“Something bad happened to me that night,” I confirm, uncomfortable sharing more details than that with my little brother. “It wasn’t Chuck,” I hurry to add. “It was a guy Mom owed money to.” I leave it at that.
But Carter’s too smart not to put the pieces together.
“No,” he whispers. “She…” his voice trails off and he stares out the window.
“Well, she was kind enough to drug me first, so I wouldn’t remember any pesky details.” Anger sharp as acid burns my throat. “Then gaslight me afterward.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t tell you something so ugly.” I blow out a breath wanting to just get this over with. “It happened at Chuck’s clubhouse, so after all the family first loyalty bullshit we’d heard all our lives, I thought he’d take care of it. But he didn’t. At least at the time, I didn’t think he did. He was…awful to me. But he put two and two together and realized Mom had set me up.”
“Jesus,” he breathes out, but he doesn’t question me or argue with what I’m sharing.
“He flipped when Marcel and I started seeing each other,” I explain. “Not because of club stuff, but because he was afraid if I told Marcel what happened to me, he’d dig deeper. Chuck couldn’t have that because all those years, he was covering up what Mom had done.”
He sits back and stares at me. “I can’t decide if that’s better or worse than him trying to fight over you like a territorial dog with a patch of grass.”
“Better, I suppose. He always had some sort of twisted love or loyalty to Mom, I guess. But he said once he knew what she did to me, it soured how he saw her.”
He nods slowly and seems to ponder all of that. “I always wondered why they turned so vicious toward each other.”
I lift one shoulder, not really caring to examine their toxic relationship much closer.
“No wonder Chuck went nomad these last few years. Teller’s all the things Chuck claims to be. Must make him feel two feet tall to be around him.”
I never quite thought about it in those terms. “You’re probably right.”
“Men who think they’re alpha get super intimidated and defensive when they’re in the presence of real alpha men,” he explains like a professor of male psychology.
“I think Chuck wants to do better by us but he doesn’t know how.” I shrug.
“The few times I’ve seen him since the rescue, he hasn’t called me any names.” He lifts his eyebrows in a teasing way. “So I guess old dogs can learn new tricks, after all.”
“I’m glad, but be careful. I’ll never trust him completely.”
“Same.” He flicks his gaze toward the door. “Teller doesn’t trust him either. At first, I thought it was that biker-territorial-claimed-my-woman thing. Now, I understand it’s much deeper than that.”
My nose stings. “Yes.”
He takes both my hands in his. “I’m so, so sorry that happened to you, Charlotte.”
“Thanks.”
“And just so you know, you didn’t ruin my memory of Mom, or anything.” He pauses and seems to search for the right words. “I’d rather know the truth about the kind of person she was, than have you suffer in silence, trying to protect me from the truth.”
That’s it. I’m done. I burst into tears.
“Damn.” He swipes a tissue and dabs at my cheeks. “Don’t make me get Serena to come back in here and fix all your makeup stuff. I don’t want to piss off a woman about to go into labor any day.”
“I’ll be fine. Come here.” I gather him in my arms and hug him tight.
After a few beats, he gently pushes me away. “You need to go marry that ultra-alpha man of yours with a big smile on your face.”
“Ultra-alpha, huh?” I sniffle and laugh at the same time. “Alpha isn’t enough?”
“Not for him.” He purses his lips. Thoughtful. “He loves you so much. He really would do anything for you.”
“He would.”