You thought you were in love with him.
Obviously, her douche radar hadn’t been working then. It was much more refined now. Except, it never went off when Connor was near. When he was around, her brain seemed to take a vacation and her body took over. And it screamed at her that he was someone she wanted to get to know much, much better.
“Ria?” Connor questioned quietly.
She still jumped. “Yes?”
“You all right?”
“Yes. Of course, why wouldn’t I be? My best friend is being blackmailed by some asshole and didn’t tell me. Instead she resorted to stealing to pay him. I’m peachy keen, jelly bean.”
Oh, dear Lord. Why did she say that?
“Enough.” Ajax took several steps towards Sophie, and she shied back with a cry. Ria turned to snap at him for scaring her when she saw the stricken look on his face. Ajax was a good guy. She knew he’d never hurt anyone. Well, not unless they wanted or earned it.
“Fuck. You’re scared of me?” He took a step back from Sophie, who looked like she wanted to cry. Ria came and sat down next to her, taking her good hand in hers. Sophie’s smaller hand shook.
“She was just attacked last night, man,” Connor told him calmly. “And she’s got a history of being abused. She might know you’d never hurt her but, sometimes, instincts take over.”
“I know you wouldn’t. You’re one of the good guys.” Sophie closed her eyes. “I didn’t want to steal from the club. Everyone there has been so good to me. I like working there. But I couldn’t see any way out.” She opened her eyes and stared up at him. “And if I had come to you, then you would have wanted to know it all.”
“Well, now I’m going to know it all because you’re going to tell me.”
She squeezed Sophie’s hand. “Tell him, Soph.”
The other woman let out a shuddering breath. “Jerry’s my ex. He used to beat me. Not that often—”
“Once is too often,” Ajax muttered.
Ria nodded. She was with him on that. Jerry had been a class-A jerk, ready to blame the rest of the world for his problems and not taking anything on as his responsibility.
Sophie licked her lips. “One night I came home from work. I was a nurse, I worked in the ICU.”
“What?” Ajax looked shocked.
Sophie didn’t look at him, she kept her gaze across the room. “He’d been drinking. He was always nasty when he drank.”
“Nastier,” Ria corrected.
“Please, Ria let me get it out.”
She nodded. “Sorry, babe, I’ll shut up.”
“He started in on me about forgetting to buy his beer on the way home. I was just so tired; I almost fell asleep twice on the drive home. I shouldn’t have been driving, and I forgot the beer. He got mad. Started yelling. I said I’d go get it. I turned and he grabbed me. Threw me to the ground.”
She shivered. Ria glanced up at Ajax, saw the way his jaw was tensed, his hands curved into fists.
“He started to hit me. He was a big guy. He climbed over me. Then he wrapped his hand around my throat. He started to choke me. I-I was searching for something, anything to help me. He’d knocked over a lamp. I grabbed it and smashed it into the back of his head. He collapsed forward onto me. I was so shocked; I just lay there until it became hard to breathe. Then I heard the sirens. We lived in an apartment and the neighbors had heard us and called them.”
“They didn’t come over and try to help you?” Ajax asked.
“Jerry was a big, mean guy. They were scared of him.”
Ajax muttered under his breath.
“Anyway, by the time the cops got there, I’d managed to slip out from under him. The cops escorted Jerry to the hospital. It wasn’t the first time they’d been called to our place. Jerry used to play football and he was a big man in town, you know. No one wanted him to be the bastard who hit his wife. Least of all me.”
“So, what did you do?” Ajax called.