“He raped you?” His jaw clenched.
“Is it rape? When it’s a married couple, and you’re in the same bed in nightclothes and—”
“If it wasn’t what you wanted, yeah, it’s fucking rape.” He took her hands, hoping she wouldn’t snatch them away.
She didn’t.
“I’m sorry this shit happened to you.”
Her eyes glistened as she looked up at him.
“He’s an asshole, and you didn’t deserve any of this. You’re a beautiful woman, and you should be treated with respect and kindness.”
She glanced away, but he touched her chin and made her look up at him again.
“And for the record, I think you’re the strong one, not him, and it’s you who has passed that strength to Zak.”
“How am I strong?” She bit on her bottom lip.
“You’re here, standing by a beach in California, rebuilding a life for yourself and your son.”
“I wouldn’t be so strong if it wasn’t for you and Hudson. I’d be…”
“Doing just fine, you would’ve found another way. You’re smart, Tammy, smart and brave.”
“Thank you for saying that.” She half smiled. “But what if … what if he finds me?”
“I don’t think we need to worry about him finding you,” Jayden said in a low growl, barely able to contain the fury hefelt toward this man he’d never met. The thought of him forcing himself on this small, sweet woman was sickening. “He needs to worry aboutmefindinghim. That’s what Gary needs to worry about now.”
Her lips pressed together as she studied his face.
He lifted his shades to his forehead so she could see his eyes. See that he meant what he was about to say. “’Cause I will fuck him up so bad he’ll wish he was dead hours before he is. And I know you don’t like cursing, but that son of a bitch will get what’s coming to him. He’s gonna burn, and then he’s gonna keep burning in hell.”
She hitched in a breath, and he wondered if he’d gone too far. But to hell with it if she saw the darkness in his eyes and that made her believe him. Made her believe that he could kill.
That he would kill.
That he had killed.
Then maybe she’d sleep even better.
She studied him closely. He wondered what was going through her mind, what she saw. “What you thinking?” he asked.
“I was thinking Gary would burst with anger if he saw us together. He hated me talking to any man, no matter what they looked like or how old. But you … yeah, he’d freak if he saw us together.”
“Oh, yeah?” Jayden dropped his shades.
“Yeah.” They began walking again. “He’d hate everything about you.”
“Good.”
His bike came into view. A gull was pecking at a burger wrapper on the curbside next to it.
“We’re going out,” Jayden said suddenly.
“What?”
“You heard. You can’t spend another day hiding in a dark house. You’re in California now, babe, there’s fun to be had.”