Page 74 of A Brambleberry Summer

“I refused at first. The men who brought me here, they did not care whether I was willing or not.”

How was it possible for his heart to break again and again?

“You were raped.”

She looked at him, stark pain in her eyes. “Now you know why I don’t like thinking about the past. Yes. I was raped. At first by the men who wanted to use me to make money for them. Then by some of their customers. I did not cooperate. Not one single time. They threatened me, hurt me, tried to make me take drugs like the other girls, so I would be quiet and do what they said. I would not. I only cried. All the time.”

“That couldn’t have been good for business.”

She gave a short, humorless laugh. “No. Not at all. Finally, they left me alone. I still do not know why they did not kill me. It would have been easy for them. But then one of the girls died of too much drugs. She was...not well, so they had let her do all the cooking and cleaning for the other girls. They let me take her place. At least I no longer had to let strangers touch me.”

He squeezed her fingers. How had she possibly emerged from that hell still able to smile and laugh and find joy in the world, with a gentle spirit and a kind heart? Most people would have curled up and withered away in the midst of so much trauma.

“This went on for a few months and then I made a mistake. I knew I had to do something to change my situation. I could not stay. I tried to escape but they...caught me. They would have killed me that night. They knew I could tell the police who they were. I expected to die. I thought I would. But somehow, I did not. I do not know why. I only knew I had to do all I could to survive. Mine was not the only life at risk that night.”

“One of your friends?”

She gave a tiny shake of her head and gazed out at the undulating waves. He waited for her to explain. When she did not, suddenly all his suspicions came together and he knew. He didn’t know how. He just did.

“You were pregnant.”

She met his gaze, her expression filled with sadness and pain. “No one else knew. I did not even know myself until I was too far along to—to do anything. I told you I was innocent.”

“How did you get away?”

She shrugged. “A miracle from God. That is the only thing it could have been.”

He had never heard her being particularly religious but the conviction in her voice seemed unswerving. He would take her word for it, since he hadn’t been there.

“We were kept above a restaurant in a tourist town in Utah. They left me to die in a room there, but I did not. I had only pretended. After they left, I saw they had not locked the door, like usual. They thought I was dead. Why should they?”

How badly had she been hurt? Wyatt didn’t even want to contemplate. And she’d only been a child. Not much older than his niece. How had she endured it?

“Somehow, I found strength to stand and managed to go out, stumbling down the back stairs. I still cannot believe they did not hear me. Once I was out, I did not know what to do. Where to go. I knew no one. I was certain I only had moments before they found me and finished what they had started, so I... I somehow climbed into the back of a truck.”

“With a stranger?”

He thought of all the things that could have happened to her by putting her trust in someone she did not know. On the other hand, she was escaping certain death so she probably thought anything was better than the place she was leaving.

“I was lucky. There was a blanket there for the horses and I was able to pull it over me so I did not freeze. The man was a rancher. He did not spot me until we were away from town, when he had a flat tire and found me sleeping.”

“What did he do?” Wyatt was again almost afraid to ask.

“He called the police and a kind sheriff and a doctor came to my rescue. Daniel and Lauren. My parents.”

Chapter Seventeen

Rosa could feel herself trembling, though the night was pleasant. She knew it was probably a delayed reaction from the attack earlier and from the emotional trauma of reliving the darkest time in her life.

When Wyatt wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to his heat, she wanted to sink into him. He was big, safe and comforting, and offered immeasurable strength.

She could not tell by his expression what he thought about what she had told him. She thought maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Did she want to know what he was thinking about her?

“They took you in.”

“They were not married at the time. Not even together. I like to think I helped them find each other. But, yes. Lauren took me home with her. I was still in danger. I had information about the men who took me. I knew who they were, where they were, so I—I stayed with Lauren until all the men were caught.”

“All of them?” Wyatt’s voice had a hard note she had not heard before, as if he wanted to go to Utah right now and find justice for her.

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