Free Bad Behavior by Jennifer Lane Page A

“How?”
    Sophie wrung her slender hands. “How?” she repeated.
    He spun around, and she was immediately frightened by the cold glint in his eyes. “How did it get to the point that you fucked my brother?”
    Sophie inhaled sharply and drew her hand to her mouth, sobbing in earnest now. Sensing the waves of fury rolling off of Grant, Hunter carefully instructed, “Grant, take some deep breaths. You two will get through this.”
    The muscles lining Grant’s jaw rippled with hostility, but he did struggle to slow his accelerated breathing. Lightning-hot anger coursed through his veins, making his skin tingle.
    “You’re frightening Sophie,” Hunter said evenly, and Grant looked at him with surprise, seeming to shake himself out of a dissociated state. “I’d like you to take a seat.”
    Grant glanced at his girlfriend, who was almost hiccupping from crying so hard. “Yes, sir.”
    “Sophie, when you’re ready, try to answer Grant’s question, okay?”
    She nodded and scooped up some tissues from the box he offered her.
    There was another silence as both parolees looked down at their laps, lost in their own worlds of suffering. Now they didn’t seem so different from most of the other couples Hunter saw. He hoped they could bridge the huge chasm that had developed between them.
    Eventually Sophie had steadied herself enough to speak, though her voice still trembled. “I made so many mistakes, Grant,” she began. “I told Logan too much about myself. I was initially attracted to him, and I should’ve referred him, but I didn’t.”
    Hunter squirmed a bit in his chair as Sophie continued.
    “Then he told me an awful story from his childhood, and I tried to comfort him. That’s when I really screwed up. He…he kissed me, and I let him.” She sniffed. “And that eventually led to…other things.”
    Grant clenched his fists. No wonder Logan had lied about where he met Sophie. If his brother had felt one-tenth the shame and anger Grant was currently experiencing in therapy, he wouldn’t admit it to anyone. Grant was furious to still feel that ache inside him, thinking of his brother. He ached to be loved by Logan, a longing that would never be fulfilled.
    “What story did he tell you?” Grant growled.
    Sophie’s eyes got big. “You don’t want to hear it,” she said, desperate not to hurt him further. “Let sleeping dogs lie.”
    “ What story?” he yelled.
    Sophie flinched.
    Knowing precisely what Logan had told Sophie before he kissed her, Hunter hesitantly nodded at her, preparing for the onslaught.
    Sophie pursed her lips and sniffed, glassy tears sliding down her pale skin. “He told me about a time when he was nine, and his, um, his younger brother was four. Please, Grant! I didn’t know it was you! I hadn’t even met you then!”
    Grant clenched his teeth and looked off to the side, watching the fish swim in lazy circles. He couldn’t look at her.
    Taking a shuddering breath, she resumed, “Your dad had just beat up your mom, and he was striking you both with a belt. In the closet.” Grant stopped breathing. “Logan said he tried to cover you so you wouldn’t get hit, but your dad dragged him away to his room. And your dad, he…he left you in the closet all night.”
    Grant’s face had gone white.
    “The next morning…” Sophie could barely get the words out, she was sobbing so hard. “The next morning, your dad—he got y-y-you out of the closet, and when he saw that you, that you—” She was almost hyperventilating. “That you peed your pants, he…he b-b-beat you again.”
    So it was true then. It had really happened. Apparently he had truly pissed in his pants, just like a baby—just like his dad said he was. Grant felt numb, and he was swept away on a river of the past, waking up in a sterile white room with a kindly older gentleman explaining that he’d gone catatonic in his solitary cell. He’d peed all over himself once again, this time as an adult. But really