Page 39 of Triple the Secrets
“Don’t worry about Rogue and I, baby,” Scarlett said softly, reaching out and gently cupping her face in the palm of her hand. “We’re still feeling our way around each other, and I never planned on tonight going the way it did. It took me by surprise, but this will also tell me how serious he is, won’t it?”
Both girls gave small nods. “He’s a bit of a grump, but I like him,” Win admitted. Wren nodded her agreement.
“I’m glad you like him,” Scarlett said with a small smile. “I like him too.”
“You’re going to have to go down and talk to him,” Win said.
Scarlett knew it, and her stomach knotted at the thought of that conversation. “Are you two going to stay up here, or would you like to come down with me?”
They glanced at each other. “Can we stay here?” Wren asked softly. “I’ll talk to him, but not yet.”
“Of course,” Scarlett assured her. “I’ll go talk to him and then I’ll come back up. Do you need anything?” They shook their heads. She moved forward and hugged them both tight, kissing the tops of their heads. Then she pulled away and climbed off the bed. Both girls hunkered down into the sheets, tight against each other, with blankets wound tightly around them.
She knew they would sleep soon, completely worn out. She left the room, pulling the door shut quietly behind her. She looked at the short hallway that led to the stairs and tried not to be a coward and retreat to her room. She didn’t know what awaited her when she went down those stairs. Would he be angry? Hurt? Repulsed?
Guess she couldn’t find out if she didn’t go downstairs, she thought. Steeling herself, she slowly made her way down.
When she reached the bottom, she saw him standing by the front window, looking out. His body was strung tight, and he looked foreboding. Lethal. When he heard her, he slowly turned to look at her. His eyes were so dark, they looked almost black. Neither of them spoke as they regarded each other. So many things passed between them that Scarlett felt her heart pounding in her chest.
Finally, he stepped toward her, one slow step at a time. As if giving her a chance to run. She held her ground, but she gripped the stair railing tight to keep herself in place. When he was finally in front of her, he asked softly, “Are the girls okay?”
She blew out a soft breath. “For now,” she admitted. “They’ll both probably have nightmares and be quiet for a few days. They work hard not to let everything that happened to them affect their daily lives, so when that wound opens again, it can bleed out fast and hot, or it can be slow and take longer to close back up.”
He slowly nodded. “Is that how you found them?” he asked, eyes boring into hers.
Slowly she nodded. “When I was taken, they threw me into a cage next to theirs.” A low snarl sounded in his throat and she swallowed hard. She wasn’t afraid of him, but right now, he didn’t look completely in control. “They were sold to some high level government man as sex slaves. Whoever it was, he liked the idea of twins, and they were the perfect age he was hoping for.” The disgust made her voice harsh. “I never found out his name or I would have killed him. The guards were constantly talking about a huge payday from the sale and I knew I had to get them out.”
“You escaped.” It wasn’t a question.
“The night we escaped, a guard forgot to lock my cage. I had just been brought back, and they figured all the fight was gone out of me.” Her entire body shook as she spoke, memories assaulting her.
Rogue reached out, picked her up, and carried her over to the couch, sitting down with her in his lap. He wrapped his arms tight around her. “I’m sorry, baby,” he murmured against the top of her head. “I’ll make sure they pay. All of them.”
“I don’t even know who they are,” she whispered. “They drugged me most of the time, so I can’t remember faces clearly. We escaped the night before the girls were going to be handed over to whoever bought them. I knew I had to get them out. The guards on that night were the lazy ones. They would rape some of the other women there, but left us alone for the most part. That night, they were getting drunk, and I took the opportunity to get the girls out of their cage and we ran.”
“Where did you go?”
She took a deep breath and told him about Lewis and Marc. “Without them,” she whispered when she finished, “the traffickers would have definitely taken us again. They’ve been helping us ever since. We landed here, and they said that all chatter about us stopped, from what they could find. It was like they had given up.”
Rogue was silent as he absorbed the information. Finally, he gently tilted her head back so he could look in her eyes. “You are safe here. I promise you that. I will never allow them to even breathe the same air as you.”
She believed him. But was it enough? Because she had a feeling that how he viewed her had been forever changed.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
ROGUE
The rage inside him burned hot and out of control. He didn’t even bother trying to contain it. No, he used it, let it fuel him as he punched the bag in front of him harder and harder, not caring that his knuckles were split open and bleeding all over the place. Nothing could breach through the violent rage that made him want to find those bastards and kill them with his bare hands.
They were children. They had been brutalized, raped, and hurt in ways that were unthinkable.Unforgivable.
Scarlett had endured the same thing. It made him roar as he hit the bag so hard it snapped back against the wall, the chain groaning above it. He stood there, staring at it as it swung back and forth, his chest heaving, his body vibrating and soaked with sweat. Blood dripped from his hands onto the floor, but he didn’t give it a second look.
Scarlett had told him a little more of what happened to her. Where they had taken her from, and why she was so careful about where they stayed and who they spent their time with. She never went anywhere without a gun in her purse, or mace, and she never travelled out of the house after dark. It had taken everything in him to be gentle and careful with her. To hold her and let her get it out. Especially when all he wanted to do was get up, walk out, and hunt down every single person that hurt her.
That hurtthem. Because he was just as enraged about the girls as he was about Scarlett. They were fucking kids. They deserved to be happy. To run around and flirt with boys and get into stupid shit. Instead, they were trying to live their lives, while sneaking out to get the training they needed to feel safe. To feel powerful.
Things no child should have to do.
