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Her face turns so pale the smudge on her nose no longer stands out on her tanned skin. Her lip trembles as she stands there, one hand on the door and the other frozen in mid-wave. If that wasn’t enough to raise my hackles, the wet patch spreading across the crotch of her overalls, turning the pale fabric dark blue, makes my heart start to hammer in my chest. What the hell?
My hands ball into fists as they rest on the arms of the chair. I’m about to go to her, but suddenly as though she’s found the strength to move again, she turns and sprints silently from the room.
I look to Lorenzo. Did he see that too?
His face is unreadable, but he gives me a subtle nod. Yes, he did see. So I’m not crazy. Something in this room has just terrified my strong, stubborn wildcat.
Elmo and Tony are still too preoccupied with laughing at their own wit to notice that the atmosphere in the room has changed dramatically in the last five seconds.
I push myself up from my chair, and the sudden movement draws their attention.
“Everything okay?” Tony asks.
I glare at him, my nostrils flaring as I draw in a breath through my nose. “I just need to take care of something real quick. I’ll be right back,” I grind out the words before I walk out of the room.
Kat disappears up the staircase, and I make my way after her. I call her name, but that makes her run faster. She heads straight for our bedroom, closing the door as though a simple piece of wood might keep me from her. When I walk into the room after her, she spins around, her face wet with tears.
“N-no,” she stammers, taking a few steps backward. “D-Dante, don’t. P-please. I p-promise I-I won’t r-run away.” She’s sobbing now as she continues walking backward until she bumps into the huge wooden dresser.
I cross the floor to her in two strides. Her entire body is trembling, and the thought that I am somehow the cause of this fear is abhorrent to me.
“Kat, why did you run away? What happened downstairs?”
“Dante, please, I’ll be good. I’ll do whatever you say. I’m sorry,” she pleads, her eyes wide as she babbles at me.
Placing my hand on her arms, I grip her firmly, narrowing my eyes as I search her face for some sign of the usually strong and rational woman I know. “What the hell is going on, Kat?”
“Don’t l-let them take me. I promise not to r-run.”
“Who? The men in my office?”
She nods.
My heart is fucking breaking right now. I’ve never seen her like this despite all the shitty and dangerous situations I’ve put her in. Adrenaline thunders through my body. I drop my voice until it’s barely a whisper. “What did they do to you, kitten? Tell me.”
She shakes her head. “No, Dante,” she gasps, her chest heaving with the effort of her words. “I can’t.”
I cup her chin in my hand, my thumb pressing on the curve of her jaw until she stares at me. Her blue eyes swim with unshed tears. “You have to tell me, Kat. Tell me so I can repay them for any hurt they caused you.”
She blinks at me. “Y-you don’t know?”
“Nothing those men have ever done to you has been in my family’s name. I swear to you on my mother’s grave.”
She still doesn’t speak.
“Kat?” I ask, my tone firmer now.
“My scar,” she whispers, and a wave of indescribable rage washes over me, almost knocking me from my feet.
“They were the ones who carved a word into your skin?” I hiss.
She looks at the floor, and I tilt her head up so I can look in her eyes. “Tell me.”
“Yes,” she says as she glares back at me now, some of that fire I admire in her flickering amidst the shame and fear. “It waswhore.”
“What else did they do to you?” My teeth are bared because I can barely contain the anger that is burning through my veins like it’s my lifeblood. This is about way more than what she’s already told me.
“They took me,” she says, her voice trembling. “I was leaving the hospital after a double shift. We’d had three RTAs. I didn’t notice their van. They kept me ch-chained in a basement for two days. I think they would have killed me, but I escaped.”
