I nuzzle my face into him, desperately needing him to take the pain away. “What happened?” he demands, holding me tight, not caring if the whole damn street is peering out their windows and watching the show.
“Ben,” I cry. “He betrayed them.”
“What are you talking about? Who did he betray?”
“My parents,” I cry, the sound muffled by his chest. “He gave them up to Anton. Ben told him where to find them.”
Slade curses under his breath and holds me a little tighter as he lifts me into his strong arms. He walks back over to his garage door where he leans back against it and slides down to his ass.
My legs drop on either side of his and I don’t waste a second before curling into his chest. “What am I supposed to do? I’ll never be able to look at him again let alone live under the same roof. He hurt them. They trusted him and he gave them up, gave us up. Because of him, Blake and I lived with the devil for thirteen years. I saw and experienced things that no other kid should ever have to go through. It’s all on him.”
Slade’s hand runs up and down my back, trying to soothe me as my world ignites around me. “I know you’re hurting,” he murmurs. “And fuck, babe, I love you so goddamn much, I’d do anything to take that pain away for you, but you know better than anyone that nothing is going to help ease that betrayal except for time. There’s nothing you can do to fix this. You can’t change something that happened thirteen years ago. You just have to work out how to get through each fucking day until one day you realize that you haven’t thought about it in years.”
“I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”
“It’s the only option you’ve got.”
“There’s plenty of things I could do.”
“I’m not going to let you hurt him, Virago.” My jaw clenches and he goes on. “No matter what, he’s still your uncle. He’s still the guy who gave you a home when you had nowhere else to go. You may hate him right now, but he loves you and I don’t want you to look back on this moment in ten, twenty years and regret the decisions you made right now. I don’t want you living like that, believe me, that shit is too heavy to live with.”
I focus on his eyes, desperately needing him to distract me from running back there and searching Ben out. “How do you know?” I question. “What regrets could you possibly have?”
“Plenty of things,” he tells me, resting his chin at the top of my head. “I regret treating you like shit when I could have won you over from day one. I regret being so fucking stubborn and pushing you away for so long. I regret sneaking into your bedroom and scaring the shit out of you. The haunted look in your eyes still stays with me. I don’t want that for you.”
“I don’t know what I want…”
His fingers soothingly brush through my hair and I close my eyes as I lean into him. “It’s not what we have to do in this life to survive that defines us,” he tells me, getting all philosophical on me. “It’s the way you continue to get back up after being knocked down. You’re stronger than this, Skylah. Don’t allow this to eat at you. You’ve survived much worse and came out the other end a fucking goddess. Don’t let Ben take your wings, Virago. It’s not your time to fall.”
I sigh into him, wondering for the millionth time how I deserved a man like this. “When’s it going to stop hurting?”
“I don’t know, babe. Could be next week or it could be years from now.”
“I don’t want to wait that long.”
“I know,” he murmurs, leaning back and rising off the cool ground before putting me down on my feet. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and presses a few buttons as he pulls me into his side.
“Come on,” he tells me. “Call your brother and tell him to meet us out front. I have an idea.”
“What kind of idea?” I ask as he pulls me along to his Dodge RAM and pretends to be the gentleman we both know he’s not as he opens the door and helps me in.
He goes to close the door but before it shuts completely, he grins across at me. “You’re my girl, Sky and I hate seeing you hurting, so what better way to cheer you up than to fuck shit up?”
Well, damn. How does this man know me so well?
A wicked grin stretches across my face as I pull my phone out of my jacket pocket and send a quick text.