Game (Gentry Boys, #3)(69)
Baby, did I ever know you at all?
Even as some distant, nagging part of my brain insisted that something wasn’t right about all this, I was growing increasingly angry with every step. I’d done everything possible to romance her, to let her know she had my heart and to try to get access to hers. Stephanie Bransky damn well owed me an explanation for this shit and this time I wasn’t going to ask for it nicely.
It took me less than fifteen minutes to reach her apartment. I threw my backpack on the ground and banged on the door. A minute went by and I banged again.
“Stephanie!”
I heard the click of the lock being released. The door was opening too slowly so I pushed it and barged right in.
Every angry thought left my head immediately. I was suddenly, desperately ashamed as I faced her.
She was destroyed.
Stephanie had covered herself with a heavy sweatshirt and thick pants even though it was warm and her arms were crossed over her body as if she was trying to defend herself from physical blows. Her voice was a half sob, half wail. “You know, don’t you?”
She sank to the floor and her despair was terrifying as she heaved with sobs. I didn’t have any other wish but to bring her back, to make her see it didn’t have to be as awful as all that.
“Steph,” I whispered, coming to her side. I tried to put my arms around her but she crawled away, sobbing harder. “It’s okay, baby. Sweetheart, look at me. This kind of thing happens all the time. It’s a downside to living in the age of technology.” She cried on and on like she couldn’t hear a word. This was killing me. I swallowed and tried a different tactic, trying to keep my voice light. “So you got your freak on, honey. So what?”
That stopped her. Slowly she lifted her head. I couldn’t see her face so I carefully pushed her hair aside. She looked at me in ruined disbelief, tears running freely.
“You think I wanted it? Is that what you think? They made me do that. They forced me, Chase.”
No. NO!!!!
It hadn’t made sense before. Now it did. It all made terrible, devastating sense, no matter how much I wished otherwise.
Steph didn’t push me away again when I tried to hold her. She clung to me like a frightened little girl as I carried her into the bedroom. I sat there with her for a long time in the darkness. Finally her gasping sobs lessened and as evening began to fall on the world outside she told me about what she’d been coerced into doing and why. Although I felt a rush of relief when she said they hadn’t physically touched her, her ordeal was still appalling. It hadn’t been about sex. They had wanted to degrade her and they did. She didn’t need to say what it had done to her; I already knew that.
“Who are they, Steph?”
She closed her eyes and shook her head, refusing to tell me. I could guess they were some slimy pieces of shit who operated behind the scenes, men she knew through the illegal gambling rings she’d dealt with. I’d seen enough of those types of bastards when my brothers and I were involved with fighting for money.
She began to cry softly again. “Chase, I’m so sorry.”
A single tear fell down my right cheek. More tears threatened and I willed the rest of them away. I couldn’t let her see how her admission had shattered me.
“Settle down, honey. It’ll be all right. Come on, you’ll feel better if you clean up and get changed.”
She obediently followed when I led her to the bathroom. I turned on the shower and waited until it was hot enough.
I started to undress her gently but she resisted in horror. “No! I don’t want you to see me!”
It was more excruciating than a punch to the gut. Another second and I wouldn’t be able to stand up anymore. “Steph.”
She wouldn’t let me touch her. “Please, Chase.”
“All right.” I kissed her forehead and carefully tipped her chin up. “I’m gonna fix this, sweetheart.”
Her eyes filled with tears again. “You can’t. It’s done. It’s unfixable.”
My heart was in pieces. Literal f*cking pieces. I was fixing this if it killed me. “Shhh,” I soothed her. “No more tears for now, my beautiful brave girl. Just remember that I love you.”
She calmed down but she still wouldn’t undress in front of me. I closed the bathroom door softly and retreated to the living room, feeling like I’d aged ten years since I walked in here this afternoon. I sat heavily on the couch and did the last thing in the world I wanted to do.
I took out my phone and turned on the video.
The whole thing was seven minutes and thirty eight seconds long. Titled ‘College Wild’ it had over half a million views already. I forced myself to scroll through the images of my girlfriend being abused. The place was obviously a bar or a club and it looked dark and old. Most of the buildings in Tempe were fairly new. This might have been somewhere in Phoenix, one of the old neglected neighborhoods close to downtown. I searched for other clues but couldn’t tell much of anything. The men were just out of sight of the camera and all I caught was an occasional waving arm. I didn’t know how the hell I was going to find them but I damn well was going to. There was no corner of the f*cking earth they could run to in order to get away from me. The video only had a few seconds left when I heard the shower squeal to a stop. I paused the picture and backed up a little. Four seconds before the cutoff a man appeared next to the stage.