Some of the guys laughed despite the tension in the room.
She whirled on him, but I blacked out before I could hear her evil harpy response.
When I woke up, I was in one of the conference rooms by myself. I sat up and blinked in confusion before everything came rushing to me. Bradford’s warm breath on my neck. His attack on me. His attempt to rape me.
I reached up and gingerly licked my lip. It was swollen, and I could feel the dried blood crusted on it. I felt the throbbing on my thighs and arms. With little shame I pulled my shirt up over my head. My bra covered more than some bikinis did. Not ones I wore, but still. I saw the angry bruises on my upper arm in the shape of finger tips. I sighed and put my shirt back on. Next, I removed my pants. I was wearing one of my boy shorts underwear and not my lacey pair. Again, more coverage than a bikini. I noticed the welts in the shape of fingers on my inner thighs. I lifted my pants back up despondently.
I rubbed my hands briskly against my arms with a deep shudder. I had almost been a victim once more. One more man had tried to take my dignity away from me. I was faced with a feeling of hopelessness until anger nipped at its heels.
I wasn’t a victim anymore. Bradford may have tried to make me a victim. He had forced their will on me, but they had no control on how I handled it. He had no control over how I reacted to it.
I stood up angrily and paced to the two-way mirror. I knew someone would be on the other side. I tapped on it. “Is this how you treat assault victims or attempted rape victims?”
I didn’t have to wait long before all my guys filed in with Paul, Will, and some man I didn’t recognize.
“Hey Blake,” Paul said cautiously. “Can you tell us what happened tonight?”
I was on the defensive. Why did I feel like they thought I was in the wrong? Did I use excessive force on him? Yes. Well kind of. My gift did it. I had every right to defend myself, too. I’ll be damned if I became a victim once more.
I was going to give him the brushed-up version. He didn’t need to know everything. “I was in the laundry room doing laundry. Bradford stopped by earlier and asked if we could be friends and start over, but he seemed…off. Gavin came by and we hung out for a little while. I dropped off my basket and went to go back to get the rest of our stuff. On my way back, I felt really dizzy and nauseous. I was trying to get our stuff, so I could get back to the apartment. Bradford came in the room. He turned off the lights and locked us in.” Will gave Paul a pointed look. I continued in a robotic tone. “He wanted to rape me.”
I could see the guys tense in my peripheral. I heard Remy mutter a curse.
Paul rubbed his eyes. He looked like he wanted to believe me. “Can Gavin corroborate this story?”
I shrugged flippantly. “Sure. Why do I feel like I am on trial when I was the one attacked?”
Paul walked over to the mirror. “Can you send me Gavin Kincaid?” He turned with a grimace. “I’m sorry Blake.” He sounded genuine. “It’s just protocol. We have witnesses seeing you attack him. When he came to, he said you saw him walking past and attacked him. He claims that you were angry at him about a match on Friday. He said he tried to defend himself and that’s how you obtained the bruises. Unfortunately, the footage from the hallway isn’t downloading at the moment.”
“How convenient,” I said dryly. “What defensive maneuver requires the victim to grab the assailant by the inner thighs?” His eyes widened in surprise as I heard some of the guys mutter in displeasure. Remy stood up with a roar and sent his fist crashing against the wall. The wall was concrete, I knew it couldn’t be good on his hand.
I recognized this room. We were somewhere our gifts were useless. He just punched a concrete wall without his gift. Normally I would be concerned, but right now I was numb. Irrationally I blamed Remy, Jace, and Troy for the situation I was in right now. I wouldn’t have felt the need to do laundry if they hadn’t shunned me. I wouldn’t have been in the laundry room. I wouldn’t have been attacked.
“Remy,” Will said sharply.
“Let me see him,” he roared.
Jace and Troy guided him back into a chair. I briefly looked at the guys. They all had varying shades of anger on their faces.
“Don’t make me ask you to leave,” Will stated.
Remy nodded in understanding, his face a passive stone.
I looked over at Paul unblinkingly. Coldly even. “You know how strong my gift is. If I wanted to attack him, I could have done so without him knowing I did it, and he would have never remembered it.” His skin turned red from embarrassment. I’m sure the thought had crossed his mind, but I had pointed out the obvious. “I’m at least nine inches smaller than him. He outweighs me by a good seventy to eighty pounds. I’m not stupid. I would have never attacked him physically if I felt the need to. Not in the way that he could touch me and leave marks.”
“How did he get so close to you if your capable of doing that stuff?” Mr. No Name stated. It had to be past midnight and this man was dressed in a three-piece suit. His grey hair looked perfectly in place. His cool grey eyes had been dissecting me from the moment he entered the room.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know you,” I told him bluntly. I saw a small smile flit across Will’s mouth. He was old school. He felt children, teens, and young adults should respect their elders. He didn’t like us cursing either. He believed we could communicate without the use of them.
“I’m Senator Bowen,” he said with a frown. He clearly wasn’t happy at the way I had spoken to him.
I don’t know why I felt the need to be confrontational or snarky right now. I attributed it all to the anger I felt at the situation and at half of my guys. “Well nice to meet you Senator Bowen. What brings you to our lovely home at,” I went to look down at my watch and shot an exasperated look at Will and Paul. “Really, you took my watch? Am I a prisoner? Was I frisked for other weapons? What could I have done with a watch?” I heard Jaxson give a surprise laugh. Leave it to him to try and find the humor in the situation. “Did you strip me down? Make sure I wasn’t smuggling anything else? How did you miss the bruising on my thighs?” I dramatically tsked. “You boys run a tight ship here, but apparently you don’t have many sexual assault cases,” I leaned back and looked at the ceiling. I began to count the tiles above my head. “I guess that’s a good thing.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Senator Bowen reminded me as I continued to count the two by two ceiling tile.
“You didn’t answer mine,” I replied flippantly. “I will also like to make a complain
t against Bradford. I would need you to take pictures of my bruising as well, but don’t worry, I don’t need a kit done, since there was no penetration. I am also refusing any type of counseling, and I want Bradford gone.”