Page 29

Chapter 29

Riley

“Where did he go?” Sophia shifted from foot to foot, panic written all over her face. “We only have this place for another hour, and we need to be at the restaurant by six!”

“It’s okay, hon.” The wedding coordinator made a calm down gesture. “Let’s run through the processional without the best man. Then when he comes back, we can try it once more. It’ll be fine—things like this happen all the time.”

Bullshit, they did.

I cleared my throat. “Uh, while you all do that—why don’t I go check on him?”

“Thank you, Riley.” Sophia looked desperate. Like she was on the brink of tears, fury, and just lying down on the floor and giving up. Poor woman must’ve been at critical mass for stress. I didn’t know if she was worried about Nolan, ready to strangle him, or both, but I figured this was a good time for me to intervene for both of their sakes.

So I flashed her a smile, then left the sanctuary in search of Nolan.

The men’s room seemed like the most obvious place since Leann presumably wouldn’t follow him in there. Not that she seemed to give a flying fuck about boundaries, but I assumed she had some social graces. Well, when she was sober, anyway.

Either way, I checked the men’s room first, and—jackpot.

Nolan was facing one of the mirrors, eyes closed as he white-knuckled the sink. His jaw worked so hard, he was going to get an earful next time he went to dental.

“Hey,” I said cautiously after the door had shut behind me. “It’s just me.”

So much tension left his posture at the sound of my voice, he swayed a little, and I had a heartbeat of panic that he was going to collapse. I crossed the room and touched his back. “Hey. Talk to me. You okay?”

“No,” he croaked. He sounded like he was close to throwing up. Or like he already had. When he finally looked at me, his eyes were wet and his face was pale. “I can’t do this. I can’t…” He dropped his gaze again and shook his head. “I can’t get out of it, but I also can’t… Fuck, what the hell do I do?”

I didn’t have an answer to that. Not one that would go down smoothly with his family, anyway, so I did the next best thing. “Come here,” I murmured, and wrapped my arms around him.

Jesus. This man had never felt so utterly brittle and defeated. Like all the fight had gone out of him, and he was just done .

This wasn’t something I could ease with a joke about using mutant mind powers on Leann. There was nothing I could do or say to help him, because he couldn’t escape this. Nothing could undo what she’d done to him in the past, and he couldn’t get away from her until this wedding was over. Even after that, she was still part of his family. Still inextricably tied to the people he loved most in the world.

No wonder he kept asking for orders thousands of miles away from home.

“What do you want to do?” I asked softly. “We can leave.”

“No, we can’t,” he croaked, slowly shaking his head. “And even if we do, we have to be back tomorrow for… Goddammit.” He raked a shaking hand through his short hair. “I thought I could do this. I thought we’d just have to do the rehearsal, do the ceremony, and be done with it. Being in the same room with her always fucking sucks, but I didn’t think it would be…” He flailed the same hand toward the door, then let it fall to his side with a heavy slap against his leg.

“I don’t think the wedding is going to be better than the rehearsal,” I said gently.

“She’ll behave for the ceremony,” he muttered.

“Yeah, but the reception…”

Nolan closed his eyes and breathed a few curses. Then he looked at me, and I’d never seen so much pleading or desperation in this man’s face. I’d sure as hell never heard so much in his voice: “Please don’t leave me alone tomorrow. I… I don’t want to be clingy or—”

“Baby, there’s nothing clingy about it. I’m not letting you out of my sight while that fucking predator is in the building.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Thank you. I know everyone out there”—he gestured toward the door—“would think I was a weak idiot for being this fucked up over her… For being afraid of her…”

“That’s because they don’t know what she did to you,” I said quietly. “There’s nothing stupid about how you feel around her. It’s self-preservation.”

He closed his eyes again and nodded.

Fuck, it hurt to see him like this. And I’d been so angry and helpless in the sanctuary, watching her mess with him—but there’d been nothing I could do. Not without drawing attention to wounds he didn’t want anyone knowing about. Not even when she’d knocked him onto a pew and—I was sick just thinking about it—“fallen” on top of him.

My tongue tried to stick to the roof of my mouth as I spoke. “Tomorrow, if you want to leave early—or even just step out for a little while—we’re gone. Okay?”

Eyes still closed, he nodded again.

It sounded like so little. Yeah, sure. We could step outside. We could say one of us forgot something at the hotel and take off for a short while. But he still had to come back. He still had to go through the ceremony, and he had to sit through whatever drunken shit ended up being her matron of honor speech.

My mouth moved before I could think twice. “It’s not too late to back out.”

His head jerked up and he looked at me with wide eyes. “What? Of course it is! It’s my brother’s wedding! I can’t just—”

“You shouldn’t have to go through something that means putting your ra—that woman’s hands on you.”

He shuddered hard, swallowing reflexively like he might get sick right then and there.

“You shouldn’t have to grin and bear it next to—”

“What the fuck can I do?” he snapped, the sudden fury sending me back a step. “Bail? Now? ” He threw up his hands. “It’s the night before my brother’s wedding—I can’t just blurt out that the maid of honor raped me!”

A heartbeat too late, I realized I’d heard the door hinges creak.

That it wasn’t just us in here anymore.

I turned toward the door, and my heart dropped into my feet.

“What the fuck did you just say?” Andrew strode across the restroom. “What the fuck did you say about my wife?”

Nolan put up his hands and took a step back. “Andrew, listen, I—”

Andrew roared with fury and decked Nolan, sending him staggering back against one of the sinks.

I grabbed Andrew’s arm and had him facedown and immobilized on the floor before either of us could blink.

“What the fuck?” he shrieked, trying and failing to get free.

Ignoring him, I looked at Nolan. “You okay?”

He was sitting up now, shaking all over with blood running from his nose. I didn’t think he even heard me—he just stared at his brother in shock and horror. “Andrew…”

“Fuck you, Nolan!” Andrew squirmed harder beneath me. “Fuck you, you fucking—”

“Hey, hey! What’s going on in here?” Matt flew into the restroom with several people on his heels. “Hey! Get off of him! What’s the matter with you?”

Before I could even move, I was being hauled up off Andrew, and I didn’t fight it.

Matt slammed me up against the tile wall. “What is wrong with you? What are you doing to my brother?”

“Stopping him from beating your other brother into the ground,” I said.

He froze. “What?” Still holding me firmly against the wall, he twisted around, and he sucked in air when he saw Nolan.

I could’ve easily freed myself in that moment, but I didn’t. That would only escalate an already volatile situation.

Not that it needed help getting escalated.

“You’re damn right I was going to beat his ass!” Andrew snarled. “He was telling his boyfriend here that my wife raped him! ”

“What the hell?” Matt stared at Nolan. “Did you say that? Why would you say that about your sister-in-law?”

Nolan was shakily getting to his feet. Leaning against the wall, he wiped at some of the blood on his face. To Andrew, he said, “I’m sorry. It’s true.”

Instantly, the room erupted into shouts again, and the metal and tile in the room only amplified it until the noise was deafening.

Matt released his hold on me—he was too focused on demanding to know why the hell Nolan would accuse Leann of raping him—and I stepped past him to get to Nolan.

Of course by now, everyone in the church had heard the chaos, and people came pouring into the men’s room.

“What’s going on?” Tristan asked. “What’s—holy shit! Nolan, are you okay?”

John gaped at his middle and eldest sons. “What in the world happened?”

Andrew shook out his hand, fury still rolling off him in waves. “This motherfucker accused my wife of raping him.” He shot Nolan a look so full of disgust, I was genuinely shocked he didn’t spit on him. “You’re sick, Nolan. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Nolan said unsteadily. “It’s the truth.”

“It’s a lie! ” Leann shrieked, shoving past the men as tears welled in her eyes, and she pointed a finger at Nolan. “ You raped me , you asshole!”

The Marine I’d lived with for over a year wouldn’t have taken that. He’d have shouted back at her that yeah, she absolutely had, and he wasn’t going to stay quiet over it anymore. He’d remind her that she’d threatened to turn that accusation back on him if he ever said it out loud.

The man who’d been carrying that trauma by himself for all this time, though? He went almost full deer-in-the-headlights. Facing down his family, listening to his own attacker break down sobbing as she told everyone he’d assaulted her, Nolan looked downright terrified and defeated.

I put a hand on his arm, and he flinched away from my touch, staring at me with the wide eyes of cornered prey.

“So, what?” Andrew glared at Nolan as he wrapped an arm around his crying wife. “You want me to believe you were raped by a woman?” He gave a sharp, derisive laugh. “You really want me to believe Leann would do that to you? Fuck you, you absolute piece of shit.”

Nolan wiped some more blood off his lip, and his voice was low and shaky as he asked, “Do you really believe I’d rape anyone?”

“I didn’t,” his brother snapped. “But if you think I’m going to buy that—”

“All right. All right.” John stepped into the fray and gestured for both of his sons to shut up. “We need to sort this out. As a family.” He glanced at Nolan, then Leann, and his heartache was plain to see as he added, “Decide if we need to get the police involved.”

“Call the police!” Leann challenged through her tears. “I didn’t want anyone to know because—” She paused, lip quivering, and then collapsed into fresh sobs. Her husband gathered her in his arms, shooting Nolan a murderous look.

“Andrew.” John gestured at the door. “Why don’t you take her…”

Andrew didn’t hesitate. As he gently herded Leann out of the restroom, he snarled, “You’re dead to me, Nolan. Fucking dead .”

Nolan slumped against the wall, blood still trickling from his nose as his eyes welled up again and the sound of his sobbing sister-in-law—his fucking rapist —faded down the hall. The door took its sweet time closing, and when it did, it mostly muffled her cries.

All eyes shifted to Nolan.

After an uncomfortably long moment, the groomsmen made their escape, mumbling about checking on Matt and Sophia as well as Andrew and Leann. That was when I realized the groom had slipped out in the chaos as well.

When everything stilled again, only John, Nolan, and I remained in the silent men’s room.

I kept a hand on Nolan’s shoulder, as much to reassure him I was there as it was to make sure he stayed upright.

After ages, his dad quietly said, “This is a very serious accusation, Nolan.”

“I know.” Nolan was clearly struggling to hold back tears, vomit, or both. “I know it is. And I didn’t think anyone would ever believe me. That was… That was why I never said anything.”

“Why now?” John asked. “Why right before Matt’s wedding?”

“You saw what happened out there.” Nolan gestured as if to indicate the sanctuary across the hall. “After what happened at Sophia’s bachelorette party, and—”

“Hold on, hold on.” John cocked his head. “What happened at the bachelorette party?”

Nolan pressed his lips together, again looking like he was fighting back a wave of nausea.

To his father, I said, “She was, uh… not exactly concerned about his boundaries.”

John’s eyebrows rose. “Meaning?”

“Trying to get in his lap, getting handsy.” I almost got sick myself at the memory of her behavior that night now that I knew what I did about their past. “She was really not happy that I kept getting between them.” I glanced at Nolan. “Or that he wouldn’t let her get handsy with me.”

Nolan shifted his weight, not looking at either of us.

“I knew something had happened to him in the past,” I said. “That night, I figured out it was her.”

Nolan felt around until he found my hand, and he gripped it tight.

John looked back and forth between us. “Why now, though? Why tonight? I… I don’t understand why you never told us before.”

“I didn’t want to tell anyone,” Nolan whispered. “Don’t you think I know how that looks, being a man saying a woman half my size raped me? Multiple times?”

His father paled. “Multiple…”

“It wasn’t just once,” Nolan said, but he didn’t elaborate beyond that.

John’s expression was impossible to parse. Pain, mostly, but was it because someone had hurt his son? That his daughter-in-law wasn’t who he thought she was? Or that Nolan had just tossed a grenade into his younger brother’s wedding, his older brother’s marriage, and the whole goddamned family? Did he believe Nolan? Or Leann?

He finally exhaled and glanced toward the door. “I think we need to let everyone calm down and catch their breath. And then we need to discuss this as a family.”

Nolan nodded. “Okay.”

His dad studied him a moment longer. Then he headed for the door.

He’d just put his hand on it to push it open when Nolan said, “Dad?”

John turned around, eyebrows up.

Nolan gulped. “Do you believe me?”

John held his gaze for a painfully long moment before he whispered, “I don’t know what to believe right now.”

With that, he left the restroom, and Nolan and I were once again alone.

Nolan sagged against the sink, looking for all the world like he might cry, throw up, or just collapse. Beyond the door, there were voices. Some shouting. Some just talking. Leann was still sobbing and screaming, but that sound was getting quieter. Farther away, hopefully.

When the noise had come down a bit, I poked my head out. From the voices I could still hear—mostly hushed now—everyone had moved into the sanctuary. Someone else was crying. Sophia, I thought. That made me wince; this poor woman’s wedding was being torpedoed. She had to be devastated.

I returned to Nolan. “I’m going to step out and get a bead on things, okay? See if we should leave, or…” Or what, I had no idea.

He nodded, his gaze fixed on nothing.

“Will you be okay for a minute?”

Another nod. Then he dabbed at his nose again before reaching for a paper towel dispenser. “I’ll be fine.”

I hesitated, but then I left the men’s room.

Sophia was in a pew, sobbing so hard she was almost choking. Her fiancé and one of the other bridesmaids were trying like hell to console her, and her mom was bringing her some water. Both Matt and his mother-in-law looked at me, and their expressions hardened.

I didn’t see Leann or Andrew anywhere. Thank God.

I did find Nolan’s parents, and I discreetly pulled them aside. “Listen, maybe for right now, it’s best if he and I get out of here.”

John frowned. “If we need to get the police involved…”

“I can give you the address of our hotel and our rental car information. And you have both of our cell phone numbers.” I sighed, shaking my head. “We’re not going anywhere. I just think it might be best if everyone has some space.”

Carol winced and dabbed her eyes. “I just don’t understand why he’d say such an awful thing.”

I gritted my teeth. Now was not the time to fight this particular fight.

John glanced around the room. Then he took out his phone, pulled something up, and handed it to me. “I want your hotel name and room number.” As I took it and started typing, he added, “If either of you try to take off—this is my son, but I won’t hesitate to—”

“We won’t go anywhere,” I said over the sound of Carol starting to cry. John put his arm around her shoulders, and no one spoke as she sobbed quietly and I typed out our hotel information. Handing the phone back, I said, “We’re going to head out. Our phones will be on. We won’t leave. I promise.”

I hated that I had to act like we were fugitives or something. That Nolan should be regarded as a suspect. Because he hadn’t done a goddamned thing wrong, and this whole conversation made me ill.

But he was also my top priority, and right now, he needed to be somewhere other than here. This wasn’t the time to be combative.

Nolan’s dad dismissed me, and as he continued comforting his wife, I returned to the men’s room.

There, Nolan was cleaning up his face. His nose had stopped bleeding, so that was a plus. There’d probably be some bruising below his left eye tomorrow, but that couldn’t be helped.

I looked him up and down. “Are you okay?”

Nolan gestured dismissively before tossing some wet paper towels in the trash. “Hurts, but I’m good.”

“Say so if you’re not?”

“I will.”

I didn’t know if he was lying. All I could do was keep an eye on him and watch for any concussion symptoms.

Nolan leaned against the sink again and looked at me, fatigue dominating the hurt in his expression. “So what now?”

“Right now, we’re going to get out of here,” I whispered. “Go back to the hotel and catch our breath while the smoke clears.”

I didn’t know if Nolan even heard me. He just handed me the car keys and, without a word, followed me out to the parking lot.