“What happened, Elle?” Cade asked.
She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them, they were swamped with confusion and fear.
“I don’t know,” she said helplessly. “I don’t remember anything except waking up outside in the rain when Merrick shook me.”
“Were you having a bad dream?” Merrick asked. “Think about it. Try to remember.”
She frowned, her lips pursing in concentration. “I remember a badge. And bright sunlight. It glinted in the sun.”
She broke off abruptly, her hand going to her forehead. Her fingers shook badly as she rubbed over her eye.
“Elle?” Cade asked gently. “What is it? What do you remember?”
Her hand slowly dropped, delving below the blanket to touch her hip through the sweats she was wearing.
“I remember the badge digging into my hip while he…”
Her voice broke off in a sob, and her hands flew to her face to stifle the escaping sound.
She hated the feeling of helplessness that assaulted her the moment she thought back on that awful dream—the awful memory. It wasn’t a dream. It had really happened. To her. She’d been violated. Held down, helpless, while a man forced himself on her. Had hated her. Had every intention of killing her. He’d tried to kill her. He’d shot her.
What could she have done to inspire such animosity? She couldn’t fathom that kind of hatred. Couldn’t imagine having done anything to deserve something that awful. But what woman did? No one deserved to be raped. It wasn’t a woman’s fault. There was no excuse for a man to violate a woman, no matter how angry he was. No matter what the perceived sin of the woman.
Logically she knew that, and yet she still couldn’t wrap her mind around it all. There had to be a reason, didn’t there? But no. Women were raped all the time for no other reason than a man wanted to exert his power, that he wanted to degrade and punish her.
The fault wasn’t with her. She knew that. And yet she couldn’t get past the idea that she’d done something to warrant a man raping and trying to kill her.
Cade slid his hand around her nape and pulled her head to his chest. She shook violently against him, and she heard the low curses from both Cade and Merrick. She heard the worry in their voices, and the anger. Not at her. But at what had happened to her and the grip her past still had on her even though she couldn’t remember it.
“It’s okay, honey. You’re with us. It’s okay to remember. He can’t hurt you now. Talk it out if you want. We’re here. We’ll listen.”
“I don’t want to remember,” she said, her voice muffled by Cade’s shirt.
Merrick sighed, his heart softening at the vulnerability in her voice. He ran his finger up her bare arm and rubbed his knuckle back down in a soothing manner.
“I don’t claim to understand what you’ve been through, baby. I won’t insult you by saying I do. But I do understand why you don’t want to remember. I get that. But I also know that this is like a festering wound, and it’s not going to go away. At some point, we have to face it. Together. And you need to know that Cade and I are going to be here to help you in any way we can.”
She picked up her head and met his gaze, her eyes burning with emotion.
“I think…” She licked her lips nervously and glanced back at Cade before returning once more to Merrick. She seemed to be waging a horrific war with herself, not just over the dreams and memories that tormented her, but over the here and now and about what she was about to say. “That is, I’m pretty sure I love you both. And I’ve battled with myself until I’m exhausted over it. I keep thinking that I can’t love you. That I can’t love two people. That the very last thing I can offer someone in my current emotional state is love. I keep questioning whether my feelings are real or whether they’re the result of you saving me and taking me in. But they feel real. I want them to be real.”
Merrick was momentarily struck speechless. Cade was no less affected by the sudden declaration.
She looked distressed as she continued on. Not at all like a woman should look when she’d just confessed her love for a man. She was clearly nervous and unsettled and seemingly anxious to get her point across before they could respond.
The words tumbled out of her mouth, so fast he could barely keep up.
“And I know you’re wondering what that has to do with what happened tonight or, well, anything, but it has everything to do with it, because I don’t want to remember my past because I’m terrified that it could come between me and the two of you. It’s a fear I live with every single day.”