Her phone was ringing. Again.
Katerina pulled herself upright in bed, knowing she had to answer it this time. Dreading it. It was her boss, she knew without looking. Kat had taken a sick day today, after the most traumatic event of her life. Her first and only sick day in two years of working under Lauren, and the bitch couldn't just let her have it. Of course not.
"Hello?" she said into the phone as she pulled it free of the charger, allowing drowsiness and annoyance to seep into her tone. She didn't care what Lauren wanted. She wanted the day off, just this once.
She deserved it, she told herself, even as the insidious voice at the back of her mind told her she deserved no such thing. She was a lazy slut, and she deserved nothing. A sentiment she was sure Lauren would echo, given the chance.
Sure enough, what followed was a solid half-hour of Lauren trying to guilt her into coming into the office today, including the notion that if she could answer the phone, she couldn't possibly be too sick to work. Kat rolled her eyes at that. She knew she shouldn't have picked up.
Kat listened, for a while, but this was just too much after the night she had had. First she was raped, then she found out her rapist was her own brother Ryan -- a fact she still didn't know how to process -- followed by a sleepless night of tossing and turning. She just didn't have the energy to deal with this right now. Something in her snapped when Lauren started in on her work ethic, knowing full well that Kat had never taken a day off in two years. She waited for a pause in Lauren's diatribe -- didn't the woman need to breathe? -- then said simply, "I quit."
With that, she hung up, put her phone on silent, and went back to sleep.
--
Kat was still in bed several hours later, when a knock came at the door. "Mrawp?" said her cat, Honey, from the foot of the bed. The feline leapt to her agile feet and left the room to investigate. People rarely came to their door.
Supposing she ought to at least see who it was, Kat dragged herself out of bed and made sure she was decent in her plaid pajama pants and ratty tank top. The tank had some holes in it, but not in any interesting places. Deciding it was good enough for whoever dared interrupt her depression sleep, she went to answer the door.
The three faces on the other side of the threshold shocked her out of her stupor. Her brothers were here. All three of them. Kat didn't know what to do except stare.
Jared, her eldest brother, spoke first. "Lauren called me, KitKat. Can we come in?"
Kat remembered belatedly that Jared had gotten her the job with Lauren in the first place. They were friends or something, although how gentle Jared could be friends with a raging bitch like Lauren was a mystery to her.
She stepped wordlessly aside, not sure what else she could do. If Jared had talked to Lauren, all three of them would know by now that she had quit her job, apparently out of nowhere. They would want an explanation. Well, Jared and Matthew would, anyway. She cast her eyes down as Ryan stepped past her, the last to enter. She couldn't bear to look at him just yet.
When she turned to face the three of them after closing the door, she was struck by how much smaller her living room seemed with all of them in it. Her brothers were all big guys, but they had never seemed so intimidating before.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a hiss from Honey, who had caught sight of Ryan. Apparently she had taken a dislike to him after last night's events. Kat couldn't blame her, she had too, although she wasn't sure how much Honey understood what had happened. The cat fled the room after delivering this setdown, and Kat's brothers looked around at each other, pure bafflement on their faces.
"I thought your cat liked us," said Matt. He sounded honestly hurt. He was a huge animal lover; he and his wife Anna had three cats of their own at home, as well as a dog.
Kat didn't have the heart to tell them Honey was only mad at Ryan, and certainly couldn't tell them why, so she just shrugged. "She's been in a mood lately," she offered lamely, trying to sound unconcerned.
Jared, seeming to detect the pain she was trying to hide, walked to her where she still stood by the door and enveloped her in a hug. The warmth of his big body and his familiar smell were so comforting, Kat almost burst into tears and told him everything. Instead, she let him lead her to the couch.
Matthew and Ryan had already sat themselves on either end of the couch in the meantime, and she couldn't think of a good reason to protest when Jared gently pushed her towards the middle seat, so she sat, trying not to openly flinch when Ryan's leg casually brushed up against her own.
Jared sat down in the armchair facing the sofa, taking the last seat in Kat's small living room. He leaned forward to take her hand in his. "Kat, what's wrong? Lauren said you took a sick day and then quit when she tried to find out why. And then when you weren't answering either of our calls... She's worried about you, sweetie." He gestured to Matt and Ryan. "We all are."
Kat managed not to snort at the idea that Lauren would be worried about her, but she knew her brothers were. She had to tell them something. More importantly, she had to get Ryan out of here so she could figure out what she was going to do or say to him when she was ready. Now was not the time to confront him about what he had done, and if Jared and Matthew found out, they would likely kill him. She was angry, yes, but she didn't want him dead. Or maybe she did, she wasn't sure. Ugh, she wasn't sure of anything!
She looked up to meet Jared's worried gaze and realized she'd been silent too long. Unable to think of anything else, she settled on a version of the truth. "I was r-raped," she started, already on the verge of tears.
Her brothers' mouths hung open as she relayed the story to them. She left out some critical details, of course: the money left on her dresser, the fact that she had recognized her attacker as Ryan, and the shameful, horrible fact that she had enjoyed it enough to cum twice during the encounter. At some point she started openly crying, and Matthew and Ryan each wrapped an arm around her. She was torn between feeling comforted by Matt and Jared's presence, and anxious about Ryan's.
When she finished, a despondent hush fell over the quartet of siblings. No one seemed to know what to do next.
Jared was the one who finally broke the silence. "Have you called the police?" he asked, still holding Kat's hand cradled in his large palms.
She shook her head mutely. She had been planning to from the moment she saw the intruder, but once she realized it was Ryan, there was no way she could go to the police.
"That should be the first thing we do," Jared said resolutely. Matthew nodded swiftly in agreement. The siblings had always tended to follow Jared's steady, reliable lead, and Kat experienced a moment of panic. If they went to the police, it wouldn't take them long to discover that the sperm left inside her came from a close relative.
Kat was still trying to come up with a good excuse not to when Ryan spoke up. "I don't know if that's such a great idea," he said. Of course, she should have realized he's also be against going to the police, for the same reason she was -- to protect him. "Pursuing a rape case can be really traumatic for the victim, and Kat's been through so much already. Besides, it doesn't sound like the cops would have much to go on. He left plenty of, uh, DNA evidence, but what if this guy's not in the system? With no suspects or other leads, the police will have nothing to test it against."
Jared was frowning, but didn't seem suspicious. "I still think we ought to at least get a rape kit done, but not if it will be traumatic for Kat." His voice softened as he gazed at his baby sister. "What do you think, KitKat? Would that be too painful?"
Kat's voice caught in her throat as she decided how to answer. This was her chance to turn Ryan in, if she wanted to. Her eyes flicked to the brother in question. He was watching her closely, his expression carefully neutral. "I... I don't want to," she said finally, lowering her head to hide her relief. If she did choose to confront Ryan, she would do it on her own terms. And more importantly, she would make sure no one but the two of them ever found out that she was a dirty slut who had enjoyed being fucked by her brother.
Jared clearly didn't like it, but she knew he would respect her decision. He would never ask her to do something that would be painful for her, even if it was what was best for her in the long run. He was softhearted like that, and she loved him for it.
Her brothers stayed a while longer, determined both to comfort her and to help her find a way forward. They discussed the future, knowing Kat wouldn't be able to afford her apartment without a job, and that she was unlikely to get a very good one on her own.
Kat kept quiet for the most part, content to let her older brothers solve everything for her. Under any other circumstances, she'd be impatient with their high-handedness, but today she could only feel grateful that she had three amazing people who not only loved her but were willing and able to drop everything to help her. Well, two. She still wasn't used to the idea that Ryan was... well, someone she couldn't trust. Looking at him now as he and Jared and Matthew made their plans, she couldn't see him as anyone other than the brother she loved dearly, who would never lay a hand on her... except that he already had.
She fiddled with her hair, contemplating. Was it possible she'd been mistaken? She glanced at his hands, as he gestured to emphasize something he was saying. No, she'd know that scar anywhere. She had given it to him, biting him viciously once when they were roughhousing as children. He had needed four stitches, and she had earned the most fiery lecture she'd ever received from their father. There was no mistaking it; it had definitely been him last night.
The boys appeared to be wrapping up their discussion. Kat made an effort to focus, but she had lost the thread of the conversation at some point. Jared and Matthew were getting up to leave, but Ryan stayed where he was, his arm still wrapped around her shoulders.
"Ryan will stay here with you tonight, Kat," Jared said.
"What? No!" she blurted out without thinking. Ryan's arm tightened around her, and she instantly feared she had given herself away.
"It's just for tonight, sweetie," Ryan said, his voice gentle. His grip was meant to be comforting, she realized, not menacing. "You can't stay here alone, not now that we know how easily someone can break in. Jared and Matt are going to figure out where you can stay starting tomorrow, and I'll stay here to protect you tonight. Okay?"
Kat for the life of her couldn't think of a reasonable protest to this. She couldn't let Jared and Matthew know she wasn't safe alone with Ryan. He was otherwise the best choice of the three to stay the night, she knew, since Jared and Matt had wives to go home to. With no other option in sight, she nodded her acquiescence. The wolf would stay to guard the sheep, she thought with a shudder.
Once the older two brothers were gone, Kat and Ryan sat in silence for a while. Kat was lost in thought, her inner dialogue going around in circles. She couldn't let him know that she knew it had been him last night, but she also needed to make sure he wouldn't do it again. She wanted him to pay for what he had done, but she didn't want to ruin his life. She wanted to confront him, but also to never speak of it again. He was her brother who she loved, and he was her attacker who she hated. Or, should hate. It was all so confusing!
