danny.” I turn and wrap Bass’s arms around me, looking out at the water, the ripples of bugs on the smooth skin and the gust of air across the bushes. “We worked together at Target, back when my family let me off the leash a little. Me and Danny had a thing⁠—”

His arms tighten. “Your boyfriend?”

“Don’t get all jealous. It was a while ago, and anyway, it doesn’t end well.” I lean my head back against his chest. “I was crazy about Danny and miserable at home and all I wanted to do was escape. We stayed up late together after work smoking cigarettes and talking about the future, and one day he said we should leave. He had this big van, and he said we could drive for a while, go on a road trip, maybe never come back. It sounded like a great idea because I was seventeen and stupid. We left the next day.”

I close my eyes. I still remember the smell of that van. Energy drink, coffee, and cigarette stink. Danny was good looking, boyish and plain, with freckles and a friendly smile and a mop of brown hair. He wore baggy jeans, listened to pop-punk, and laughed at everything. I liked him a lot.

Until the third night, when we stopped at a motel, sick of staying on the side of the road. I needed a shower more than anything in the world. Danny obliged, paid for everything. When I came back out, my hair still wet, in sweats and socks, I found Danny sitting on the edge of the bed, pale as a ghost, and Ruben standing over him with a gun pressed to his head.

Hey, stupid. You’re going to watch me kill your boyfriend. You’re going to keep your mouth shut. If you make noise, I’m going to kill you too. When I’m done, I’m taking you home, and you’ll never pull this shit again, understood?

I breathe in through my nose. Bass is tense behind me, his arms holding me tight. “Did he do it?” he asks gently.

“Almost. Ruben beat Danny really badly. There was a lot of blood, but he wasn’t dead. I don’t know what happened after that. Ruben dragged me home and we left Danny there in the motel, still breathing, his face all smashed in. I had to watch it happen. I tried to help but Danny told me not to, even as Ruben viciously beat him, over and over. Broke his face into a pulp. I couldn’t move, couldn’t scream. I was terrified that if I did anything, Danny really would die, and I’d be next. I couldn’t… I couldn’t help…”

Tears swell in my throat. Bass tightens his grip on me, kissing my hair. “You were seventeen. You were young.”

“Does that make it better? I just stood there.”

“You couldn’t have helped. Even now, you couldn’t stop Ruben.”

“I still just stood there.” I still hear Danny’s grunts of pain. His sobs, his begging. The way Ruben laughed and called him a pussy and mocked him. The way Ruben looked at me as he did it, grinning huge, like he was having the time of his life. And leaving Danny there on the floor of the motel room bleeding on the gross carpet, his eyes swollen shut already, his breathing a wet gurgle.

“I’m sorry.” Bass kisses my hair again. “That never should have happened.”

“You get why I hate Ruben so much now.”

“And why you want to run away. Even after that, you still tried.” He sounds impressed, which makes me shake my head.

“I’m an idiot and almost got myself killed again. I brought Hector into it. I could’ve gotten him beaten to a pulp too. I’m selfish, that’s all.”

“No.” Bass turns me around and looks into my eyes. “No, you’re a survivor. That’s all. You can’t blame yourself for the sickness around you. That’s on Ruben and men like him.” He sounds like he’s trying to convince himself, and I get on my toes to kiss him, letting it linger, and it doesn’t wash the taste of blood and hate from my mouth, but it helps. It definitely helps.

I want to ask him about his brother, but the sound of another ATV interrupts the moment. We hike together from the bushes to find Cruz and Lia. They call out and wave, inviting us back to the house for lunch. Lia laughs when she realizes where we were.

“The old watering hole? My god, I haven’t been there in forever.” She beams at us. “I hope you weren’t getting into trouble.”

“What? No way!”

“Good. That place is full of leeches. If he tries to make you go skinny dipping, politely decline.”

Cruz makes a fake gagging noise. “Gross. Not the leeches, those are fine. Mari skinny dipping.” He fake pukes and rides off.

Lia howls with laughter and follows after him, her ATV kicking up dirt.

“They’re getting along.” Bass touches my lower back. “We should go with them.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

He hesitates, pulling me in for another kiss. “Thank you for coming here. And for telling me about Danny.”

“It’s fine. I mean, it’s some nasty shit from my past.” I try to downplay it, but I haven’t talked about him with anyone since it happened.

“Tomorrow night, there’s a dinner,” he says as we get ready and he straps on my helmet. “I want you to come with me.”

“What’s it for?”