“Fuck,” I hissed, no longer able to keep mydistance, pulling her against me and wrapping my arms around her.
“He took video, Booth.” She sobbed into my chest. “Then shared it with other perverts just like him. There’s no telling how many people have seen it.”
“Okay, honey, I got you.” I didn’t know what else to say. There wasn’t really anything Icouldsay, so I held her as tight as I could and let her cry it out.
When her body finally relaxed against me and her sobs eased, I lifted her and carried her to the overstuffed chair next to her bed, settling her on my lap. She buried her face in my neck and slid her hand under my cut.
“Did you find all the videos?” I asked.
“There’s no way to do that,” she whispered. “I did write an algorithm to go searching, though. I’ve located several and permanently deleted them, but this is really Rabbit’s area of expertise.”
“Then reach out to him.”
She sat up, her face scrunched up in horror. “And make my brother watch that creep rape his sister? No way in hell.”
“Yeah, you’ve got a point.” I slid her hair behind her ear. “Thank you for telling me, baby.”
She sighed. “You would have just pecked me to death if I didn’t.”
I smiled, cupping her face. “I never want you to hide your shit from me, Moonbeam.”
“It’s humiliating.”
“It’snot!” I growled. “None of this is on you. He did thistoyou, Sierra. You were a child, honey.”
“I know,” she breathed out. “But I still feel like I should have stopped it somehow.”
“You’re stopping it now,” I said.
“I’m trying, but I’m not getting nearly as far as I’d like.”
“That’s not true,” I countered. “I’m so fuckin’ proud of you. You’re goin’ where you shouldn’t have to go and seein’ things you shouldn’t have to see to make sure more children don’t have to go through what you did. You’re a fuckin’ superhero, Sierra.”
“I wish that were true.” She settled back against me. “I wish I could stop all of it.”
“I know, baby.”
“I’m sorry I shut you out when I freak,” she whispered.
“Yeah, you need to quit doin’ that.” I kissed her hair. “But I get it.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah, Moonbeam, I do,” I said. “What you gotta get, though, is I’m not gonna quit comin’ after you. I will follow you to the bowels of hell to bring you back into the light.”
She met my eyes. “Because you love me.”
I smiled. “Now she’s gettin’ it.”
“You do, don’t you?”
I ran my thumb over her bottom lip. “With everything I have.”
“I love you, too.”
“I know, honey.”
She wrinkled her nose. “How could you possibly know?”