𝔸 𝕃𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔻𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤 ➁

72. I Love You Always

I hadn't been too vocal for the rest of the evening and neither had Raegan. Every now and again her eyes would flash over to the table her mother was at along with her husband and step-brother. I noticed he sized me up every now and again as well with a slick smirk on his lips. I wanted to smack that fucking smirk right off of his arrogant face.

Now, I'm not one-hundred percent positive he was the guy who had damaged Raegan but I'm about ninety-eight percent sure of it. She's not the type to become meek or timid around anyone, let alone her brother. But Collin wasn't really her brother, no, he was her decade-older step-brother. A man that clearly had no shame in scanning all over her assets, all fucking night, and had done so right in front of me.

I had wanted to follow him outside every single time he went out for a cigarette. I had wanted to beat the bloody hell out of him. I had wanted to do so many things out of anger because of what he'd done to Rae, or, at least, what I thought he'd done to Raegan. But I couldn't do those things because it was my best friend's wedding and because I didn't want to put Rae in an uncomfortable and possibly compromising situation.

She'd been quiet all night, the entire ride home, and the entire elevator ride. I'm sure she's thinking something similar to what I'm thinking. I can't stop picturing the unspeakable things he may have done to her. The cigarettes he'd put out on her skin when he'd wanted to have his way with her. I feel the bile rise in my throat thinking about how she was just fifteen when she'd moved down to Georgia. And if Rae had been fifteen when he started that it meant he'd been around twenty-five. Fucking disgusting pig.

I open the elevator doors to my apartment and watch Rae get out eagerly. I close the heavy metal doors behind me and then lean against them as I watch her mannerisms. I know Rae better than anyone and the way she is acting right now is strange. Well, I suppose it's not strange if Collin is who I think he is.

I tread carefully into my living room, shrugging out of my jacket. I don't know if I should say anything or not so I opt for the later. My eyes never leave her form though as she makes her way into the bathroom and turns on the shower automatically. She doesn't come out. No, she shuts the door without a single word said. That makes me purse my lips.

Raegan only shuts down like that when she's really upset. Unfortunately, I'd been on the receiving end of such behavior many times in the past. At least this time it wasn't because of me or an argument the two of us had had with one another. Those times were long gone now.

I slip out of my socks and shoes before heading to the bathroom. When I try the door handle I'm not surprised when I find it's locked. I place my ear flat against the door to see if I can hear anything and I don't. No, all I can hear is the steady stream of the shower.

I fish my wallet out of my back pocket and grab a credit card. I slid it into the crease of the door and maneuver it until the lock unlatches, letting me open the door. Her beautiful dress and shoes, along with all of her jewelry, are in a heap on the floor.

Now that I'm in the space I can hear the sound of muffled cries, ones she's trying to silence. She's trying to hide her pain from me. But one thing she should know is no one knows pain like her and me. We've experienced it on more than one occasion and, more times than not, it was at the hands of one another.

This pain though, this was completely different than any we'd experienced together. It's not one I entirely understand either and that's because something like this has never happened to me. I've never been sexually assaulted. I've never experienced physical abuse outside of fighting, what I'm paid to do. I've never been degraded in such a manner, which, from the sounds of it, she had been. She had been a lot times too from what I'd gathered.