With Every Heartbeat (Forbidden Men, #4)(131)

Blondie shuddered and started gagging. I winced for making her relive that moment again by bringing it up. She burrowed deeper into Caroline, and Caroline petted her hair and murmured soothingly into Blondie’s ear before looking up again.

“Belcher,” she repeated. “The same guy who was passing around naked pictures of Aspen?”

There had only been one naked picture, but I lifted my eyebrows, impressed. “Good memory.”

“That bastard,” she sneered, looking ready to find Belcher and murder him with her bare hands. Then she frowned and glanced around. “Where’s Quinn?”

When Blondie cried even harder at the mention of his name, I scowled at Caroline before saying, “Good f*cking question.”

“I don’t understand.”

She frowned, confused, so I caught her up to speed on the part of the story where Quinn caught us coming out of the room, looking like we’d f*cked.

“...and then he took off, so idiot Blondie here didn’t race after him to tell him what had really happened; she just wanted him to believe her all on his own steam, so she raced after him to say pretty much nothing, for which he dumped her and took off...again.”

“Hey, don’t call her an idiot,” Caroline scolded, hugging Blondie to her tighter. “She was nearly raped. I think she’s allowed to have a scrambled brain at the moment.”

Okay, so she might have a point. I grumbled a little under my breath and ran my fingers through my hair.

Caroline sighed and pulled up her phone with one hand while she continued to hold Blondie with the other.

“Good idea,” I said, snapping my fingers. “You try getting a hold of Ham. Maybe he’ll answer for you. He’s been ignoring all my attempts.”

“I’m not calling Quinn. I’m calling Noel.”

I frowned. I hated being around the both of them together. I had to behave myself when Gamble was present, overseeing every move I made near his sister.

“And Asher,” she added after a moment, making me frown even harder.

“Hart? Why the f*ck are you calling Hart?” Just how close had those two gotten? If he hadn’t respected my request to stay away from her, I was breaking his face. That’s all there was to it.

“You’re going to need more than two people to contain Quinn when he finds out what really happened. He’ll want to kill Belcher.”

I laughed, when inside I really flinched with jealousy. “Oh, and you think Hart has the kind of muscle to help hold him down? He’s a f*cking singer.”

“He’s a good talker. Maybe he can talk sense into Quinn before Quinn does too much damage.”

In my opinion, Quinn needed to do some serious damage. I was going to be haunted for a good long while by the image of a crying Blondie trying to fight Belcher off her. I hoped Ham pounded his f*cking face in.

But what I said to Caroline was, “Hey, I’m a good talker. I’ve talked your brother off the ledge more times than I can count.”

She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to respond, but Zoey lifted her face. “Can I stay at your place tonight?” she asked Caroline.

Caroline’s shock over the request was pretty evident.

“I can’t go back to Cora’s. Not after what she did.”

Caroline glanced at me. “Wait. What did Cora do?”

I frowned and shook my head, clueless. Stepping in a little closer and curious about that answer myself, I had a bad feeling there was more to Cora’s involvement than just jacking with a couple phones.

“She…” Another tear trickled down Blondie’s cheek. She wiped it away and sniffed. “She asked him to…she told him I wanted to be with him. That’s why he was in that room, that’s why he…he…”

“Wait a f*cking second,” I said a little more harshly than I intended to because my voice made Blondie flinch. “Are you saying that f*cking bitch told Belcher to rape you?”

She nodded, making me fume. “Yeah, or at least…something like that. She called him there, and she…she knew what he’d try to do to me.”

I curled my hands into fists. “I’m going to kill her. I’m going to f*cking—”

“You can’t. She—”

“I don’t care how f*cking sick she is. No human being that cruel deserves to live. And you are not giving her your kidney. I absolutely refuse to allow it. Not after this.”

“Wait, what?” Caroline broke in.

“Just…” I sighed and took her arm, urging her toward the door. “Take Blondie to your place, okay. We’ll take care of Belcher and the f*cking whore.”

“But—”

After I nudged the two girls into the hall, I waved them good-bye. I had a roommate to find and worthless people to destroy.

But Blondie paused and glanced back at me with her huge, green, frightened eyes. “You’re going to tell him, aren’t you? You’re going to tell him everything.”

“He needs to know.” But I shrugged apologetically after I said it.

She nodded, and I kind of felt like shit for making her look so sad. “Just…” She looked up at me again, killing me with her sad eyes. “Please let him know I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for not telling him sooner.”