Oh, wow. He actually got it. An emotional tsunami hit her. She couldn’t speak, so she nodded, and Reyes didn’t press her. He continued to watch her, almost like he’d never seen a woman before—or maybe like she fascinated him in some way.
A bizarre way? She hoped not.
Just then, their food arrived, relieving her of the awkward moment. He took care of thanking the server, commenting that it smelled good, asking for more coffee and, in the process, giving her a much-needed moment to clear her head.
When they were alone again, she said, “Thank you.”
He chided her with a half smile. “No more of that, remember?”
“I can’t help it.” He was just that wonderful. Far more than she knew a man could be, especially a big buff alpha like him. “You can’t know how much I appreciate... everything.” Most especially the way he grasped her innermost thoughts.
“Does that make it better?” he asked, shaking out her napkin and leaning over to put it in her lap, overall pretending that she wasn’t frozen still. “Talking about it, I mean.”
“I don’t know.” The speaker in her came forth, and while she cut into her French toast, she began to ramble. “I’ve never really talked about my personal experiences. What I share in my speeches is a general impression that applies to a lot of people, in a lot of situations. The specifics of what happened to me... I’ve put some of them in my book. Writing things and saying them aloud are very different.”
“Maybe you need to talk about them more.” He forked up a bite of egg. “With me.”
Yes, with him, she probably could. From the start, Reyes had been different. Cocky, yes, but with the ability to back it up. Assured, but in a very nice, take-charge way.
Concerned, and that was what had worried her most. She’d worked hard to regain her life, and Reyes saw right through the facade to the hyperaware, ever-vigilant, still very afraid girl who knew that, alone, she didn’t stand a chance against the cruelty of the world.
CHAPTER SIX
THE IDEA OF sharing her innermost thoughts, her basest fears and most humiliating moments left her shaken, so she deflected. “I thought you wanted to know about Jodi.”
“That, too.” As usual, Reyes let her off the hook. “Go ahead and eat. We’re not in a rush. I have the whole day free.”
No problem there. She was finally hungry, and the breakfast really was delicious. In between bites, she shared some of Jodi’s characteristics. Like her brusque insistence of going it alone. Her staunch defense of any woman injured by a man. The very meager way she lived.
“How long was she with the bastard?”
“A few months. She’s never said exactly, but I know it was long enough that she’d given up hope. Unlike my situation, she was alone. At least I had Sharlene and the other women. We made a unique sort of family, weird as that sounds.”
“Not weird at all. Even in terrible circumstances, there’s comfort in numbers.”
See, how could she not be impressed with his insight? “Jodi was alone, mistreated, desperate, and I hope you don’t blame her for—”
“If she killed the fucker, I’ll cheer her on.”
“She did.” Once the blurted words left her mouth, Kennedy went still, anxiously waiting to see how Reyes would react. He surprised her by not reacting.
Around eating, he asked, “How’d she do it?”
This was Jodi’s secret, and Kennedy had never shared it before. “You can’t tell anyone.”
“Okay.” He nodded at her food. “You need to eat, hon.”
No, she wasn’t buying it. “Just like that? You won’t say anything to Cade or Madison?”
“No reason. They already suspect she’s crossed a few lines, and if Madison wants to know details, she’ll figure it out.” He rolled one shoulder. “Just know that you never have to question my word. If I can’t keep something secret, I’ll say so. If I say I will, then I will.”
Had she offended him? She didn’t think so. It felt more like he wanted to reassure her. Again. “I wasn’t questioning you, not really.”
“Good. So how’d she do it? I’m guessing he didn’t leave any weapons around.”
“No. He’d had weapons, some that he’d used to threaten Jodi, but they were always locked away where she couldn’t get them.”
Right up until the tide had turned.
Her heart beat a little faster. Nervousness did that to her. Reyes might treat this little convo as no big deal, but to Jodi, it would be the biggest betrayal imaginable. Unfortunately, Kennedy wasn’t sure what else to do. “The room he put her in was small and dark. The door locked on the outside. She said it was bare concrete, with damp walls. Always cold.” Imagining it made her shiver. “All she had was a bucket for a toilet, and a wooden pallet to keep her off the floor. No blanket, no water or food. No way to stay warm.” Feeling more of the chill Jodi must have suffered, Kennedy lifted her coffee cup in both hands, cradling it close.
Reyes’s eyes narrowed. “I hope he didn’t have an easy death.”
She glanced around the restaurant. No one was near. No one paid them any attention other than a few women giving Reyes sly glances. Not that she could blame them. He owned the space by his presence alone, not to mention his size and that too-handsome face.
Dropping her voice to a barely there whisper, Kennedy continued the gruesome tale. “Jodi managed to break up the pallet by busting it against the wall. Then she dragged the edges against the rough concrete wall to sharpen them.”
“Clever.”
She’d always thought so. “Jodi could have starved before he returned, but she used her misery to build her rage. She was waiting next to the door when he finally came in.”
“And?” he prompted.
Again, images formed in her mind, turning her stomach with the ugliness of it all. “She stabbed him with a jagged piece of wood. She said it wasn’t a fatal blow, but the wood broke off in his side, and she had several pieces that she’d gotten ready. She...slashed and stabbed until he went down and didn’t get up.”
“Grisly,” he said, not at all disturbed. “She got out of there, then?”
Kennedy shook her head. “She locked him in the room first, then yelled through the door that she’d call an ambulance for him if he gave her the combination to his safe. Jodi said he could barely talk, that he was hurting bad, bleeding everywhere. She’d... Apparently she’d cut across his face, laying open his cheek and injuring his eye. She said he was begging for help, afraid he’d go blind.”