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"Right, I will, thanks," she replied, and she eyed me for a moment. I couldn’t stand the sympathy in her expression, but I knew she didn’t mean any harm by it.
She dived in for another hug, squeezing me close.
"I’ll see you again soon, Selina," she told me, her voice muffled against my shoulder.
"Yeah, of course," I replied, though I had no idea if I would see her again after this. For both of us, we were reminders of our past, and Marnie was clearly doing everything she could to try and leave hers behind. Why would she want to come back here and see me, when I would just remind her of the life she was getting more and more distance from every passing day?
I headed back towards the stairs, forgetting what I had even gone down there for in the first place. It didn’t matter. I just wanted to get out of there—to put as much distance between myself and Marnie as I could.
Before I dragged her spiraling down the same mindset I was stuck in.
Chapter Fourteen – Paulo
I knew there was something off about the atmosphere in this place the moment I stepped out the door. Something … strange.
I glanced around the entrance to the mansion, trying to locate the source of the creeping dread that was getting to me right now. I was having a hard time figuring out just what it might have been, but there had to be something, right?
The air was still, and Selina was right behind me, hanging onto my arm tight as she followed me out of the house. I had agreed to take her out today, under my supervision, of course—the last thing I needed was her getting too far from me, too fast, being out in the real world without any oversight. She was still too vulnerable for that, and she knew it as well as I did.
"Are you okay?" Selina asked, looking up at me nervously. I blinked back the doubts in my mind, brushing them off as best I could.
"I’m fine," I assured her. "Come on. Let’s get out of here."
We headed down the large gravel path towards the enormous gate at the far end of the mansion, the black metal gleaming under the midday sun. Normally, it would have served to calm me, the sight of that gate keeping out the rest of the world, but there seemed to be something unsettling in the way those spikes reached up towards the sky in front of me.
Two of the guards waiting at the gate opened it for me, and I nodded to them in thanks. I’d had to have a serious conversation with these guys about what they could and couldn’t do for Selina, and I was sure plenty of them were well and truly pissed at me for being so harsh, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to let her get hurt just because they had a hard time handling themselves around her. No booze, no pills, nothing was to come into that house without my knowledge and say-so. It was that simple.
"God, it’s good to get out," Selina sighed as she slipped her hand down into mine. Her touch was becoming familiar now, and there was something warmly comforting about feeling her wind her fingers around my own; like she knew she belonged there, by my side. Like she knew I wouldn’t have wanted her anywhere else in the world.
"You feeling okay?" I asked her. What was going on with me right now? It felt like every inch of my body was wracked with tension, every part of me ready to snap at any moment, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why. There was nothing happening right now, nothing going on. I needed to pull myself the fuck together, or I was going to freak her out with my weird energy.
"Yeah, I’m good," she replied, smiling up at me. The last few days, since she had gotten drunk and tried to come on to me, she had been a little more reserved, and I could tell she was all up inside her head about what had happened.
I wished there was some way I could communicate to her that she had nothing to feel bad about. Yeah, it hadn’t exactly been pleasant, seeing her that way, but I understood what she was going through. I knew how intense the lure of getting drunk or high could be. She was still working through a whole hell of a lot, and I didn’t want to hurry her beyond what she could handle …
We made our way a couple of blocks down the street, away from the mansion, and I tried to ignore how distinctly exposed I felt right now. No guards by our side, nothing. I knew this was probably good for her, getting out of the house without the watchful eye of others to keep her accountable, but I didn’t like it. Those messages from Stefano were still stuck in my head, rolling around and around inside my brain. All too real. All too threatening …
"Oh, can we check this place out?" she asked me, coming to a halt outside a bookshop and clasping her hands together excitedly. "I’m running out of stuff I want to read in the library, I could use something new …"
"Sure," I replied, unable to keep the smile off of my face at the sight of her enthusiasm.
And then, for one, horrible moment, everything slowed.
She dropped my hand just long enough that a car could pull to a halt beside us. And a man inside that car could scramble out and grab her around the waist. She yelled out, but I was frozen to the spot, too shocked to respond.
And, by the time that I did, it was almost too late.
"Let fucking go of her!” I yelled at the man who had to be Stefano. His eyes were wild as he dragged her back towards the vehicle, hardly able to take notice of me.
"Paulo!" Selina screamed, flailing her limbs to try and escape, but it was no use—she was so tiny, she didn’t stand a chance against him.
I dove towards the car, slamming the door shut before he could get her inside. Stefano, one arm wrapped around her waist, held her in place, and he glowered at me.
"Back the fuck off, old man," he snarled. "This has nothing to do with you."
"Let her go," I warned him. "I’ll have back-up here in—"
"Oh, you think they can make it in time?" he asked, and he reached into the waistband of his pants and pulled out a gun, pressing it below her ribs. Selina froze, her eyes widening. The blood drained from my face. I knew he would pull the trigger in a second if he thought I was going to try and take her from him; it was just the kind of man he was. This wasn’t about having her for himself, this was about taking her from me, making it so she didn’t have a choice in the matter.
