His vulnerable heart sank as he laid beside her rolling her story over inside his dark mind putting the pieces together.
It was a puzzle of an affair, one of many during the twenty years his sweet mother was tied to that monster, only this one spawned a bastard who by the sound of it was as sick as the father that fucked him into this vile world.
Feeling the depth of the deception she had spun around his fragile heart she sat up encouraging him with cold soft hands to rise up with her to look her in the eyes.
Hesitantly he leaned against the wall facing her knees pressed up to his chest beneath his chin protectively like a little boy, like the little boy that had been taken for a fool his entire life.
Tucking her now wild blonde hair behind her ears she stared downward seeing the change in his glare, the distrust, the way he now appeared to see her in a completely different way.
His cold demeanor was hard to ignore, even frightened her a little, but that's not what truly bothered her.
Hearing her begin to speak his eyes fell shut hating that he still felt so much for her, so much for the girl he hardly knew, who's sole purpose was to use him.
Feeling as if he were falling further into the pathetic hole of his existence that he was now realizing he was born to live he draped an arm across his face wishing he could hide from the world.
Clearing her throat she made several false starts not really knowing how to begin or how much to tell him now that Gabe had seen them.
"I'm going to tell you the truth, the entire truth and after if you want me to leave... I will, but you have to take precautions now, Gabe is a very dangerous man no matter what you believe. He was outside the bar tonight, he … saw us. You're going to have to run Tate, out of state somewhere safe."
Lifting his arm he cupped her chin jerking it up to look into his eyes.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm done running, been doing it my whole life, besides I can't, still on probation... but I'm guessing you already knew that."
Nodding she drew in a sharp breath refusing to cry, no matter how guilty she felt no one was going to bring her down to that level again.
"I grew up in foster care, bouncing around from one home to another. My mother gave me up, never knew my dad."
Resting the back of his head against the wall he glared at her with a sudden interest, it was true, the lost look in her sad eyes, the way she flinched whenever someone came close, the distrusting damaged twinge in her voice … he was right about her, she was broken just like him.
Wringing her hands together as if she had to force the words from her mouth she worked hard to control her emotions.
"When I was seventeen I was sent to live with a couple who … did things to me."
Halting abruptly she shivered causing him to soften, there was no disguising the pain she was in, this was no lie.
"What happened Violet."
Pushing off of his knees she stood pacing the room nervously, ashamed, as her eyes flickered to the man in the painting, the fisherman drowning.
Feeling the black water choking filling up her lungs she continued knowing now there was no turning back.
"He would force me to... do things... sexual things, to him. His wife filmed it, the sick fuck got off on it, they both did. They showed me pictures of kids they had done it to before, kids that disappeared... no one gives a shit about a teenage foster kid. They just assume its a runaway case and forget about them."
Crawling to the edge of the bed Tate placed his feet on the floor wanting nothing more than to hold her, love all the past away, set fire to the pain turn it to dust into ash on the ground till the wind blew it away into nothing as if it never happened.
But he knew that was impossible.
Softly, without judgment holding back the rage that coursed through him at the monsters that tore her apart he whispered.
"I'm so sorry Violet."
Her gut twisted in knots as she felt the truth in his words, the honesty that she had been waiting her entire life for that was now tainted by what she had done to him.
"One night there was a knock at the door. A detective Langdon bum rushed the two of them, putting them in cuffs, as his partner helped me pack my stuff."
Scoffing she wrapped her arms around herself, a trick she learned long ago, a way of pretending that she was being held, that she was safe.
"At the time I thought he was my hero, he set me up in a decent group home, helped me get my shit together. Somehow I managed to get through college, he would always show up from time to time, giving me cash when I needed it, pretending to act as if he cared. Fucking fool I was, I bought it all, even after everything."
Clenching his jaw Tate dug his fingers into the mattress knowing his father was no savior, no angel sent to help the less fortunate. There was always an angle, a benefit for him, a means to an end.
"What did he do to you."
Walking towards the tall skinny window that looked out onto the street below she gazed out to the cars below, looking for him, knowing he was out there somewhere.
"After I graduated he got me a job at the prison, said he had connections. It was all I wanted, to be independent, free... never to have to kneel to anyone again. He said all I had to do was go on a blind date, someone he owed a favor to. One date, that was it, if I didn't like him I never had to see him again."
Walking up behind her he silently lightly rested his hands on her shoulders as she blankly stared down onto the black asphalt below.
"Gabe." he rasped with hatred already imagining smashing in his skull with his trusty bat.
Nodding slowly she could no longer fight back the tears that were burning her eyes, still she hung her hair over her face to try and cover the evidence of her pain.
"I saw exactly what Gabe was from a mile away, he was everything I had fought to get away from, the moment he took my hand I was his, he owned me. At least in his own twisted mind."
Stepping away from the window and out of his embrace she sat on the bed pulling her sleeves over her hands wiping her tears away.
"When I told your father that I couldn't see Gabe again he became enraged, violent, started throwing things across the room. Screaming at me, how ungrateful, spoiled, unappreciative of what he had done for me all these years. That's when he showed me the tapes, he had them all along, the tapes the Conner's took of me. He threatened to expose me, put me all over the internet, as if I had done it. I would've lost my job, I would've lost everything. He had me, and he knew it."
Walking towards her Tate stood in front of her shaking with anger, lost in the madness of his father and what he wanted to do to him.
"It was six months into our marriage when I first saw your file, the name jumped out at me. I saw your picture, read your story... I knew, right away, I knew what your dad had done to you... "
Looking up at him with wide tearful eyes she reached out hooking her fingers in the loops of his jeans pulling him close resting her head against his stomach.
"I knew because he did it to me too. I was blinded by my need for it all to end. Gabe is insane, you've seen what he is capable of, and he is protected by your dad. I'm a prisioner, punished daily, I had to find a way out... any way out."
Sliding his fingers through her hair his husky voice washed over her, forcing her to devulge her true feelings.
"It's true, I sought you out hoping if we talked... if I explained you would understand, you would help me. I could see it in you eyes, watching you through the prison cameras when he came to visit, came to dig the salt into your wounds just a little bit more every time, you wanted him dead. I figured taking out Gabe wouldn't be that hard for you after crossing that line. I could get the tapes and my freedom and in turn your revenge would be sated."
Shaking his head confused he released her hair. "Why did you wait so long, and what happened in the alley that night... was fucking me just part of the plan?"
Hardening her face she stood challenging him. "You want to know the truth, fine. I watched you that first night, heard you talking to Gus, I saw how hard you were trying to turn your life around. I couldn't do it, there was something about you, I could see you had a chance... that you deserved that chance. But the beatings, the humiliation... it kept happening. I didn't know what I was doing but for some reason I felt safer when I was here with you, as if we shared a secret, an understanding that one else in the world could."
Falling to her knees before him she raised his shirt needing so much to feel the heat of his skin.
Feeling the warmth of her breath against him, the soft graze of her hands sliding up his chest, the wine in her throat as she pressed her lips lower, she was the closest he had ever known to heaven, more addictive than any drug, he was done.
"Violet..." Tate's eyes slid shut as he shook his head in a weak attempt to stop her.
Smoothing her parted lips over his hard stomach she release his jeans pulling them to his ankles.
"In the alley that night, I wanted you... after all those nights of watching you I had to have you. I knew after it was over that I could never involve you in this, I could never ask you to risk your life. I told you we could never see each other again, that it was a mistake... don't you remember Tate... you came after me... I tried to send you away."
Violet couldn't hold back any longer, her need, her desperate want to taste him, to hear him call out for her was too much, she was in agony to feel something, to steal away just one more moment until the end.
Breathlessly groaning out her name he let his head fall back as her tongue swirled around him taking him in, reaching around his bare ass pushing him further towards her.
Vibrations of her moans sent waves of chills up his spine until he could take no more.
Kneeling down he pushed her to the ground ripping off her jeans before plunging deep inside her.
Capturing her mouth he breathed out her name as he passionately kissed her before staring into her eyes lost inside her shivering, gone, a prisoner once again, knowing now he could never leave her.
Surging inside her he pressed his mouth to her ear whispering promises that would seal his fate, promises that would end her torment...
Promises of murder... of vengence...
He would save her, somehow he would find a way to save them both.