Page 94 of Riding the Pine

In the moment, all I needed was to make sure she was okay, but looking back, I’d shoved down a primal fear that when I rounded that corner I’d be staring at a dead body.

“I don’t know how to help her through this.”

I’m probably not making sense, jumping from thought to thought, but the fractured words, the flashes inside my brain, nothing’s cohesive.

“I’m a man, she was hurt by a man. How? I. Shit.” I wipe my cheeks and nose with my sleeve. “How does she ever trust another man again? How do I tell her we’re not all like them? How?” I break down, heavy, chest-aching sobs that are quickly stifled by Artemis’s shoulder as he pulls me against him.

“We will all get you both through this. Do you hear me?”

I nod, undoubtedly snotting on my best friend’s likely extortionately priced sweater.

“We’ll figure this out. We’ll get Athena the help she needs to recover.” He pushes me back by my biceps.

“And whatever help you need too, Scott.” Apollo assures me from a few feet away. “This was a trauma for you as well.”

I can’t possibly make this situation in any way about me. That’s fucked up. But I also can’t deny that I’m not falling to pieces because of what I saw. Right now isn’t the time for this deep dive, however. She’s in there by herself, probably reliving everything in her head just like I am in every second I’m not kept busy by something else.

I wipe my face and survey my friends. “We’ll figure me out later, right now, we need to find a way to get her through this. You know she’s going to say she’s fine, she’s going to say it’s all okay. She’s always strong, she never needs help, and she hates feeling weak. This is going to be tough. But there has to be a way to get her through this. There has to be a way to help her heal.”

Ares nods. “There is, we’ll get her through.”

“Together,” Apollo adds.

“Are you ready?” Artemis has that intense stare on his face again.

I nod. “It’s you guys I’m worried about. She really doesn’t look so good.”

He pushes to stand. “We can all lock it down for her sake.”

I give another nod, stand, and lead them to the door.

CHAPTER 38

Apollo

My blood boils hotter than the fires of hell as our friend, our brother Scott sits on Athena’s couch to tell us the horrors of what she’s been through in the last eight hours. His eyes are almost sunken into his head, underlined by dark semi-circles, the side of his lip is bright red like he’s been chewing on it, and he’s shaking—not trembling, shaking.

“I told her I wouldn’t tell you guys who did it.” His face contorts like he’s bitten into an entire lemon. “She doesn’t want you doing anything rash. And the only reason I know is because I overheard it. She was very clear that she wished I didn’t know who did it either.”

Ares wrings his hands together at the answer he clearly doesn’t like. I get it. Someone hurt our sister. In many ways, she’s more of a matriarch than our Mamá. She would—and sometimes has—gone to bat for us. She’d torch the earth for us. She’d leave anyone who hurt any of the four of us without a limb.

She’s the strongest of us all.

And knowing she’s behind that door broken by two men makes a feral noise catch in my chest.

Scott pats my shoulder as he stands. “We need to be strong for her. Dial down the growling for now, yeah?”

His eyes hold a silent plea, as though he’s keeping it together by a fragile thread and needs me to prop him up to get through what’s coming next. And even what he’s already been through. I can’t imagine how hard it was to circle that building and find Athena in the state he says she was in.

It’s a matter of seconds before we’re all moving toward the door leading to the hall her bedroom is on. I’m not ready. I’m not ready to see my strong, capable, beautiful sister defiled and hurt.

I’m almost sure I’m going to cry my eyes out or scream incoherent noises into the universe. My heart hammers such an irregular rhythm. Am I having a heart attack?

That’s all we all need, Athena’s raped and beaten to shit, and I fall apart and collapse with a heart attack. Scott goes in first, probably to make sure she’s still okay to see us. Or to hold her hand, or whatever.

“Come in,” he shouts after a short pause.

All the conversation in the world on her couch couldn’t have prepared me for what I walk into.

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