Page 86 of Prey Tell
“And what have I won?” I ask, trying to keep my hand from trembling on his jaw.
“Everything.”
Something victorious and hot flashes through me, but I can tell he’s being serious. “So tell me. Tell me why you got all spooked in the woods. No lies. No deflecting.”
He nods, quiet for a minute before he starts to speak. “I was nine. My parents had been having a particularly bad fight, and my mother was staying elsewhere—if she’d known, she would’ve—” He closes his eyes. “Anyway, one morning after breakfast, my father tells us to put on our shoes and a jacket. Liam, my oldest brother, was the only skeptical one. He was sixteen then, seven years older than me. And Orion, my youngest brother, was five. He was a fucking baby.”
My stomach sinks as he continues.
“He loaded us all up in his Range Rover and we went out into the forest. I don’t know how long we drove for. He intentionally zig-zagged through the trees to throw us off. Finally, he hands Liam a large backpack, tells him there’s enough water for a week, and that if we try to come home before the week is over, he’ll drive us back out here until we learn what it means to be a man. Or some bullshit like that.”
My heart is racing as I listen, as he idly traces patterns into my bare thighs. He sucks in a breath and keeps talking.
“I think we were all in shock. He’d always been volatile, but he’d stooped to a whole new level with that. Liam and Miles took it upon themselves to set up our camp. Our father had beenkindenough to provide the bare essentials, including a tent,” he snarls. “I was too young to really grasp the gravity of the situation. Orion was ecstatic—he thought we’d be camping. And Malakai was sort of hovering between worry and playfulness.”
“So, he left you all there? In the woods?”
Chase nods. “For a week. And honestly, it was fine. Somehow, Liam killed and skinned rabbits. He made a fucking slingshot out of sticks and a rubber band. He was our forager, coming back with berries and mushrooms that we would grill up over a fire. We had to ration the water, but we were fine. But two days before the week was up, we were all sleeping when we woke up to the tent on fire.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “Fire?” I whisper.
“We got out, thanks to Miles and Liam. The Santa Ana winds had caused an ember from our fire to spark on the tent, and it went up like a flame on lighter fluid. Anyway, we got out, but Miles got burned. It was pretty bad. And needed emergency attention. So we packed everything up and headed home, but we got lost. By the time we made it back to the castle, Miles was barely alive. The burns were infected, and the doctors told us he would be lucky if he survived.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and nuzzle into his skin. “That must’ve been so terrifying as a child.”
Chase nods. “Do you know the worst part?”
“What?”
“We all lied for him. For my father. When the doctors took us aside, we said that we’d been begging him to camp out by ourselves. That Liam was old enough to watch us. That it was anaccident,” he bites out. “They never charged him with anything. But that week changed us. It rewrote the fabric of our souls. It was… horrific. Especially those last two days. We thought our brother was going to die.”
My mind is racing as I think over Miles’s serious persona, the way he throws himself into work, the way he’s more closed off than Chase. And the scar I saw snaking up his neck a couple of days ago.
“I’m sorry your father did that. I can’t imagine being little and not being able to trust the one person you should be able to count on.”
My mind is racing. I’d grown up knowing about Charles Ravage and how ruthless he was. And he was still alive, living in seclusion somewhere—Paris, I think. I knew from Jackson that the only person to ever visit him was Miles. Their mother, who remarried, had died a few years ago. I’d sent Chase a fruit basket. But this whole thing puts everything else into perspective. It explainssomuch. Chase and Miles starting Ravage Consulting Firm. Chase becoming a Dominant—learning control and setting boundaries. Never playing in the woods. Never letting anyone get too close. He’s resourceful because he had to be. Because he experienced something horrible.
Of course he grasped on to something that offered him total control.
Something that allowedhimto be in control.
And I know from my basic child development classes in college that if a child isn’t shown love, if they are left to feel unwanted or neglected, it can have a lasting impact on their future relationships. Anything from fear of commitment, jealousy, control…
I pull him closer, relishing in the way he squeezes me back.
It’s very possible that Chase needs this connection as much as I do.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
THE POSSESSION
Chase
I reluctantly pull away from Juliet and look at her. Instead of pity, like I expected, I see something else. Understanding. Compassion. Her expression is open and approachable. It startles me, and I lean down and place my lips on hers. My hands come up to grip her hips, and then I slide them up until they’re on either side of her face. She moans when I suck gently on her lower lip, and my cock twitches against her hot core.
“Thank you for telling me,” she mumbles against my mouth.
My brows furrow slightly when I pull away, expecting her to make an excuse to leave or possibly change the subject. I know it’s not easy to talk about. And in my rule book, I avoid hard conversations if I can help it, so I wouldn’t blame her. Especially because I unloaded fuckingeverythingonto her when this was supposed to be three days of casual fun.
