“Tell me the fucking truth!”
Something snaps inside me, an invisible thread I didn’t even know I was hanging by. My whole body jolts and my words tear out of me, sounding raw and broken.
“I was raped!”
Silence.
Blissful silence apart from the ragged inhalations of my breath past the lump in my throat.
Daimon stares at me, his eyes haunted and dark. He doesn’t move an inch and I don’t move either.
When he does speak, his words are growled out, like a feral beast, but it’s just one word he utters, one word that has the power to bring me to my fucking knees.
“Who?”
17
Daimon
Briella was raped…
She was fucking raped.
I see red. My vision clouds and anger burns a trail through my veins as I stand there, trembling with rage. Someone touched her? Someone took something from her that was not freely given?
Fireworks light behind my eyes as I try to calm my fury, but nothing is helping. Homicidal waves of ire slam into my chest, making it hard to breathe. I want to kill whoever hurt her, whoever drove her to drink as a way of coping with the trauma she suffered.
“Who?” I snarl out, needing an answer, needing someone to direct this rage at.
Briella’s eyes dart around the room. “No one. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“You were raped?” Levi’s voice breaks as he asks the question.
The brother looks like he’s struggling to keep his shit together. I don’t blame him. I feel like I’m coming apart at the seams myself. Levi fought so hard to protect his sister. He took her out of an abusive home, struggled to raise her and keep her safe, only to fail at protecting her from this. It’s killing me, so this has to be shredding him.
“I…” Brie breaks off, swallowing down her words. I can see how hard she’s finding this, see the truth of what happened in her eyes. “Levi, please…”
“Oh, Briella. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
I glance at Sasha who is covering her mouth with her hands, tears standing in her eyes.
Of all the people in this room, she’s the one that understands what Brie is going through. Sasha was raped by Rav’s brother, Sin. It was why she left the club and ran. She didn’t think Rav would believe her over his own blood.
“Don’t. Don’t you do that!” she grinds out. “Don’t you look at me like I’m different.”
“No one thinks that, honey,” Sasha assures her, but Brie shakes her head.
“Everyone is looking at me like I’m dirty,” she whispers, her voice hoarse. Her eyes water and I have the uncontrolled urge to put my fist through the wall.
“You ain’t fucking dirty,” Ravage growls out. This is hitting a little too close to home for him. “You tell us who did this, we’ll make sure they pay. You’re family. No one touches family.”
I see the fear in her eyes when she looks at Ravage. I don’t understand why it’s there. Rav is a scary bloke, but he’s never wronged Brie in any way. Yet, the terror in her eyes can’t be faked. She’s fucking petrified of him.
Briella wraps her arms around herself and licks her tongue over her bottom lip. “It’s not that simple.” She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s over with. I shouldn’t have said anything.” I watch as a tear rolls down her cheek. She swipes angrily at it, as if she thinks crying is a weakness she can’t afford to show.
What remains of my self-control snaps. I grab her shoulders. Fear flashes in her eyes for a moment, and I want to remove it, but my rage is too far gone to calm myself down.
“Who fucking touched you?”
Levi snags my arm and tries to pull me off her. “Take your fucking hands off her, shit head.”
I shake him off, my gaze locked onto Briella. She is all that exists for me right now, her and the burning fury tearing through every cell
“I’m going to rip them apart with my bare fucking hands.”
Her throat bobs as her eyes dart. “Daimon… please.”
I don’t know what she’s pleading for me to do. She doesn’t elaborate either. She just stares at me with those beautiful eyes, which are flared wide.
“Someone touched you against your will,” I hiss out the words, unable to calm the hurricane building inside me.
“Okay, everyone needs to calm the fuck down,” Layla speaks. She’s a tiny thing, but it doesn’t stop her from shoving her way between me and Briella. I admire her sticking up for her friend, but she’s pissing me off getting between us.
“This is club business, bitch,” I grind out, sick of her shit. “Stay the fuck out of it.”
“Daimon!”
I ignore Brie’s chastisement. So does Layla, who is glaring at me.
“The last thing she needs is your fucking club involved. The Sons have done enough damage.”
Her words add fuel to the fire that is already burning through me.
“I’m getting a little tired of you making out the Sons are the bad guys here. Ain’t done shit to you or Briella, other than take care of you both.”
“Everything that was done to Briella was because of the Sons,” she hisses in my face.
Her words confuse the fuck out of me. Was Brie raped because of her links to the club?
“What the fuck does that mean?” I snap back, my temper barely holding on.
“Layla, stop it!” Briella’s voice sounds small as she says it and I can see she’s about to fall apart.
“It means you want to know who hurt her? Look to your own fucking club.”
Her words hit me like a wrecking ball. Someone in the club did this?
“Who?” Rav demands.
“Please!” Briella fists her hands over her ears, as if she can block this out, but I’m getting to the bottom of this once and for all.
If one of my brothers did this, I’ll flay them alive. Oath be damned, I’ll peel the flesh from their fucking bones. My breath rips out of me as I stand there huffing like a bull. I can’t imagine any of my brothers would suddenly turn rapist. I trust all the men with my life. There’s only one fucker in the club who sunk into that depravity, and he’s dead. Ravage killed him himself. Could he have done this before he died?
Pain lances through my chest as Sasha steps forwards, her face a mask of pain.
“It was Sin, wasn’t it?” Sasha’s quiet voice breaks through the tension in the room.
I watch Briella’s face crumple and I know it’s true. That cunt raped two women I fucking love. We had a predator in our ranks and we never had a clue.
Rav puts his fist through the drywall, roaring out his anger. Briella and Layla both shrink back, but Sasha moves to him, her hands moving over his back and chest as she tries to soothe him as only she can.
“Sin did this?” Levi demands, his voice cracking.
Brie closes her eyes tightly before she nods. The movement is so slight it barely registers.
“Fuck!” he screams, his hands interlinking at the back of his neck.
“I’m sorry,” she immediately apologises and my anger flares. She shouldn’t have to say sorry for anything.