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“I know exactly who you are, Dante Moretti. How could I forget?”
That sounds loaded with meaning, but I’m too tired to argue with her. I just want to fall asleep next to her. I close my eyes and pull her tighter. “From now on, you only sleep in my bed unless I tell you otherwise. And I’m going to get a doctor to come over soon. I want you on birth control,” I tell her.
“What? Why?”
“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to, Kat.” I yawn. “Now get some sleep or I’ll reconsider my promise to let you.”
“Injections don’t agree with me,” she whispers.
“Then you can take a pill, right?”
“They’re best started after a period, so that we can be sure they’re one hundred percent effective.”
“Fine. As soon as you have your next period, then. Now go to fucking sleep.”
Even in the dark and with my eyes closed, I can sense her mouth opening to come back with something else – but she doesn’t.
I lie with my arm around her and her warm skin pressed against mine, exhausted but unable to sleep. When her breathing evens out, I roll onto my back and stare into the darkness.
Chapter16
Kat
There’s a hand on my neck. Another one on my back, pushing me down. I try to scream, but my throat is raw, and it hurts. Not that anybody is coming for me. More hands now. Clawing at me. Pushing me. Violating me.
“No!” I scream, waking up from the same nightmare I’ve been having for the past two years.
“Kat,” a deep voice speaks against my ear.
“No, get off me,” I shriek, twisting in the covers as I try to get away from the monsters that are still here. But I can’t. I’m being pulled up, wrapped in strong arms and pressed against a solid wall of muscle.
“Kat, it’s just me. Just you and me,” he says softly, his breath dusting over my ear as he sits up and pulls me onto his lap.
“Dante,” I breathe out, sagging against his chest at the realization that it was just a dream. I’m here in the house of the most powerful man in the city. Except that it’s not just a dream, is it? It’s a living, breathing, all-encompassing memory. And I’m pretty sure a part of me is actually still stuck in that hellish basement. A part of myself that I will never get back.
“I’ve got you. You’re safe,” he whispers as he runs a hand over my hair.
I nod, my cheek brushing against his chest. It’s wet with tears I don’t recall shedding. “I didn’t know you had a sister,” I say, wanting to talk about something that doesn’t involve me being a freak. “She’s not talked about like you and your brother are. I mean, everyone knows who you are.”
“Yeah, and we kind of like it that way.”
“Why?”
“Because Lorenzo and I can take care of ourselves, but Joey… Anyway, I have two sisters.”
“You do?”
“Well, Toni is my half-sister. We were born within a few days of each other.”
“Oh? That must have been awkward at Christmas.” I laugh softly.
“Exactly,” he laughs too. “Lorenzo has always hated her for it.”
“Are you close with her?”
“Kind of. We were when we were kids, but she moved to LA when we were thirteen. She’s an MMA fighter.”
“No way. That is so cool.”
