Page 57 of Swerve (Boosted Hearts 1)

Until I put him in the ground.

I moved down the hall on autopilot, pushing the door to our bedroom open. Ruby was curled up on her side of the bed.

My heart started thumping harder in my chest.

She shifted under the covers, then rolled over, lifting to her elbows. “Neco?”

I couldn’t make my goddamn mouth work. How could I tell her, what I’d found out today, what I’d just seen? How?

She sat up, the covers dropping. She was wearing that tank she liked to wear to bed. Her skin looked even paler in the moonlight streaming in through the window. “What is it? What’s going on?”

“You’re beautiful,” I choked out.

Shoving back the sheets, she walked straight to me, knowing what I needed instantly. Her, close. Her hands went to my waist, fingers curling into my shirt, and she tilted her head back. “Talk to me,” she said, concern clear in her eyes.

I cupped her beautiful face. There was no way to sugarcoat this, any of it. As much as I wanted to shield her from it, I couldn’t. This was about her, had happened to her, and she deserved to know. I slid my thumb along her jaw. “I found out the footage Scott was getting from those cameras wasn’t just streaming to his laptop.”

She blinked up at me. “No?”

I could tell she was trying not to show how worried she was, but I could hear it in her voice. “Baby, it went to a website . . . where people pay to watch.”

Her body started to tremble against mine, and she started breathing harder, faster.

“Ruby . . .”

“Right.” She nodded, slender throat working. “I guess it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, really. He had cameras in my room, there was always a chance he’d shared the footage.”

I slid my thumb along her jaw again. “I found something else.”

She dragged in a breath through her nose. “Awesome.”

I stared down at her. “Baby . . .”

“Whatever it is, Neco, I can take it.”

Fuck.

I turned, pinning her to the wall, lifting her, so I was all she could see. I knew she saw it all on my face then, the sympathy, the rage, so much rage, on her behalf, when I felt her body brace against mine. Preparing to take the blow I was about to deliver.

“I found a video on his laptop . . . a whole lot of them, actually.”

“What kind of videos?”

“Baby, they were sex tapes, of him and the women he slept with.”

Her eyes screwed shut, an anguished sound tearing from her throat. Then she started to struggle. I wasn’t letting her go, though. I was never letting her go. No matter what was thrown at us, we could face it together. “Ruby, look at me.”

She turned away, refusing to do what I asked, and whispered, “You found one of me, didn’t you?”

I tucked her hair behind my ear. “Yes.”

She bit her lip, and I could see she was fighting not to fall apart. “I don’t . . . I barely remember that night. Not after we started drinking. I don’t even know how it happened.”

“You were out of it. He wasn’t. He was also persistent. I don’t even think you were conscious for some of it.”

She covered her mouth with the back of her hand, fingers shaking. “You watched it?”

I nodded.