Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

my world has fallen apart.”
    “It isn’t selfish, Abbey,” Joley said. “It’s human. Normal. You’re not a martyr, you’re a woman. Of course you would want your man to put you first and, for God’s sake, help you out when you need it.”
    She clenched her fist. “I wish I’d known all this when I was letting him charm me. I would have punched his lights out.”
    The wind came up from the sea, howling as it battered the house. The sisters looked at Hannah. She shrugged. “It happens when I’m really angry, a leftover childhood thing. I can’t always control it.”

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    “Do we want to know what they did to you while they interrogated you or are Hannah and Joley going to go psycho on us?” Kate asked.
    Abigail shook her head. “I’m not going to talk about that. It was horrible and I was more scared than I’ve ever been in my life, even more frightened than all the times I’ve been diving and run into sharks.”
    Elle closed her eyes and turned her face away, tears on her lashes and running down her face. “They hit you over and over. One man slapped your face a lot.” Her voice sounded distant and there were lines of strain around her mouth. “They threatened you and made lewd comments. They called you witch and they tried to get other names out of you. The man slapping you wanted you to name Aleksandr, to say he left the gun there on purpose.” Elle opened her eyes and looked straight into Abbey’s eyes.
    Abigail felt her heart jolt painfully. It was always that way when facing Elle. She looked so young with her vivid red hair and her pale skin, but when you looked into her eyes, they were too old and filled with knowledge, filled with things no one else saw.
    “You never said his name.”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    “Why?” Elle asked softly.
    Abigail shook her head. “I don’t know.”
    “Yes, you do.”
    “I loved him.”
    Elle sighed. “You did love him very much, but that wasn’t why you didn’t name him. You were angry and frightened and you’re as stubborn as hell, Abbey. That wasn’t the reason you refused to give him up.
    And it wasn’t because you wanted him to save you. After the first three hours of that man standing over you, spitting and slapping and threatening you, it didn’t matter to you if Aleksandr saved you or not.”
    “I was angry,” Abigail whispered.
    “At all of them,” Elle said. “Somewhere inside you is that answer. When you get past anger and disappointment and you let go of guilt, you’ll know why. And then it got worse, didn’t it, because you suspected Aleksandr had to do something terrible in order to get you released.”
    Abigail nodded. “The men interrogating me suddenly were pulled from the room and others took their place, but they didn’t talk to me. They whispered back and forth and they acted very different—fearful—and they didn’t ask me anything at all, just whispered together, clearly very afraid.
    They seemed to be constructing some story to tell their superiors. I knew something terrible had happened.”
    “You…”
    “No!” Abigail shook her head at Elle. “Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. I don’t want to know what Aleksandr did to get me out of there. If he killed someone to get me free, if someone else died because of me, I couldn’t live with it.”

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    “Abbey…” Sarah started.
    “No, I mean it. I can hardly breathe sometimes thinking about that poor woman without her husband and daughter. I can’t go there. Don’t ask me.”
    “And maybe that’s what you run from in Aleksandr,” Elle said. “Not his mistakes, but his strength. The very things you relied on and admired in him are the things you fear the most.”
    Abigail couldn’t look away from Elle. “You knew. All this time, you knew.”
    Elle shrugged. “I know a lot of things. People are entitled to their secrets, Abbey, even my sisters. If you had wanted us all to know, you would have said so. All of us felt your unhappiness and you knew that we did, but you didn’t give an explanation, nor should you have to do so.” She flashed a wan smile. “It isn’t always easy or comfortable catching glimpses of my sisters’ lives. We all want privacy, me included.
    I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut.”
    Libby immediately reached out and put her hand on Elle’s shoulder. “You bear