“What?” I demanded, stopping beside him. Dimitri stood at my back.

“He’s locked the door. Won’t let me in. He wanted a shower and… and since his back was healing okay, I thought it would do him good, but he won’t let me in. I don’t know what’s happening.”

“Move,” I ordered.

When Lucas stayed where he was, Dimitri stepped up behind him and gently shifted him out of the way. Crying started from within the bathroom. I lifted a foot and kicked in the door.

“Get out, get out, get out,” West chanted in a scream.

I stepped through the steam, already knowing what he had done. My heart splintered at seeing West naked and kneeling on the floor in the shower with the hot water running over him.

“Get out!”

Even though he was not looking at me, I shook my head. “Nyet, moya lyubov’.” I pulled my T-shirt over my head and threw it to the floor.

“Get out,” he cried. A whimper followed. Even under the waterproof gauze, his back’s skin was raw from the heat of the hot water splashing down over him. “Please, please leave me. I-I’m dirty.”

My chest cracked open as I shoved my jeans down my legs and opened the shower door. I stepped in, only wearing boxers.

A sob sounded behind me. Lucas.

“Moya lyubov’, I will not leave you,” I told him softly.

“You have to. I’m broken.”

“Nyet.” I leaned over him, sticking my arm in the scorching water, wincing. I quickly added cold to it, adjusting it to where it should be before I crouched at his side. “You may feel broken, moya lyubov’, but you will heal.”

He shook his head. I sat on the floor at his side, my legs around him.

“I’m no good. I-I don’t want you to see me.”

“Why?”

He choked on his cry, rocking back and forth on his knees. I rested a hand to his lower back, and he stilled.

“I’m n-no good. I’m tainted, tarnished, scarred. I-I wished they’d sent me to God.”

Christ.

I cupped the opposite side of his neck and gently tugged him my way. He did not expect the move, so he fell my way. When his side pushed into my chest, I held him close. “Please, moya lyubov’, do not say that. Do not wish your life away because of what they did to you. You are cared for. You have a family, friends, a life worth living. Let us in. Let us show you what you would miss. Let us help you through this.”

He gripped my forearm, and I felt him shake his head. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

A whimper escaped him. He shook his head again, and I knew he cried even when I could not feel his tears.

“I-I don’t deserve it.”