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“NO!” I shout, feeling a sudden, sharp sting on my cheek as everything comes back into stark reality. I raise my hand and feel something there. When I pull my fingers away, there’s a hint of blood.
“He slammed my face into a wall…” I choke out. “He… He tried to…”
I gulp in air, my heart thrashing against my rib cage as those vague images build a picture I don’t want to acknowledge. For a moment I’m back there, back in the alley with his hands on my skin, his threat in my ear, and his intentions a nightmare beginning to take shape.
“Peter…!” I cry out, fear clutching hold of my spine as I reach for Malakai, my fingers claw into fists, Malakai’s beautiful image distorting into one I despise.
“He’s gone, Connie. He can’t hurt you. You’resafe,” Malakai says, grasping my wrists in his hands as he gently presses them to my side.
My thundering heart slows with every reassuring word and his gentle touch, as his thumbs soothe the pulse points in my wrists. When I calm down enough, Malakai releases me, cupping my unharmed cheek. “His real name is Abel, and he’s been dealt with… You’ll never,ever, have to worry about him touching you again. I swear to you, Connie, you’re safe.” Malakai growls.
I meet his gaze, my vision blurred by tears, but I see the vivid anger in his eyes. It tells me all I need to know, but I grasp hold of the least frightening part of that sentence.
“His name is Abel?” God, what else did he lie to me about?Everything, a little voice inside my head says. Everything.
“Yes.”
“Did he…? Did he…?”Rape me. I can’t say the words out loud.
Malakai shakes his head furiously. “No! No, Little Siren. He didn’t get the fucking chance.”
“He didn’t get the fucking chance…”
“He’s been dealt with…”
“You’ll never have to worry about him touching you ever again…”
“Oh, god. Oh, god. What did you do?” I cry, more tears washing down my face. Malakai’s face crumples, cut up by my pain and despair. He leans over and brushes away my tears that still pour despite his efforts to comfort me.
“I did what I had to do,” he grinds out, forcing his emotions deep inside, the harshness of his words a contradiction to the gentleness of his touch. For a long time he just takes me in. The frown between his eyebrows deepening with every moment that passes.
“Did you kill him?” I whisper.
“Yes,” he grinds out, confirming my worst fears.
My jaw begins to chatter as the truth sinks in. Peter… No, Abel, tried to rape me. I thought I knew who he was. I thought he was a friend. It was all a lie. All those times I was alone with him and he never… yet, he wanted to. He’d played the long game. I believed we were friends and all that time he was planning on hurting me in the worst possible way…
Boiling hot rage fires in my veins, incinerating any kind of sympathy for his demise, quickly to be replaced with heartache for Malakai. To take a life like that, no matter how evil that person might be, has got to darken your soul. I don’t want his soul to be weighed down by something I forced him to do because of my poor choices. I should never have left the island.
“Malakai, are you…”Okay?
My voice catches as I reach for him, my fingers brushing his shoulder before he pulls away. I knew he had a past filled with darkness. I knew that, but he’d turned his back on it. He’d left that world behind… until now. Tonight, he killed a man for me, and it breaks my heart to know I’ve had a hand in scarring him like that.
“Don’t! Don’t you dare feel sorry for me, Little Siren. I don’t need or want your pity.”
“You killed him…” I breathe.
“Yes, and I would do it again if it meant keeping you safe,” he counters, his fingers brushing over my cheek. I lean into his hold, glad of the warmth I feel there as his mossy green eyes drink me in. Electricity snaps between us like it always does when we’re close. This time, however, there’s care, tenderness, something far deeper than instant physical attraction.
“I…Thank you,” I croak, a sob catching in my voice.
The boat rocks slightly as the sound of grandma’s voice rings in the air. He jerks his hand back, moving away. “Don’t go…” I beg, and I don’t just mean now. I mean forever.
He looks at me, shaking his head. “I have to. Imust. You deserve better than this. You deserve better thanme.”
I know what he isn’t saying. He believes I deserve better than a man who’s capable of killing another, no matter the cause.
“No,” I whisper, but still he backs away.
