She shivered. “Lie here.”
I didn’t urge her to do anything differently. Instead, I shrugged out of my sports coat and then laid it over the top of her.
Her shirt was ripped. There were contusions in places that I could make out. And there was quite a bit of bruising.
“I’m going to fucking kill you if you talk, bitch!” the would-be rapist yelled.
The woman squeezed her eyes closed tightly and whispered, “His name is Jackson Norris.”
Before I could get any more information out of her, her entire body went slack.
“That stupid bitch wanted it!” Mr. Jackson Norris, soon-to-be inmate Jackson Norris, hollered.
I pressed my fingers to her throat to ensure that she wasn’t dying, and found a strong pulse.
Then I turned my glare on the asshole. “I’m fairly sure that she didn’t. You know, you might not know this word all that well, but when they say ‘no’ that usually means that they don’t want you to do something. Just sayin’.”
• • •
“That morning, I was nearly raped and assaulted by a man that I’d seen on that trail a hundred times,” she whispered. “One that had asked me out six times, and I’d turned him down all six of those times.”
I instantly wanted to kill someone.
Preferably the asshole that I knew was locked up in a maximum-security prison for serial raping other women exactly like Fran.
“Fuck,” I whispered. “I…”
She looked over at me with those eyes the same color as my blue jeans and said, “You what?”
“I worked your case that night,” I murmured, almost too quietly to hear.
She tilted her head at my words. “What?”
“That night,” I said. “I was there that night. I… your case is why I quit.”
She blinked.
“I know.”
And before I could say another word, she was hauling ass out of the building.
“I gotta go.” She grabbed her stuff and started running, but she didn’t make it far.
In the time that it’d taken for her to talk, everyone but the two of us, Madden and Sophia had left.
It’d also gotten dark, the dumbbells that we’d used during our workout became almost invisible, meaning that she tripped on them and went down hard.
She hit the ground with an oomph, and I was immediately there to help her up.
She gasped when my hand met her skin, and I instantly pulled back, worried that I was scaring her.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, offering my hand instead of touching her again.
She sighed and pressed her forehead to the mat that was underneath of her. “I’m dumb. It’s okay.”
She didn’t take my hand when she helped herself up. What she did do, though, was bury her face into her hands. “I need a day.”
I didn’t know what to say.
So I didn’t.
She stood up and walked out without another word, and it broke my fucking heart to watch her run across the parking lot to her car, as if the past six weeks hadn’t even happened.
“What was that about?” Madden asked.
I didn’t answer him.
Instead, I pulled my keys out of my pocket and said, “Fran needs a membership. Put it on my tab.”
Then I left and didn’t look back.
When I got home, I sent out a text to Easton and Schultz telling them I was indisposed and proceeded to get drunk.
CHAPTER 17
It’s too early for you to say things.
-Text from Taos to Madden
TAOS
I was once again at the gym teaching a class, and this time, my favorite bootcamper was there working out.
Poorly and slowly, but she was there.
My thought was that she was just there to get her muscles moving more than getting a good workout in. And I couldn’t blame her. Not after everything that I’d learned last night. Both from her, and putting my own two and two together.
I was standing at the door that led to the outside area where we usually ran sprints when Madden came up beside me.
“So…” Madden drawled. “Since you’ve done so good with the last bootcamp, do you want to do the next one?”
I shot him a look that clearly said ‘fuck no’ then turned to yell at one of my athletes.
The man, who looked guilty as soon as I’d caught him walking, picked up the pace.
“I think I’d rather shoot myself in the left molar,” I told him. “I know that you can do it.”
Madden shot his head back and laughed at the quickly darkening sky.
Just as he was about to say something, his daughter squirmed her way between us, then leaned on me instead of Madden.
“Hey, Uncle Taos,” Sophia said quietly. “Do you think I could borrow your car?”
I snorted. “No.”
She sighed. “I promise to treat it with care.”
“You promised to treat my last car with care, too, and you ended up wrecking it by wrapping it around a telephone pole,” I countered.
She sighed. “I need a new car then. Mine is too slow.”
I looked over at Madden who was very carefully being quiet so she didn’t ask to borrow his car.
He’d probably say yes.
“Why is yours too slow?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Well…” She started to go into a long, dragged-out story about how she wanted to start racing again, and how she thought that she might be able to get a lot of money by doing it.
It all degraded from there because Madden started to get upset.
Because really, the last time that Sophia raced, she’d smashed into a pole at the track. A pole that’d been fifty feet in the air.
I’d lost about eighteen years off of my life witnessing that wreck.
I wasn’t eager to get her behind the wheel of the car again, let alone get her behind the wheel of a car that she was planning on racing.
But she was right.
She was good.
The only problem was, she had to prove her driving skills to the boys because of her gender. In turn, proving herself had made her more determined not to lose.
And in the end, I wasn’t sure it was worth it, because they played dirty when they realized she wasn’t about to lose.
Before either her father or I could tell her that, Sophia disentangled herself from my arm and sprinted away.
I realized why when the man that she was sweet on, Johan, walked up behind us, sweating profusely.
“Bad run?” I teased.
Johan rolled his eyes. “I felt like I was going to die about two miles in.” He took off his weight vest. “Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?”
Soren, his brother, bumped him with his large, muscular arm to get him out of the way.
“You did, dumbass.” Soren chuckled as he passed both of us by and headed for his water that was set up in the corner of the gym so that he wasn’t messing up or interfering with the class.
Johan sighed and walked to the bar beside his brother, then started to do his burpee pull-ups, which were part of a particular hero WOD that Johan had decided that they should do for the day.
Sadly, since I’d been teaching a class that Madden had conveniently stuck me with, I hadn’t joined them.