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“She could have told me.”

I say what I don’t want to.

“Would you have believed her?”

He glowers and for a second I think he might try to hit me again.

I continue. “She told me about her previous drug use. She told me about the lies she used to tell you. It would have sounded messy. Would you have believed her?”

He stabs a finger to his chest, into the Lakes Hockey sweatshirt he’s sporting. “I’m her brother!”

“Yeah,” I say, pushing off the wall and stepping toward him. “And she loves you too much to put that on you. She didn’t want you to look at her differently. She asked for help, and you gave it to her, that’s what she needed. You did exactly what she needed you to do.”

The fight drains out of him, enough that I can see the grief start moving in to replace the anger.

“So what happened tonight?” He asks

I sigh. “She walked in on me dealing with the last guy.”

He looks at the ceiling.

“There were . . . some teeth missing . . . Quite a bit of blood. He wasn’t moving much. It scared her.”

I scared her.

Rhys lowers his chin and looks me over. “And you couldn’t live with that?” He throws my words back at me, understanding now.

I shrug. “Karma’s a bitch.”

He nods and we find ourselves staring at each other again. I’m not sure what else there is to say.

“Fuck.” He scrubs a hand down his face. “She’s terrified of you.”

“I know.” Rhys seems almost surprised I’m not arguing with him. “For what it’s worth, I would never hurt Anna.”

He watches me carefully to make sure I’m not just throwing him a line. I’m not.

“I was trying to protect her.”

After an exhale, he paces the floor, then walks back. He came here expecting a fight, thinking I did something stupid, but instead he got the truth. He’ll be leaving with a lot more than just bruised knuckles.

“What’s on the video?” he asks.

“You don’t want to know.”

“I do.”

I stare at him, knowing Anna will never tell him, but it’ll eat him alive to not know. He loves Anna, he cares about her, he should know what she’s been through. The words are bitter on my tongue, and the only thing that keeps me from losing my shit is knowing that Steve, Robert, and Peter are dead. “She was raped.”

Tears well in his eyes as processes those words.

“I know,” I say. “I’m sorry.”

He drags his hand over his mouth and clears the emotion from his throat before he speaks. “What do you need from me?”

I blink, floored by the question. I didn’t expect that out of him. He showed up at my door throwing literal punches, and now he’s asking what he can do for me.

I cross my arms. “You’re not going to like it, but she doesn’t want you to know,” I tell him. “If she learns I betrayed her like that, it’ll only make her hurt worse.”