Read Online Vin's Rules (Outer Settlement Agency) by Lyn Brittan - Free Book Online

could. “I don’t want to be a diva, but—”
    “Next time we talk things out before you rush into something stupid.”
    “My stomach is rioting.”
    “We’re in this together. We discuss and plan and—”
    He slid down the wall, cupping his head in his hands. “My liver is giving up on life.”
    “Do you think that because I’m a woman I can’t protect myself? News flash, I’m tough. I’m smart. I’m OSA. I’m not saying it wasn’t a good idea, or that it was. Who knows one way or the other? I don’t, because you couldn’t be bothered to talk to me.”
    “Allie—”
    “You’re almost as misogynistic as they are. So paranoid that...well... that I’ll...that some man...you know.”
    “Say it. Get raped?”
    She slapped him, but he didn’t move, and his eyes never left hers.
    So she slapped him again.
    “Say it, Allie. The word. Rape. Too hard for you? Too ugly a word?”
    “How dare you?”
    “Because it happened to me.” He rose then, unblinking, solid and unshaking. “A long time ago, when I was a new recruit. He was my commanding officer. Get gender out of your head, Allie. It’s not about what’s between the legs of the survivors or the attackers. It’s not about sex or...fuck.”
    “Vin, I’m sorry and—”
    He wiped his face, pathetically gone wet, then shoved a finger in her chest. “There’s a whole bunch of power play crap going on around here. It breeds that shit.”
    “I didn’t know.”
    Vin’s hand dropped and he let out a deep breath. He tried to force a smile, but knew he hadn’t come close. “I know it pisses you off sometimes, but it took years and lots of work to get my smile back. I didn’t have a chance to fight, Allie. Last night, I couldn’t get us out of there. They wanted us drunk...there was no way around it. I needed you to have a chance in case...”
    “In case I had to fight.”
    “No one knows, Allie. Not even my brother. I prefer it stay that way.”
    “Of course. Can I hug you? I mean... is that even okay to ask?”
    “I’m not glass, Allie. It didn’t break me. I don’t need to be coddled.”
    “I know that. Maybe I just want to hug you for caring about what happened to me.”
    He chuckled, hoarse and low even to his own ears. “I dry humped you once, so I guess.”
    She walked the few steps over, slow and measured. A source of strength and warmth, something true in this disgusting place.
    Then for the first time in many years, he cried in front of a woman. It wasn’t sexy or alpha or anything he’d ever dreamed of doing in his life. Only a small group of other survivors of their attacker ever saw him like this.
    Belatedly, it occurred to him that they might still be watched, but today he and Allie would make a move one way or the other, and he needed her to know what was on the table. She’d have to fight and never stop fighting.
    Her hands patted up and down his back, but he didn’t feel small in anyway. Just secure. Safe. Everything he’d worked so hard to make sure she felt. His chin rested on top of her head and she turned a little.
    “What about... I mean, it’s not my place, but was he prosecuted?”
    “My commanding officer? You’re right, not your place to ask,” he said but softened it with a reassuring squeeze. “But he died a few years ago - knife in the skull.”
    She didn’t ask any more questions, and for that, he was grateful. As grateful as he had been for a knife that day and a group of angry young men desperate to make sure the bastard never attacked anyone else.
    That same flame of vengeance lit anew.
    “Allie?”
    “Yes?”
    “I think it’s time we take a walk.”

Chapter Eight
    H ow was it that someone else’s horror caused doubt within herself?
    As Allie straightened her dress and walked outside with Vin, the idiotic thought occurred to her that she didn’t know him. The more quiet, yet supremely rational side reminded her that she’d never bothered to learn.
    For the first week she’d known him,