Page 18 of The Prey
There were tears in his sister’s eyes.
“You need to tell me everything I need to know.” Because Gia had pulled inward today—afterClarke had met with Hudson. Almost immediately after. Before that, she’d been open and loving and warm with Ryan and Hala. And she’d even relaxed with Hudson. Until Clarke.
“They dated. Right when she first moved back to Value from Finley Creek. They had two dates.”
“I was aware. I wasn’t sure why it ended.” Back then, he had been casually dating a woman, dealing with being a single father, and trying to run the prosecutor’s office after the previous attorney in charge had really screwed things up. And Gia—she had just gotten beneath his skin in so many ways he’d spent most of his work hours frustrated and furious, with her.
He doubted he’d even paid two moments of attention to Gia’s personal life back then. Heshouldhave. He should have shoved Clarke aside and just carried Gia off to his own cave.
Then…threeyearswouldn’t have been wasted. He’d have had her where he wanted her long before now.
If he just hadn’t been such an idiot.
“He nearly killed her, that’s why!” She just kept pacing. He hadn’t seen her this upset in a long time. His sister pulled in a deep breath, then bent down and picked up some of Ryan’s toys. “I promised her I’d never tell anyone. Greer and Genny and Ipromisedher, Huds. We promised.”
“Tell me what that bastard did to her. Because she’s going to have to be alone with him on the job at some point, Hala. If I need to protect her somehow, I need to know.” It was weak, and he knew it. But he wanted to know. Gia had pulled in to herself after Clarke had left; the beautiful, open happy woman she had been with Ryan and Hala had just beengone. Until even Shayna and Mike had seemed worried. Hudson had wanted to take her aside, talk to her, but she’d disappeared within moments of five p.m. “What do you know?”
“He didn’t get what he wanted on their second date. And he was going to take it—he showed up a day later, at her apartment. She hadn’t even told him where she lived. He just knew.” Hala checked Ryan again. When she turned back to Hudson, there were memories in her big eyes. And tears. “He was drunk, and he knocked her down. On her kitchen floor. He’d pushed his way in and closed and locked her door. She was trapped with him. Genny had akey,thankfully.We’d stopped by spur-of-the-moment to get Gia to go shopping with us. We walked in and saw what he was doing to her. Greer grabbed a vase and swung it at him. We were all screaming for help. Genny grabbed a chair and hit him with it. As hard as she could, then Genny jumped on his back and was clawing at his face. And then he ran off. Just like what had happened tome.Only worse.”
When Hala had been twenty, the man she had been dating had tried to force himself on her. Hudson and his friend Mac had been near her apartment that day, after attending a lecture at FCU by a visiting colleague they’d lost touch with. They had heard her yelling for help when they’d stopped by. Mac hadheard first—and kicked through Hudson’s sister’s door. Hudson and Mac had pulled that bastard off of Hala. If Mac hadn’t been there to hold him back, Hudson probably would have beaten the man to death right then and there.
That man had gotten off with what Hudson thought was a slap on the wrist. Nothing had ever made him angrier. Hudson was one hundred percent certain the judge and the cops involved in his sister’s case had been dirty to the core. He just hadn’t ever been able to prove it. But the dirt in the Finley Creek TSP was finally starting to come to light. Hudson was just waiting for the right time to share what he knew about those bastards. He’d find his answers eventually. It was one of his life’s missions.
“Why the hell didn’t you report it?” Hudson battled back the fury with everything he had. Knowing that bastard had beenstaringat Gia from his own office today, probably remembering…
And Hudson hadn’t evenknown.
No wonder she had shut down. Now it made sense.
“We did. It went just about as well as when I reported what happened to me.Absolutely nowhere. We went to the Barrattville City Police. But Clarke had connections. Friends on the force, I think. And it just went away somehow. For a long time…I think she believed you had had something to do with it disappearing, too. Until she asked me almost a year later if you knew. I told her that it had happened when you were visiting Micah after he was injured, and you probably hadn’t heard about it at all.”
“I would never make that just go away.” It sickened him to think Gia had ever doubted him like that. Would think he’d have ever let a man hurt her that way and done nothing to protect her. “I would never. Why would she think that? Why didn’t she tell me?”
Hala winced a little. “Well, the two of you don’t exactly get along. What was she supposed to do? Come running to you to tell you that your good pal at the office choked her unconscious before he started ripping her clothes off to hurt her right there in her own kitchen? She was almost unconscious when we found her that day. If we hadn’t stopped by, he would have forced her. She couldn’t have fought him off. All three ofuscould barely get him off of her that day. He was almost enraged. Genny made her go to the Finley Creek Gen ED and get checked out.”
He flinched. The idea that Gia hadn’t trusted him enough back then to know he would have taken her side… Of course he’d have believed them. “I’m sorry she didn’t trust me enough back then.”
“I didn’t mean to betray a confidence. But…she probably wouldn’t want to tell you herself and I don’t want him left alone with her again. Or causing her problems now. Why did he have to come back at all?”
“That’s why she moved back home with her brothers so suddenly, isn’t it? He’s been back three weeks.” And she had three big, muscle-bound, overprotective older brothers living right there as a deterrent if some man came for her again.
Just like Hala had lived with him for a few years after what had happened to her. So she could feelsafe.
Safe.
Gia didn’t feel safe. That was more than obvious to him now. Especially at the office.
It all made sense: that was why she was so different at the office than at the ranch. She was afraid.
“She moved in with her brothers, yes. She won’t admit it, but she’s terrified of him completely.” Hala hesitated for a moment. She just looked at him like she was picking her words. “We’ve gotten a lot closer since…what happened to me, you know. When I lived in Finley Creek we went to a support group together.At the women’s charity there. She made me, actually. She just showed up at my apartment door and made me go the first time. I was having a horrible time and I think Greer was worried about me. Gia just showed up and made me take a shower and go with her. She held my hand, and we walked intogether. I am so glad she did. But I don’t think she’s told her family about the group. Well, her sisters, maybe. But not her brothers. They still don’t know what he did to her.”
“That’s probably a good thing. They’d kill him.”Clarke would never get near her alone ever again. And if Hudson ever got the chance—he’d show Clarke exactly what it felt like to be helpless like that. “Thank you for telling me. I’ll keep her away from him. I promise.”
Hala just nodded. Then… “You scare her, you know. Really scare her. Ever since. I’ve told her you are nothing like him, but I think that’s why she fights with you so much. She’s so scared ofyoudeep down. Since you were friends with him before. She said you always took his side when you worked together and you’d argue. I think she probably thought you’d be on his side in this, too. She’s…not nearly as confident as she acts. Remember that. Gia can be a little insecure, you know.”
Hudson just thought about her words as he sprawled over his own bed later that night. He’d never thought Gia would be afraid of him. Never even considered it. Not with the way she’d fought with him…since about six months after she’d hired on. Right around the time that bastard had left. That was when their disagreements had escalated.
He finally got it. Understood. She’d been protecting herself in the only way she probably thought she could.
