Page 26 of Hunted Innocence

“Are you ready to talk to us?” he asks.

I’m not.

But I don’t tell him that.

Instead, I give him a slight nod and walk toward the conference room. All the men in that room I’ve worked with for five years, and yet, I can’t help but feel nervous and uncomfortable.

Once I tell them everything about me, about my past, they will never look at me the same. Sure, they probably have already guessed everything that’s happened to me, but they don’t know for certain. Having it confirmed will change everything.

Fear is something I’ve never felt before with these men. It’s an odd sensation, but it’s almost welcome because it’s better than feeling nothing. Moving toward Theron, I stop at the doorway. He doesn’t move aside to let me pass. Instead, his chin dips as he looks down at me. It seems as if he’s going to say something, but he doesn’t. Watching him, I wait for him to speak, but when he doesn’t, I do.

“What?” I ask on a mutter.

His lips twitch into a smirk. “What,” he repeats. “Well, I would say that it’s time for you to tell us everything, Nadine.”

“What if I don’t want to?” I ask.

I don’t really mean the question. I’m going to tell them everything they not only want but also need to know. I’ve been hiding Landon long enough. He’s been living rent-free inside my head, the fear of the unknown, and of him forever following me. Forever being in the shadows. I’m exhausted, and now it’s time to pass the burden on to someone else.

“I think it’s time, Nadine.”

He’s right. It is time. I know it is. I move toward him but stop when I reach his body. Tipping my head back, I look up into his eyes. He smiles down at me, no longer searching for whatever he was looking for. Perhaps he found it, whatever it was.

I’m not as intimidated by him as I used to be, maybe because I’m terrified of this whole situation, so that takes precedence.

“It’s time,” I whisper.

He dips his chin slightly and steps to the side to let me pass. I do and stop as soon as I enter the room. Five men lift their eyes to meet mine. None of them speaks. They watch instead and give me the room to breathe, speak, and tell my story.

When my gaze finds Grayson’s, he dips his chin slightly but doesn’t make a move to comfort me or encourage me in any way. He knows I need to do this on my own. I need to stand here on my own two feet and confess everything I’ve been hiding for five years.

But as I begin, I shift my eyes away from Grayson and don’t look at him again. I can’t. He knows almost everything I’m saying already, but there is a vulnerability that I can’t quite accept right now. I don’t want to see his pity. It’s too much. The rest of the guys won’t look at me that way, but I know Grayson will.

I know he will feel bad, he will feel anger, and he will just feel when it comes to this situation. And I don’t want him to feel—not anything.

Not a damn thing.

Chapter Eleven

GRAYSON

I hateevery fucking second of it, but I can’t make her stop because I don’t like it. She needs to tell us everything. Her story deserves to be told, and it also deserves vengeance. My heavy breath exhales slowly after Nadine finishes.

Nadine may have grown up in a tumultuous home, but she was innocent—in all honesty, she is still innocent. She was sold into a life that was not meant for her. Nadine was born into the wrong world. She should have been born up above, not in the underworld. It’s too dark down here for her brightness.

“That is all I have. It’s my story, more or less, sparing some gruesome details that I’m sure nobody wants to hear.”

Those words send a jolt to my heart because I’m sure they are exactly the things—the gruesome details—we’ve all experienced. We don’t need to hear the details. She’s right not to tell us.

I have a feeling that everyone is going to be having several stiff drinks tonight in hopes of being able to erase whatever nightmares will be seeping into our heads so we can sleep.

“Thank you for sharing it all with us,” Theron murmurs.

Vaughn stands. I flick my gaze to him and watch as anger consumes his face. He is pissed off, and as my eyes shift from one person to the other in the room, I realize that they are all angry. Theron is hiding it well, but he is not just angry.

He is livid.

There is a moment of silence as we watch Vaughn march up to Nadine. He doesn’t say anything. He stands in front of her, anger radiating off him as he looks down at her. I tense, slightly worried about what he’s going to say to her.

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