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“Are you okay?” she asks, staring at me, her fork tucked into her plate of pasta.
A red haze has coated my vision, and I’m already climbing out the booth. She jumps up and intercepts me before I clear our table. “Stop. You can’t go after that kid. It was an accident that he touched me. You don’t want to hurt someone for no reason.”
I stare down into her face and cup her cheek. “Him touching you is a reason to hurt him.”
She shakes her head. “If you go after him, then this dinner will be ruined, and you have been working so hard to make sure it’s not. Please, sit down with me. Don’t go after him.”
It takes effort, but the way she says please, and how her hand frames mine as I hold her face, it’s enough to drag me back from the edge.
She leads me back to the table, and I take my seat beside her again.
There’s still an underscore of rage simmering through me, but I ignore it for her sake.
After the interruption, we finish dinner quickly. She doesn’t look like she wants to linger and share a drink with me. And why should she?
The car is waiting out front when we finish. And I instruct the driver to take us back to the house. She doesn’t touch me or reach out. Even though I want to pull her into my lap and kiss her senseless, I keep my distance.
It’s the hardest thing to not touch her when it’s all I can think about. And while I want her obedience, I want it because she trusts me to care for her, not because she’s obligated to give me it.
When we reach the house, I climb out of the car, open her door, and help her out. I offer to walk her upstairs, but we both spot Soo hovering nearby, and she shakes her head.
“No, it looks like you have some business to attend to. I’m tired anyway.”
Soo crosses the foyer and intercepts us both. “I need to know what you want me to do with Lucas. He’s getting restless and belligerent, and I’m about one minute from slamming his beefy little brain into the cinder block walls.”
I chuckle. I can’t help myself. Nothing rattles Soo, and the annoyed look on his face is priceless.
“What does he mean? What do you want to do with him?” Celia asks, a few steps away.
I tug her into my side and wrap my arm around her waist. She fits perfectly, and I love holding her here, feeling her warmth against me. It’s better when she’s naked, but I’ll get her there soon enough.
“What does he mean? What do you want to do with Lucas?” She repeats her question.
“Ever since the night I picked you up at his house, he’s been secured in our holding cell.”
She gasps. “You haven’t hurt him, have you?”
“Not any more than what you witnessed when I found you. I haven’t exactly been in the mood to talk to him,” I explain.
She drags her hands up my chest and tugs my face to look directly at her. “Please, don’t hurt him. I know you guys are fighting, but he’s your brother; you must have some sympathy for what he’s going through.”
“You’re defending the man who kidnapped you.”
“From an auction that the other man who kidnapped me sent me to,” she snaps.
I grit my teeth and look at her. If I give her this, maybe it’s the first step to breaching the distance she’s created between us. This vast void she’s erected to guard her heart from my grasp. “What do you think I should do with him?”
Immediately, she says, “Let him go. You punished him enough with the beating you gave him. Besides, I feel like he’s being eaten alive by his guilt and his trauma. He needs help, not punishment. So, help him.”
My stellina. Her soft heart is beautiful. I don’t know how it hasn’t been crushed under someone’s fists by now, especially knowing what I do about her family. Her compassion should have been stripped from her by now.
She cups my cheeks, running her thumb along the bottom of my lips. I can appreciate the subtle use of her touch to entice me to give her what she wants.
I nod and look at Soo. “You heard the lady. Let him go.”
Soo’s face is a mask as he peers between us. All the annoyance he displayed when I arrived wiped clean. “Are you sure about that? You know there is something wrong with him right now, don’t you?”
I shrug. “Talk to him. But also explain that he and I will have a conversation soon, and his continued existence will depend on those answers. And also, make sure he knows if he touches Celia again, brother or not, I’ll put a bullet in his head and leave him outside for the wild animals to pick at.”
