She smiled. “You’re right. I did. Best thing I ever did.”
He wished he’d been part of their lives from the start, but he didn’t resent their closeness. So long as he had some part of their hearts he would be happy. The old Cole wouldn’t have been happy with that.
But the old Cole had been a jerk.
“What happened when you got to Colombia?” Fucking hell. No way would he ever have allowed them to travel there without him. Hell, to travel anywhere without him.
But, then, they wouldn’t have been going if you hadn’t rejected them. Told them you no longer wanted anything to do with them. They wouldn’t have been in San Antonio if it weren’t for him. Wouldn’t have met this Vincento, whom he intended to research as soon as he had a moment.
“Hell happened,” Keira whispered. “The first few days were okay. His house was magnificent, the grounds and pool were so beautiful. But there was something off about it all.”
“The people who worked for him were scared of him,” Julian stated. “And there were armed guards everywhere.”
“He told us it was for our own protection, but when we tried to leave one day to go to a market in the town, we weren’t allowed off the property,” Keira said. “Julian got worried, he confronted Vincento, they argued, and Julian told him we were leaving and he . . . he just exploded. He had his guards hold Julian while he hit him over and over—” she broke off with a sob, burying her face in her hands.
Julian lifted her onto his lap, rocking her back and forth.
“I couldn’t do anything. I tried, but another guard held me back. I could only watch. Oh, God.” Keira started to sob again.
Cole sat there, grinding his teeth together. The urge to kill rampaged through him with furious fervor.
Stay calm. They need you calm.
“Then what?”
Julian met his gaze. His face was calm, but his gaze was filled with horror and darkness. “He took us both down to this room in the basement. It had a keypad lock on the door. No windows. A toilet sat in one corner. A bed in the other. That was it.”
Keira wiped at her tears. “He was insane. I don’t know how we didn’t see it. He was angry that we had refused him when he wanted to dominate us at the club. He was livid over our rejection. He told us he’d have to punish us.”
Fuck. Fuck.
“We were kept in that basement for weeks. Thankfully, he didn’t visit us often, but when he did . . .” Julian looked away, swallowing heavily.
“When he did, he’d tie me up or have a guard hold me then he beat Julian,” she whispered. “He was trying to break us. Sometimes he’d separate us. I never knew if I was going to see Julian again.”
“It’s okay, baby,” Julian reassured her. “I’m here.”
“Keira had a panic attack when that Dom was whipping his sub . . . did he . . . did you . . .” he couldn’t finish the sentence.
Julian set Keira on the sofa then stood and turned, pulling off his T-shirt. The marks weren’t fresh, but they were there. Scars left from whip marks breaking the flesh.
Vincento was a dead man. And if Cole had anything to say about it, it wouldn’t be slow and easy either.
Julian tried to push his shirt down, but Cole stepped forward and held it up. Then he kissed along each mark. Julian shuddered in reaction. Then he turned and kissed Cole. Hard. When he took a step back, his heart was racing. He took a deep breath as Julian sat once more, pulling Keira onto his lap.
“What about . . . what about your friends? Your jobs? How did they not notice you missing?” Cole sat on the coffee table again, facing them.
“We didn’t have close friends. He forced me to write letters of resignation and email them to our bosses. And call our landlord. He told me he’d stop punishing Julian if I did it,” Keira sobbed, and Julian held her tighter, “he lied.”
“Wasn’t your fault, kitten,” Julian murmured. “Never your fault.”
“Did he rape you?” he asked, not wanting to ask but having to know.
Keira shook her head. “No, I think he wanted us to give in to
him. To submit. And he was furious when we didn’t.”
Fuck. Shit. He closed his eyes for a minute, breathing through the agony beating at him. At least he didn’t rape them. He opened his eyes and stared at them both. Keira looked scared. Julian stiff and unemotional.