“I need to tell you this.” She pauses for several beats. “He isolated me from people, and I was only allowed to go to my dorms and class. We moved in together our sophomore year, and he got worse. I’m sorry. I’m rambling. My point is . . . those anger outbursts scare me, Gunner. I live in constant fear of being abused. Yesterday brought on a lot of emotions I didn’t want to face.”

I close the gap between us by pulling her into a hug. I want to gut that jackass like a fish. If he wasn’t caught, I bet he’s still doing it to someone else. I wish I could suck all the pain from her and toss it into the middle of the ocean. “Gia, I might be a dick at times, but I swear to you, I’ll never hit you. Those thoughts never crossed my mind.”

“I believe you,” she says. “We’ve lived together for two and a half months. You had plenty of time to hurt me, and you haven’t.”

Warmth surges in my heart, and I kiss her on the lips as I rub my calloused thumb over her cheeks. Her face turns red.

“Is that the reason why you dropped out of college?”

Pulling away from our embrace, she shakes her head. “No. I-I dropped out because he raped me.”

“What?” My rage is back full throttle, and I squeeze her hand. She watches my reaction closely, clearly debating if she should tell me more.