Safe at Last (Slow Burn #3)

Oh God.

Bile rose in his throat, threatening to erupt from his churning stomach. She’d been raped by three men. One was bad enough for any woman. But three? It didn’t bear thinking about. He was devastated. So heartbroken that he didn’t even know what to do, to say. How could he possibly make something like this go away? She’d live the rest of her life reliving the trauma of that event and there wasn’t a goddamn thing he could do to make it better.

Had she cried while they were holding her down? Had she called for him? Had she begged him to save her? What had she felt when she had been convinced that he had been the one to orchestrate the entire thing? And what the hell would ever give her that idea in the first place?

He was going to lose it. His hands shook around the steering wheel as he pulled back onto the road. His pulse was thumping wildly in his heart, at his neck, at his temples. The road stretched and blurred in his vision. Tears burned his eyelids and he rubbed them away with the back of one arm.

He had to keep it together. He couldn’t confront Gracie this way. Not when he wanted to rage at the world. He wanted to destroy something. He wanted the names of the men who’d done this because he would not rest until they had all paid for hurting Gracie. He would destroy every last one of them. He would not rest until justice was served.

Sweet, beautiful, good-to-her-toes Gracie. What kind of monsters would do that to her? And to somehow convince her that Zack had been behind it all? That he wanted to wash his hands of her in the worst possible fashion?

It was so sick and twisted that Zack couldn’t even comprehend such evil. From his friends. Guys he’d called friends. That they would gang up on a defenseless girl and ruthlessly torment her, degrade her and destroy her, driving her away from Zack forever.

How the hell had she made it alone? No degree. No training. No skills. On her own without anyone in the world to lean on at such a young age. God, he wanted to cry like a damn baby.

How many nights had she cried herself to sleep? How hard had it been for her to heal from such devastation without anyone to help her, to love and support her? He had been Gracie’s only source of support. No one else had given a damn about her, and in his youthful exuberance and optimism, he’d been convinced that he was all she needed. That he could provide everything for her. That she didn’t need anyone else and neither did he.

God, how wrong he’d been.

Because Gracie had no one.

Gracie thought the man who’d professed to love her had set her up for a horror no woman should ever endure.

She thought the man she’d loved had lied to her. Had played her, manipulated her, and ultimately betrayed her and thrown her away like she was nothing more than a piece of trash. Not important. Like she was no one. Like she was a nuisance and a hindrance to Zack’s life.

“Zack,” Eliza said softly, shaking him from his torturous thoughts. “You okay?”

“No,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. “No, the hell I’m not okay. I’ll never be okay. How could I be after hearing that? She thinks I had her gang-raped by three of my friends, Lizzie. She thinks I discarded her like yesterday’s garbage. How am I supposed to ever get over that? How am I supposed to ever get her to trust me, much less love me again?”

Eliza sighed. “I’m sorry, Zack. I don’t even know what to say. This is one fucked-up situation. Any idea which ‘friends’ it could have been?”

“No. But I will find out,” he said in an icy, frigid tone that promised retribution like never before dished out. “So help me God, when I found out who touched her, who hurt her, who put their filthy goddamn hands on her, I’ll rip their fucking nuts off and shove them down their throats.”

“I’d be glad to help you,” Sterling said mildly. “I’m not without resources myself, and perhaps, as I’m not you, and the three in question would understandably be more wary around you, then I would have better luck finding out what we need to know.”

“I may take you up on that,” Zack said.

“Call me anytime. Gracie is my friend. Yes, at one time I entertained the idea that I’d like her to be more. But it was obvious she most needed a friend and so I filled that requirement. And now? I honestly do view her as a little sister, so you needn’t be worried about me influencing her one way or another.”

How ironic that a day before Zack would have gladly laid Sterling out for even breathing Gracie’s name and now the two were actually joining forces. But if everything Sterling had said was true, then Zack could only be grateful that Sterling had been there for Gracie when she needed someone so desperately. When she’d had no one else in the world.

That was over now.

Gracie might not want him but she had him. He was hers.