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make a
run for it, I looped my arms around her waist and waited. She
wasn’t dumping this on me without an explanation.
    “I’m…tainted.”
    I almost laughed. Hell, as far as I could
tell, everyone was tainted in some way, yet the seriousness of her
expression sobered me. “Explain, sweetheart. You can tell me.” I
planted a gentle kiss on her forehead.
    “I’m bad news for you, Brax.”
    “You are not. I never want to hear those
words again.”
    “I am.” She absentmindedly rubbed her thumb
across my chin stubble.
    “You’re going to have to give me more than
that, Aubrey.”
    “Fine. You want it, you got it.” Her green
eyes shone with defiance and a brave fear. “My mom died when I was
sixteen. Up until then I lived a pretty sheltered life, going to
church on Sundays, that type of thing. Then it was just my dad, who
didn’t exactly give the right environment for a kid. He didn’t like
girls much, and I knew he didn’t want me there. I did anything I
could to get his attention, make him notice I existed. I was
hurting and alone. I partied all night, did drugs, drank a lot, and
rarely attended school. One night months later, I was pretty wasted
as usual. I don’t remember much, but they made a video…so what I
didn’t remember, I saw in living color.”
    “Who are ‘they’?”
    “The guys. The younger guys in my dad’s
biker gang.”
    “Your dad has a biker gang?” I tried to wrap
my head around that.
    “Not like a huge organized gang, but they
had a loose structure, a logo, a regular meeting place…so, yeah,
it’s a gang. Some of them belonged to real gangs at some time or
another, too.”
    “Okay.” I kept my voice neutral, not wanting
her to think I was passing judgment. When she didn’t continue, I
prodded a little. “What happened?”
    “My twenty-two-year-old boyfriend got me
drunk and sold me to his friends for beer. I didn’t protest because
I was too wasted to give a shit. I had sex with them, and they
caught it all on video.”
    She paused and looked at me. I didn’t quite
know what to say as I processed her words, but I nodded and pulled
her closer.
    Aubrey continued as if she couldn’t stop now
that she’d started. “I just wanted to feel needed, and I thought
sex would help. If they did whatever they wanted to me, I’d be part
of their inner circle. I’d belong somewhere. I was an idiot. Within
twenty-four hours, the video was all over school and the biker
gang. And yeah, I got my dad’s attention. After he slapped me
around, he rallied my brothers and uncles, and they beat the crap
out of the guys while I watched. Dad said it was my payback for
being a slut. It was brutal, and I never want to witness anything
like that again. I left that night, dropped out of school, and
worked as a waitress. Those guys blamed me for the beating and
their being kicked out of the club. For a year afterwards, they
harassed me constantly. Every time I’d get a decent job, the video
would surface, and that’d be the end of the job. I needed to get
out of Seattle, so I picked a college on the opposite side of the
state. Once I moved, it stopped. Until a few days ago.”
    “What happened a few days ago?”
    “I got a text message with a picture taken
from that video clip. When I was making your burger, actually. I
don’t know who sent it, but now I know they haven’t forgotten.”
    I made ones of those split-second decisions
that made me famous on the football field. I didn’t give a shit
about her past. I wanted her, wanted to make her happy, wanted to
protect her from these assholes. And more importantly: “None of
this changes how I feel.”
    “Maybe you don’t think it does, but what
about your family? What about your teammates? How would you handle
it if they saw the video?”
    “They won’t see it, but if they did, we’d
handle it together. They’re not going out with you. I am.” Sure, my
family would be upset, but if they couldn’t see beyond the tattoos
and some