Page 56 of Hunted Innocence

I almost roll my eyes to the ceiling and let out a heavy sigh. “Iamtainted,” I say.

He chuckles, squeezing my wrist with his fingers. “So am I.”

I’m not sure what else he’s going to say. I don’t expect him to continue, because he’s said this before, but it’s been dropped, and the conversation has shifted. Before I can respond, he continues speaking. He tells me the most horrific story I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

If I thought what happened to me was bad, then what happened to him and the other men from Securus was and is indescribable.

Chapter Twenty-Four

GRAYSON

It was nevermy intention to tell Nadine or anyone else the horrors of my past. But I couldn’t let her think I somehow thought any less of her because of what I’d witnessed. It simply wasn’t true. We talked, and I told her everything bad and ugly that happened.

I didn’t tell her anything good because there was nothing good about my childhood or teenage years. No, that’s not true, because I met my brothers. The men I would heal with and whom I would open Securus with, a security company that we could run and feel good about protecting people.

Slipping out of bed, I leave Nadine alone and head toward the kitchen, taking out a bottle of bourbon and a glass. I pour myself a healthy drink, then make my way toward the window and lean against the wall as I look out at the city.

The lights twinkle from people’s windows all over Nights, North Carolina, and I can’t help but wonder how many of them are struggling to breathe right now, because that’s how I fucking feel.

I may not show much of it on the outside or say it, but right now, I’m fucking struggling. My past, my future, all of it seems hopeless, and I feel fucking helpless. The grasp I had on my control is fucking gone.

It’s vanished.

It’s in this moment of internal upheaval that I realize we’ve gotten off track about our company and our mission. The shift has been organic, but it’s a shift I don’t think any one of us intentionally set out to make.

Originally, all we wanted to do was find Ravet. We wanted to ruin him, torture him, and watch him die. We’ve done that. But before we ever found him, that searching, that desire for vengeance and revenge, turned into surveillance. And we ended up all being really fucking good at different aspects of it, which combined made us the best company on the East Coast and possibly the country.

We’ve been so wrapped up in Ravet, in the dark web, in killing and ruining men, we’ve lost sight of our jobs. Losing sight of my job, security and surveillance, almost made us lose Nadine.

I can’t do that again.

I can never risk losing her again. I also can’t chance harming her mentally or emotionally. She’s been through enough, and as much as I think that I want what Merrick and Theron have, I also don’t know how to be the men they are.

Which is why I can’t do anything more than protect her until the day I die and set provisions in place to continue to protect her even when I’m gone. Lifting the glass to my lips, I take a drink as I continue to stare out at the city.

Sadness consumes me, but I tamp it down. It’s been a fucking wild couple of days, and I’m sure that everything is just swirling inside of me. I have a lot going on, and I needto compartmentalize and organize my work and my life with Nadine.

I’ll feel better then.

Once I have control again.

Then I feel her.

Her hand touches the center of my bare back. Turning my head, I look over my shoulder, and sure enough, she is standing behind me. She doesn’t speak, her face and throat so fucking swollen and bruised that I can’t hide my wince.

“You need to be in bed,” I grunt.

She doesn’t take offense at my gruffness. Instead, her lips curve up into a small smile. “I had to go to the bathroom, and you weren’t beside me. I was afraid you’d gone to sleep on the sofa.”

Shrugging a shoulder, I turn around and lean my back against the wall. Dipping my chin, I look into her eyes. “I saw my reflection in the mirror. I know what I look like and why you didn’t want to come to bed with me. Why you’re afraid of me.”

Her words fucking kill me.

“Not afraid of you, beautiful,” I say. “You deserve peace, and I’m going to give that to you.”

Nadine’s brows snap together, but I don’t let her respond. I don’t want to hear her argue with me. Instead, I shift forward slightly and touch my lips to her forehead, one of the few parts of her body that isn’t swollen or bruised.

“Let’s go to bed,” I murmur against her skin.

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