“Anyway,” she said, her hand in his, “he’d wasted too much time for rape.”
“Wasted how?”
“He... He had all these disgusting bugs and he kept throwing them at me. Some of the people watching laughed about it. Some just watched. No one helped me.” Her hold on his hand tightened. “Every so often he’d come get a bug off me, but he’d use that as an excuse to cop a feel, too, and I was so hysterical I can’t even remember what I said. I just remember...crying.”
He’d tortured her. And some sick fucks had stayed to watch.
“There were maybe ten people there. Two of them girls who screamed each time one of the bugs took flight. I think I hated them the most, because they were just as scared of the bugs, but they stayed and watched anyway.” She shook her head. “About the time Carver tired of that game and told me he was going to take off my shorts, Janet showed up.”
“The stepmother?”
Cherry nodded. “I can still see it exactly as it happened. She stepped into the clearing wearing pajama pants and a man’s T-shirt, her hair all ratty, a cigarette caught in her teeth and her shotgun aimed at Carver. She said she was looking for a reason to shoot him.”
“Did she always look like that?”
“The cigarette, yes. The shotgun, often. But she usually cleaned up. I think she must’ve woken up after a late night of drinking and when we were all gone, she got suspicious.”
“Thank God.”
Cherry nodded. “She was like this crazy, mean avenger. She told one of the idiot girls there to cut me loose. Everyone was silent, unsure of what would happen. It was eerie quiet—except for the bugs. Bugs are never, ever quiet.”
Using only his pinkie, Denver teased over her cheek, easing a tendril of hair away from her face.
Cherry didn’t seem to notice.
“After I was free Janet backed us out of there and put me in her truck. It was so weird, but still no one said anything. Carver just stared after us like he hated us both—or like maybe he was planning...something.” Her brows twitched as if even now, she couldn’t understand his hostility. “Janet told me she’d had enough of worrying about Carver bringing the law down on them. She was so mad at him, saying he was too reckless.” Cherry swallowed hard. “She also said she hated any man who’d rape a woman, and she knew that’s where Carver was headed. So she’d brought some cash for me, my purse and papers and a few of my clothes in a bag. She drove me to the highway, told me to get out, to leave and never come back.”
That was more than he could take, so Denver scooped her up to his lap again and squeezed the breath right out of her. She didn’t complain, not even when he started to rock her.
Sliding her fingers into his hair, she whispered, “I’m okay.”
She wanted to soothe him? Denver gave a low, gravelly laugh. “Better than okay. You’re perfect.” A thought occurred to him. “Did you ever consider reporting them? All of them?”
Shaking her head, she said, “It wouldn’t have mattered. The local authorities covered for them. They came around and visited. Left with cash and sometimes drugs. Carver and his whole family had immunity in the town.”
And she’d been stuck in the middle of it with nowhere to turn—except to escape on her own.
Cherry cupped a hand to his jaw. “Do you understand, Denver? I took drug money. They never discussed the business with me, but I knew. I’d have had to be a special kind of stupid not to know. Stupid and blind.”
“And you’re neither.”
As if she didn’t understand his nonchalant attitude, she searched his face. “They sold to dealers who ruined peoples’ lives. There were beatings.” Her gaze held desperately to his. “My own parents died because of a drug deal. Maybe even from trading with Carver’s family. But at the time I didn’t care. I just wanted out of there.”
“You were a kid in survival mode, honey. And I’m so incredibly glad that you not only survived, you became you, someone who’s now very important to me.”
Her gaze searched his. “You don’t think I was weak?”
“God, no. You were stronger than any kid should ever have to be.”
Her bottom lip quivered, but only for a second, then she launched herself at him.
And to Denver’s surprise, she started kissing him, not for comfort, but for so much more. “Cherry...”
She rushed into convincing arguments. “I can’t do anything about Carver right now. He’s out there, still a terrible human being, but he’s not a problem I can solve tonight.”