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Markus pulls his phone out and calls for the car. Grinding my teeth together, I give Markus a nod before turning all my attention to Elena.
“Let’s go.”
With Elena clinging onto me, I walk through the crowd as fast as I can manage without making her trip in her high heels. When we get to the exit, and no one is paying us any attention, I lean down to pick her up, so I can walk faster.
Her thin arms come around my neck and shoulder to pull me closer. Burying her face into my neck, she starts to cry, small sobs shaking her body in my hold. What the fuck happened in there? Fucking Markus dropping this vacation bomb on me had me distracted for a few minutes. I should kill him, but then I would have to find a permanent replacement for him, which would be even more annoying than finding a temporary one.
Just as I walk outside, Lucca pulls up the car. He jumps out and opens the back door for me. It’s not his normal job to be my driver, but I needed my best men with me tonight. Lucca is smart enough not to ask me any stupid questions. He simply watches me get into the backseat while holding Elena to my chest, before closing the door after us.
He gets back into the driver’s seat and pulls away from the venue.
That’s what I like most about Lucca, always so quiet, never second-guessing me, maybe he will be a great second, after all.
Another sob wracks through the small body in my lap, and my attention is drawn back to her. “Tell me what happened.” I try to keep my voice even and calm, but it’s hard to do when all I want to do is demand an answer. I’m not used to having to ask or decipher someone’s emotions.
“I just wanted to leave.”
“Don’t lie to me. Something happened. Tell me.”
“I stayed quiet like you told me to. I didn’t talk until he touched me. I only told him to leave, but he just laughed.”
My whole body tightens, every muscle in my limbs flexing, ready to kill someone. “Who touched you?” I grit out.
Instead of answering me, she continues rambling, “I don’t care if you punish me, you can do whatever you want to me, but don’t hurt Marie, please. I tried to listen to you, but he kept coming closer… and when his nails sunk into my skin...”
“Don’t worry about Marie, she’ll be fine.” It’s the guy who dared to touch Elena that’s already dead. “Tell me what this guy looked like.”
“I kept my eyes lowered on the ground. I didn’t see his face.” Fuck. “But I saw his hand. One of his fingers was tattooed with a crown on it. He also wore gold rings, and on his wrist was a red spider web…”
Lev. I know it’s him simply from the tattoo. He is fucking dead.
“I’m sorry…”
“There is nothing to be sorry about. You did great tonight.”
As I adjust her on my lap, her legs part a bit and try as I may to avert my gaze, not to be a complete bastard, my eyes glue onto her soft skin where three long red scratches run parallel along the apex of her thigh.
I will kill him. I will draw it out. I will make him pay for touching her. Soothing a hand over her hair and down her spine, I hold her a little tighter, wanting her to know that she is safe with me. Forever safe with me.
Pulling away, I watch as a single tear rolls down her cheek. “Did you… did you mean it? Are you really going to sell me?”
I want to laugh, but that wouldn’t ease the tension or worry inside of her, so I choose against doing that. With Elena, I have to dig deep, be gentle and kind.
Cupping her cheek, I turn her face to me. A ragged breath leaves her lips, and it is painfully obvious how much tonight’s events have broken her. Her father had been right in a sense. She was not made for this world. She is fragile, and if I’m not careful, I’ll break her, and stupidly, I don’t want to do that.
“If I didn’t want you... if I was going to sell you, do you think you would be in this car with me right now?”
Hiccupping, she shakes her head. “No, but… it sounded like you… like you were going to.”
I can’t stop my lips from twitching up at the sides. “I told you, you might not like some of the things that I said or how I behaved, but I promised you that no harm would come to you. Did you believe me?”
The answer to my question is obvious, but I still want to hear her say it. Like others, she expected the worst from me, even when I’ve proven again and again that I didn’t have it in me to hurt her. Technically, she didn’t fully know that because I needed her fear, for her to be scared of me, to comply, but deep down, I felt like she might feel safe in my arms.
