Tia took a big breath and the look in her eyes, it was an admission of something.
I raised my eyebrows. She had to know I was low on patience tonight.
“Don’t test me, Athena. Talk.”
“I’m just having a bad time being here. Just leave me to stew on it and then when we get home I’ll be fine. I just wanna go to sleep.”
I stared at her. She looked away.
“Come here.”
She tensed up.
I grabbed her and pulled her closer. I got her face into both hands, “I’m sorry if I scared you tonight when I lost it. The fucking bastard raped my sister and carved his initials in her arm. To get back at me, Tia. Me. It’s my fault that happened to her.”
“It’s not, Tommy. The only person responsible for their actions is the person who did the action.”
I massaged my temples and adjusted the blankets over us.
She tried to roll away after a minute and everything was all fucking wrong.
My girl was always there for me, she was soothing, always giving me her touch when I needed it. In the short time we’d been together it was as if she’d started sensing what I needed so that she could give it to me. It was like her secret power or something whacked like that.
But this shit with Tess must be hitting her hard. The news of Angel’s sister added to that? News of Angel and Dare being in Thailand maybe? She and Angel had gotten close. And the pregnancy. Was it all overload for her?
I reached for her jaw and she flinched.
“Stop pulling away. I need you. You don’t wanna fuck, I get it but come the fuck here.”
She settled in beside me but she was holding herself stiff.
“What the fuck, baby? For the love of Christ, I need you right now and you’re acting like I’m a stranger you’re stuck in an elevator with.”
She started to sob, bawl her eyes out hard.
“Athena?” I took her face into my hands again and kissed her on the lips, “Please, baby girl, what? What aren’t you telling me? You don’t have to be scared to tell me whatever it is…”
“You were so fucking mad at someone raping your sister. So enraged. What if I had a big brother to come after you when you did that shit to me?”
My world stopped. Tilted.
She stared at me and I saw what looked like regret wash across her features.
“You just said that to me?” My voice was rough.
She swallowed.
“Our vows, Tia. All the time we spent, trying to fix what I fucked up and you promised to love me unconditionally. But yet you throw my fuck ups in my face like this? At a time like this? Good this came out now, huh? How badly has this been festering while you pretend to love me?”
“I haven’t been pretending.”
“Then what is this?”
“I…”
“What the fuck is this?”
She sniffed, “I dunno. Maybe this is just me, amped up on pregnancy hormones, reacting to the shit show around us right now. You’ve stopped seeing Oliver, you’re all broody and angry. It feels like we’ve gone backwards so maybe that’s why my brain has gone back there. And now I’m here, staring at the same spot on the stupid Las Vegas strip as when we were here last time and you’re out there, pissed off, coming back and taking off that belt and my brain, it just…” she stopped talking.