The Biker's Fate Chapter 428

Merrick rose to his feet. "Keep talking, I'm gonna grab a beer. Want anything?"

I shook my head. Merrick stepped around his island and opened the fridge while I tried to figure out how to info dump everything.

"Just spit it out, Rem," Merrick said, taking his seat again.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this, to be honest."

"Because I'm a good listener."

"You think so?"

"I know so." He tipped his beer toward me. "Keep going."

"We'd been dating for about a year or so when Thomas proposed. I was over the moon happy…as were my parents. I'd made an extremely advantageous match and I was in love. Win-win." I bit my lip, my memories flooding back to Savannah. "It all changed after we were engaged. He started getting weird sexually."

"Weird how?"

"I really don't think you want to know. Let's just say it surpassed Christian Grey kinky and went into psychopathic deviance."

"Shit."

"Yeah. He spent several months trying to cajole me into all manner of grossness, and he'd call me frigid if I didn't. All the typical abuser stuff. I mean, for the love of God, I was not going to let that man shove his feet into my pussy."

"Are you fucking serious?" he hissed.

"As a heart attack. I recognized it for what it was and broke up with him, making sure we were in a public place and handing him my engagement ring. Three days later, he broke into my apartment."

"Did he steal shit?"

I shook my head.

He studied me. "Were you home?"

I nodded, picking at invisible lint on my leg.

"Babe?"

I looked up at him. "What?"

"What happened?"

I shook my head again.

"Did he…hurt you?"

I nodded, swallowing convulsively before taking a deep breath. I needed to say the words out loud, even if it felt impossible. "He raped me."

"Fuck, baby, I'm sorry."

The anger pouring off Merrick was palpable, but in a weird way, it made me feel safe, because I knew it wasn't directed at me, but for me. "I reported him. Went to the hospital, everything they tell you you're supposed to do, and his family buried it."

The vein on Merrick's neck began to pulse and he turned his head away from me.

"I think I should stop."

He shook his head. "No. Don't. Tell me all of it."

Surprisingly, I didn't want to stop. I wanted to tell him everything…I wouldn't, but I wanted to. I trusted him. I always had. It was probably why I slept with him in the first place.

"When I told my parents what Thomas had done, they said I must have led him on somehow. Gave him mixed messages." I blinked back tears. "I sat in their formal living room, my face beat to shit, and they said I led him on. Then they had the audacity to tell me I should ask for his forgiveness and try to get the engagement back on. Well, my mother did, anyway. Daddy had a client meeting."

"Fuck your parents."

"Oh, believe me, I would. But they froze my accounts and I had nothing."

"They can't legally do that."

I sighed. "Merrick, I know that, but they did. I don't know how, but they did. Daddy's a lawyer—"

His eyes widened. "So this is why you hate lawyers."

"Yes. Sorry, Tweety."

"Only a little offense taken."

I smiled. "My name is mud in Savannah, so I haven't been able to find someone to help me figure it out. My family has reach, the likes of which you've never seen."

"Can I ask something that might be hard to answer?"

"Sure."

"Why'd you sleep with me, if you'd endured a rape?"

I studied him a second. "I didn't. I slept with you the night after I broke off the engagement. He raped me after."

"Fuck me, seriously?"

I nodded.

"Did he know about our night?"

I stared at my hands.

"Remington."

"Merrick, don't."

"Goddammit!" He knifed off the sofa, dragging his hands through his hair and pacing the room. "I shoulda been more aware."

"How?" I challenged.

"He was obviously stalking you, Remington. I should have been more on guard."

"Oh my god, Merrick. You knew me for three hours, he'd known me for four years. He was also a sociopathic murderer, so will you please stow your guilt? There was nothing either of us could have done at that point."

What he didn't realize, was that I'd called back memories of our night together in the midst of the worst of Thomas's attack. I really believe it's what saved me.

I planned to keep that nugget of information from him, however.

"Did you get help after? See someone?" he asked, gently.

"Yes. I drove to Brighton once a week. It was a way to keep it private."

Truth be told, it took me almost three months to find a therapist who was removed from Savannah society. Until then, I'd had to stow my feelings deep down inside.

"Baby, I'm so sorry you had to deal with all that shit," he said, sitting down again. "I wish you'd called me, but I understand why you didn't."

"The really shitty part of all of it was that, at first, I didn't realize Thomas was alienating me from my friends. Classic abuser behavior and I didn't recognize it until I got away. I was pissed at myself because I was so aware of shit like that. As soon as red flags popped up, I called Thomas on it and watched. He was on his best behavior for a long time, but by then, I had only two true friends left. Chel and Kennedy. They were actually the ones who encouraged me to leave Savannah." I drew my knees up to my chest and settled my chin on them. "I wish I'd done it earlier, to be honest."

"Hindsight's twenty-twenty, though, Rem. Give yourself a break."

"Yeah."

"Why'd you sneak out of Flea's place?"

I shrugged. "I felt like the walls were closing in on me. I just needed air."

"How about now?"

"I'm good."

"Look at me when you lie to me."

"I'm good, Tweety." I met his eyes and smiled. "At the risk of making your head bigger, right now's the first time I've felt safe in months."

"I fucking hate you've had to deal with that shit, but glad you feel good now."

"Do you have any ibuprofen?"

His eyebrows drew together. "You in pain?"

"Just a headache."

He headed into the kitchen returning with a bottled water and handed me the ibuprofen. I doled out four and took them, setting the water on the coffee table. "Thanks."

He held his hands out and smiled. "Come on. You're gonna soak, then you're going to bed."

"Soak?"

"You'll see."

I took his hand and let him pull me up off the sofa, then followed him down the hallway and into his bedroom. I stalled. "Merrick, this isn't what I had in mind."

He chuckled, closing the distance between us and wrapping an arm around my waist. "Ignore the mess."

He pushed me forward, through another door and into one of the nicest bathrooms I'd ever seen…and believe me, I'd know…my aunt had one made out of gold. Ostentatious and not at all my style, it had cost almost a million dollars…a mere drop in the bucket for my aunt and uncle.

Merrick's bathroom had a huge claw-foot tub, a shower big enough for four with eight shower heads, and a huge counter with two sinks, plus plenty of storage. Everything was done in marble and it didn't fit his biker style. At. All. It was stunning.

"Wow," I whispered.

He grinned. "Grace made me buy the place because of this bathroom. And, not that I let my sister's opinion sway me, the bathroom is pretty spectacular."

"It really is," I agreed.

"Start the tub. I'll see if Grace left any of her shit here. I doubt you want to use my Old Spice body wash."

I nodded, and he went off to find Grace's "shit."