As much as he wanted to look away and be in denial, he didn’t. Chloe went through it, and he couldn’t change history. But by God, he could be man enough to watch and understand exactly what had happened to her, even if it was tearing him to shreds. What had it been like for her to go through something that painful, that vile, that humiliating, and that destructive?
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I’m so damn sorry,” Gabe rasped aloud, hating himself for ever believing his sweet Chloe was stupid enough to go back to James without a reason.
He forced his eyes to stay on the screen, to continue watching.
There was narration dubbed in, and Gabe’s face turned red with rage as he heard James explaining how much Chloe loved to take it up the ass, and liked to pretend it hurt her. He called her “his kinky bitch” and explained how satisfied she’d be when it was over.
Gabe wanted to reach through the screen and strangle the sadistic bastard until he was dead, torture him like he was torturing Chloe.
Breathing hard, his entire body quaking with fury, Gabe forced himself to watch the entire film, twenty minutes of his life that he’d never stop having nightmares about. He’d never forget Chloe’s broken voice begging James to stop, telling him he was hurting her, her terror-filled screams of agony hanging in the air as her ex smiled and kept hammering at her so hard it was fucking insane.
No wonder she said anal sex hurts. The bastard raped her.
Gabe felt sick to his stomach for even touching her there. She’d been so tight, and it was no wonder that she was screaming in terror and pain in the video.
She was genuinely terrified, and she was hurting so badly.
Gabe flinched as Chloe turned her head in the video. Her eyes were wide with terror and desperation, her face wet with tears, her body struggling to get away from the bonds that held her in a position that allowed her to be tortured, violated.
“Oh, Jesus, I can’t do this,” he growled, but clenched his fists on the desk and waited.
Finally, it was over, and Chloe laid still and bleeding on the bed, as James’s dubbed-in voice explained how much his fiancée loved kinky sex, and how he did his best to cater to her twisted desires.
The bastard’s voice faded, and Gabe slammed the laptop closed.
Stumbling to his feet, he found the small bathroom, dropped to his knees and heaved until there was nothing left inside him except pain.
Not allowing himself that much time to feel, he cleaned up and went back into the office, collecting James’s note, the flash drive, and Chloe’s laptop.
Had she wanted him to find it, or had she forgotten it in her rush to leave? He doubted she’d wanted him to know. Obviously she hadn’t wanted anyone to know.
“Goddammit, Chloe. You don’t need to sacrifice yourself for your family. They wouldn’t want it,” he whispered huskily, knowing now that everything she’d said to him on the phone the night before was a lie.
She didn’t want to be with James.
He was threatening revenge porn if she didn’t cooperate, films where James made the viewer believe that Chloe had loved every minute of his rape. It was probably the slimiest thing he could imagine a man could do to a woman—other than raping her to make the trashy films.
His Chloe had been scared, afraid people would believe what they were seeing.
Yeah, it would destroy her life and start a scandal for the Colters, but James was messing with the wrong damn family.
Not one damn person would ever look at this video again. He’d find the original, and destroy what he had just seen. It would never see the light of day again, but Gabe knew the scenes would haunt him for the rest of his life.
He locked the office and strode toward the house with Chloe’s equipment, pulling out his cell phone as he went.
“We’re getting married today,” James informed Chloe casually. “Dress well.”
Chloe had used every minute she was at James’s house to try to find the device that held the original video he’d sent her. Unfortunately, he’d rarely left her alone. She’d rifled through every single place she could rush through while he was taking a shower and dressing in the pristine suit he was now wearing, but she’d found nothing.
She’d spent the entire night in her truck crying, and trying to find a way around giving herself up to James. Blurry-eyed and feeling defeated, she’d shown up at his door early this morning, knowing her only hope was to search for the original video he had taken without her knowledge.
God, she remembered those few nights on those videos. They had been the worst experiences of her life. Having to live through it all over again had made her fearful once again, and physically sick.
“I don’t have a dress,” she said hastily. “And I’m not ready to marry you. We don’t even have a license.”
“We will. No blood tests required, and we get the marriage license immediately. I already made an appointment with a judge to marry us this afternoon.”
Chloe looked over his kitchen table at him and wanted to slap the smug look off his face. “You were pretty sure of me,” she said casually.
He shrugged. “Of course. Your weakness has always been your family. The revered Colter family has no blemishes. That’s why your brother has such a strong lead predicted for his next run in the senate.”
Chloe wanted to tell him that Blake was favored because he was a damn good senator, but she kept silent. She didn’t even want her brother’s name mentioned by someone as slimy as James. The two men had no similarities to each other.
“Wear the dress that makes you look fat, the one from New Year’s,” James told her nonchalantly. “If that’s all you have, I’ll try not to pay attention.”