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About him.
Every layer I’d unpeeled had revealed something I hadn’t expected. And with his promise to help Pilar, I felt myself opening to the idea that he could possibly be not just a hero to others, but to me—even if he wasn’t one for me.
Did that mean I cared? Whether I wanted to admit it or not, my trepidation and hatred of him had been waning. Would other feelings rise in their absence? They had to. The only thing more improbable than falling in love with Cristiano would be indifference toward him.
“I’m sure you’re needed at your party or whatever,” I said, hoping he’d offer up something without me asking.
“Yes,” he agreed, but made no move to get off the line. After a brief silence, he said, “Don’t worry about Jaz. She hasn’t known much kindness.”
I was lucky that most of my life, I’d had an abundance of that, despite the betrayals and death I’d seen. There was still a wall between Jaz and me—more like every brick was still in place. But that didn’t mean I hoped we wouldn’t break it down. I could afford to show compassion.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and prepared to say goodnight. Plastic wrap crinkled in the closet, then it went quiet. Nine o’clock wasn’t late at all. Maybe Jaz and I could talk—even over a drink. It seemed as if Cristiano would welcome that more than he would mind.
Anticipating Cristiano would end the call, I stuck my head in the closet to address Jaz and nearly knocked my forehead into hers. She jumped back and the wood hangers in her hands fell, banging against each other.
Had she been listening to our conversation?
“Everything okay over there?” Cristiano asked.
“Um,” I said, stalling as Jaz’s eyes widened. I’d never caught her spying on me, but that didn’t mean it was the first time. I wouldn’t forget anytime soon how she’d ratted me out to Cristiano the night I’d arrived at the Badlands. When I’d been scared and alone. She looked scared now. I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came.
I’d just decided to show her kindness, and I myself had sure as hell been caught eavesdropping on more than one occasion. Plus, whatever Jaz had against me, she was loyal to a fault to Cristiano, and I didn’t want to give him reason to question that.
“Everything’s fine,” I told him, raising my brows at Jaz. “I dropped my hairbrush in the bathroom.”
“I see.”
“So, goodnight then,” I said.
“Goodnight. I—uh . . .” He paused.
My heart missed a beat. Cristiano didn’t stammer over his words, and that sent up a red flag in me. “What is it?” I asked, backing away from the closet, keeping Jaz in sight until I turned and walked onto the balcony for privacy.
“I’m only one man, Natalia,” Cristiano said. “And there’s a world full of evil to contend with.”
My nerves calmed at the absence of alarm in Cristiano’s voice. But the melancholy in it touched something deep inside me. It was hard to imagine a man as strong and tightly coiled as Cristiano feeling sad, so I never really wondered if he was.
I rested my elbows on the stucco wall, squinting out over the inky black ocean. “What’s wrong, Cristiano?”
“When you say my name that way, nothing.”
I had also sensed the shift in how I addressed him—I was starting to feel at ease with him, but I didn’t necessarily want to admit that to him.
“You asked if there are ever women I can’t help,” he said. “I wish I had a different answer.”
I remembered how I’d once peered over this wall and wondered if it could be a way out. My only way out.
Don’t die. It was Cristiano’s first rule.
I’d cheated death already, though, if that soothsayer from my father’s party weeks ago was to be believed. I hadn’t forgotten her prophecy about Diego and me. You will die for him, your love.
If she’d been so prescient, why hadn’t she warned me about the kind of person Diego would turn out to be?
“You’d have to be a superhero to save them all,” I told Cristiano as a breeze sent a shiver down my bare shoulders. “And superheroes don’t exist.”
But you come close.
The unbidden thought scared me. It was true—for others. Not for me. Cristiano held the key to this tower. He could unlock the door and free me, but as long he’d put me here, he couldn’t save me.
“I cannot describe to you, nor would I ever try, the things I have seen,” he said slowly. “Things no man should ever witness. The sex trade runs so deep, and touches parts of the world, of the internet, and of men, that even the strongest army can’t beat. But we can still fight.” He paused as a gripping sorrow passed through the phone from him into me. Cristiano had taken on a beast that could never be killed. How did that feel for someone as mighty as him? “I’m sorry it’s this way,” he continued. “I do what I can. The people I care about, I will protect, and those I didn’t, I will avenge.”
