Rebel Roused (Untamed #5) by Jinsey Reese, Victoria Green Page A

collective gasp, and her mother clutched her chest as if she was having a fucking coronary.
    “He ruined my life and you LET him do it. You fucking LET him get away with it.” Ree’s voice was strong, echoing off the walls of the lobby, but filled with hurt. “You didn’t even believe me when I told you what he’d done.”
    Her chest heaved and a sob broke through her words. I came up behind her and put my hands on her shoulders.
    “Ree,” I said. “You don’t have to do this. Let’s just leave. Fuck them.”
    She looked up at me, her eyes as dark as a stormy sea. “No.” She shook her head. “There’s something I’ve never told you because I was too ashamed. But I’m tired of being scared and ashamed. Tired of hiding. Tired of all the secrets that have plagued my life.”
    “Reagan Allison McKinley, if you think airing your dirty laundry is going to solve anything…” Her father’s eyes narrowed and his gaze flicked anxiously around at all the people witnessing the scene.
    “My dirty laundry?” She scoffed. “More like yours . What you did—”
    “Why don’t we just go back upstairs where we can talk about this in private,” he said. It was part plea, part threat. “Reagan—”
    “Oh, just shut the fuck up, Dad,” Ree said, and her brother Pierce’s eyes bugged out of his head as he stifled a laugh. It almost made me like the guy. Almost.
    “Reagan! I will not have you talking to your father—”
    “You’re even worse than he is,” Ree said, her voice going sad. “I trusted you, Mother. When it turned out I was pregnant and you were finally forced to believe me about Jack’s attack, I fucking trusted you! But you drugged me…and when I woke up in the clinic bed to find out I’d had an abortion…”
    Jesus. The words cut through my heart, and my soul bled for Ree. I wished more than anything that I could turn back time, save her, make sure she never felt this pain.
    Tears were streaming down her face now, and it was killing me to watch her. But this was her fight. I understood that. I stayed with her, though, willing the strength of my love to keep her afloat.
    “How could you?” she said. “How could you do that to me? To that baby? How could you not even give me the choice? It was my body.”
    “Oh, for chrissakes, Reagan. You were fifteen years old. You weren’t old enough to make such a decision. We simply did what was best for you at the time.”
    “A forced abortion was best for me?” She laughed, hollow and cold. “Do you want to know what it was like, Mother? It was like getting raped a second time . But, this time, it was my parents who did it.”
    “You have always gotten so hysterical about this. He was the governor’s son, Reagan. What did you want us to do? Your father was getting into politics and we couldn’t let something like this ruin his career. We had to look at the big picture.”
    “Is this true?” Quincy said, stepping forward, clinging tightly to the baby in her arms. She looked shell-shocked as she glanced back and forth between her parents. “You really did that to Reagan?” She was shaking her head like she couldn’t believe her parents were capable of such a horrific thing.
    Even after all I’d witnessed when it came to these people and the way they treated Ree, I was still surprised. If I could have gotten away with decking her father, I would have. But I’d already dug myself a big, fucking, U.S. senator-sized hole, and couldn’t afford to make things worse by punching the governor of New York as well.
    No matter how much he deserved it.
    But this wasn’t the fight I wanted to have now. Not when all I wanted to do was wrap Ree in my arms and take her far, far away from these monsters masquerading as her parents.
    Pierce walked over to stand next to Ree and placed his arm over her shoulder. And Quincy came over to her other side.
    Holy fucking shit.
    Ree looked from Pierce to Quinn, wonder filling her eyes.
    “I thought you’d finally