“What was that?” Luke asked gently.
“That Nat was a slut who liked her fucking rough, and she was trying to cause trouble because her father had threatened to cut off her free ride. Free ride…Ha! That girl worked harder than her four brothers put together. Word spread like wildfire through town. Privately, people knew she’d been raped and beaten. Publicly, they accepted what the police fed them. No-one goes up against her family and Cyril. They’re two of the most powerful men in the country. The police returned Nat home and her father beat the shit out of her for tarnishing their name. He said she would make it up to Cyril by marrying him. I didn’t see her again. I found out she’d managed to escape and leave town. Her father questioned me, knocked me around a little, but eventually gave up demanding to know where she was when I kept insisting I didn’t know. You need to find her, she’ll kill herself before she’ll marry Cyril.”
Luke and I glanced at each other. I wiped the tears from my face and we stood to leave. It was clear we’d heard all of what Serina knew. She led us back through to the front and unlocked the door.
“Hold onto the key. I’ll leave the room vacant so you can bring Nat here for a day or so before you head back. I can guarantee you, after being out at her father’s place for a couple of days, she’ll be in no condition for the drive back to Clearlea. At least not right away.”
We thanked Serina for her help.
“They have a lot of men out there who are armed, you’ll need to take other police with you. Call the station over in Nunagah. I know quite a few of them and they detest the Winters men. They’re good men and they’ll jump at the chance to bring them to justice.”
“I’ll give them a call tonight,” Luke assured her.
We thanked her again and headed to our room for the night. I was more afraid than I remembered being in my entire life.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
KYLE
The room was large with two queen sized beds, but we would only need one. Wendy would use the other until we were ready to head back to Clearlea. Luke and I would not be letting her out of our sight once we had her back. Shit, I hoped she was okay.
“Come here, gorgeous.” Luke gathered me in his arms after closing and locking the door.
I rested my head on his shoulder and clung to him, grateful to have him by my side.
Placing one hand under my chin, he tilted my head back and placed a kiss to my lips. “How about you have a shower while I make a couple of phone calls and set up tomorrow? We’ll hold each other tonight and try and get some sleep, because we will both need our wits about us when we go to get Wendy.”
“I’ll never call her, Natalie, the name her arsehole parents gave her. I don’t want her to be reminded of her past.” I gazed into Luke’s eyes as tears pricked at mine. “Why didn’t I know what she’d been through? Along with you, she’s my best friend, I thought we talked about everything. I told her my deepest secrets, about the fact I was gay. How I felt about you. I hid nothing from her, Luke. I could have helped her if I’d known.”
Luke led me to the bed, sat down and drew me onto his lap. He sighed deeply. “Sweetheart, I don’t want you blaming yourself. There was nothing you could have done differently to protect her. Sooner or later her father would have found where she was and taken her. You gave her so much—your unconditional friendship and a safe place to live. You are the most caring man I know which is why I have always loved you. I can understand why she didn’t completely trust anyone, including you. She’d been betrayed and let down, badly hurt by those who were supposed to love and protect her. If she couldn’t trust her family, how could she trust anyone else?”
“The signs were there, Luke. Signs she was in trouble. Wendy always reacted almost violently when anyone touched her, especially men. It took years before I could hold her in my arms, console her when she was upset about something. Her fear of going into town, out to dinner, refusing to date or go out for drinks with any of us. It all makes sense now. She needed help and I didn’t give it to her. I didn’t do enough.”
“Whoa, back up. You did help. As I said, you gave her friendship and a safe place to live and work. You can see the signs now because we know about her past, but I can assure you, I’m a cop and even in the short time I knew her, the comments she made didn’t set off alarm bells. Were some of them unusual? Was some of her behavior unusual? Of course, but there a lot of young people who suffer anxiety from their pasts. Young people who prefer to keep to themselves. That’s the beauty of hindsight. Now we know Wendy’s story and look back, the pieces all fit together.”