Sucking in breath, I unlocked the door and opened it.
Ren stood there in all his glory.
I swallowed the lump that suddenly clogged my throat and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“You didn’t look good after Sadie’s thing, honey,” he answered.
I didn’t look good because I wasn’t good.
And he’d noticed and done something about it.
Why couldn’t he be a dick?
I mean, seriously.
I didn’t ask that.
I asked, “Where’s your date?”
“I was worried about you. You weren’t pickin’ up your phone. Dropped her and came to you.”
Again.
Why couldn’t he be a dick?
Seriously.
“You still don’t look good, baby,” he whispered, and it happened.
What happened was something that never happened. Not to me. I was a Nightingale. I was a cop’s daughter. I was the daughter of a cop’s wife. I was tough. It was born in me and bred in me.
So it took serious shit, like Indy marrying my brother—something she and I both wanted since forever—to make me lose it.
But right then, I lost it.
I felt it happen and had no hope of stopping it. The wet forming in my eyes, making my vision bright. Then the tear breaking loose and gliding down my cheek. Then one on the other side.
“Ally,” Ren murmured, eyes to my cheeks.
“I was mean to her,” I whispered.
His eyes came to mine.
“Baby,” Ren whispered back.
Another tear.
“I was mean to her, and that night, she was raped.”
“Honey.”
Another tear. “She looks like a fairy princess and she was raped.”
Then I totally lost it, taking two steps back to escape at the same time I stupidly lifted my hands to cover my face and hide my emotion (which would make escaping difficult, seeing as I couldn’t see).
But I got no further.
The light from the hall was extinguished because Ren was inside, and I knew this because I was being held tight in his arms.
As I felt the strength of his arms surrounding me, the heat from his body penetrating, one of those hiccoughing sobs burned up my throat and made my body buck in his embrace.
God!
I so totally hated crying!
His arms separated, one going low and again tight around my waist. The other one moved so his hand could stroke my back and I heard him encourage into the top of my hair, “Talk to me.”
I didn’t know why I did it. I just knew I needed to do it and he was the only one around.
So I did it.
I pressed my hands and face into his chest and let it all hang out.
“I thought she’d been mean to Daisy. I thought she hated Hector. And I came to Lee’s office the day she came to Lee’s office to ask for his protection.” My head shot back and I cried, “And I was mean!”
His hand soothingly stroking my back (and I had to admit, I’d lost it, but it still was soothing) moved to cup my jaw and he replied, “I know what went down with Daisy and Sadie, and also Sadie and Hector, and Sadie’s not the kind of girl who lets people in. So at the time, honey, you couldn’t think anything different.”
“She got raped that night, Ren!” I stated loudly.
