Page 87 of Hart of Darkness
28
Dillon
The inside of Duke’s SUV was filled with nothing. No one was talking. Duke was driving, and from where I sat, which was behind him, I could see the pain on his face. My brother seemed to be in agony. Whether it was me, Grace biting her nails beside me, or all three of us together, it didn’t matter. Whatever Grace had to say or whatever family feud we were about to get into, it needed to be done.
I reached over and placed a gentle hand on Grace’s leg.
She stiffened before turning from looking out the window to setting her tear-filled eyes on me.
“Why didn’t you want me to know you were alive?” I asked.
Duke’s gaze was more in the rearview mirror than on the road. He was moving slowly through the side streets. “Tell us already, Grace. I’ve been patient with you.”
My sister looked to me for help like she had when she was a kid and our father was scolding her for some stupid reason.
“You’re an adult, Grace. Whatever you have to say, Duke and I won’t judge.” I was trying to be calm, cool, and collected, but my insides were knotted and mangled.
She slumped, the fight leaving her. “When you guys left me to fend for myself with Dad, I hated both you and Denim.” She lowered her gaze to her lap.
Nausea crept inside me like a slow-moving train.
“I decided that I was better off living somewhere else. Where Dad couldn’t beat me, tell me I was nothing but a whore, and make my life miserable. Anywhere in this city had to be better than living in that house with an alcoholic. But I had blinders on. At first, I crashed with friends. I had a little bit of money I’d stolen from Dad’s wallet. It didn’t get me far. I couldn’t keep scrounging off my friends, so I decided to find a job, or I should say the person found me. All you have to do, he said, was go to dinner with a rich client of ours. All you have to do is dress pretty, act nice, and keep them company. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” Grace shuddered.
Duke eyed me, breathing fire.
I was gritting my teeth so hard, it hurt. I knew where she was going. I knew what she was about to tell us, and if she gave me a name, then I was about to go hunting. I had no doubt that Duke would accompany me.
“At first, everything was cool,” she said softly. “I ate well. He put me up in a nice apartment. I had a bed, pretty clothes, and true to his word, I didn’t have to have sex with anyone unless I wanted to. The men I went out with were polite and didn’t make me do things I didn’t want to. Until one day when things took a drastic turn. I was plucked from my bed in the middle of the night, drugged, and thrown into a cage.”
Duke took a sharp left into a boarded-up gas station then came to a screeching halt. He swiveled in his seat. “Who? Who threw you into a cage?” The fury pouring off my brother was far greater than any madness he’d shown to our old man.
Grace let out a throaty noise. “Why do you care now? Huh? You didn’t come home to check on me. You didn’t bother to find out if I was okay.”
Duke’s knuckles were snow-white as he gripped the back of the passenger’s seat. “You could’ve called me.”
She released a laugh that sent shivers down my spine. My baby sister, the little girl I knew, was in that moment someone I didn’t know at all. I hated to even think about it, but she’d been raped and held against her will.
“The only way I knew how to protect myself was to run from Dad.” She swiveled her head to face me. “That was your advice before you left home.”
My heart stopped. I always knew I’d said the wrong thing. It had gutted me every minute of every day and still did. Even as my heart broke for her, even though she was sitting next to me, I couldn’t erase the past or what had happened to her. I wished like a motherfucker I could. I wished I’d never walked out that door and left her behind.
“I didn’t mean away from home.”
Her nose wrinkled. “What would you have done? I’m not a guy. I didn’t have the strength at twelve years old or even at sixteen to fight off Dad.”
“Did Dad rape you, Grace?” Duke asked, holding back every ounce of fury he had in him. I could see the restraint in the way he was clutching the top of the passenger’s seat. “Tell me now. I swear that man is dead.”
Her jaw tightened. “What Dad did to me was a walk in the park compared to what I’ve been through.”
My old man was a lot of things, but I didn’t think he was a rapist. “Answer his question,” I ordered, not sure if I was right in my assumption. I was done feeling sorry for myself, even though my heart was not done shattering into a gazillion pieces.
“I don’t have to do squat.” She grabbed the door handle and pulled.
Duke plastered on a cold smile only reserved for someone he was about to unleash his wrath on. “Child locks, sister. I’ve given you time to heal. I’ve given you lots of money. I’ve bitten my tongue so many times in the last few months that I have cuts on it that haven’t healed. I even let you give me the black eye. So continue.”
She spit in his face. “Go fuck yourself.”
While I didn’t disagree with Duke that she needed to tell us where she’d been, I knew Grace needed help. She was dealing with a ton of shit that I couldn’t even imagine. “She gave you the shiner?” I asked Duke.
