AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I sit up and run my fingers through my hair with an agitation I thought had long since been buried. The nightmares began to fade the more self-assured I got, but last night it all came back with a vengeance, and I am weaker for it.
Before I can move, the door to the bathroom opens and I swallow hard when Leo comes through it with a small towel slung around his waist and his hair wet from the shower. His dark turbulent eyes glitter with something I can’t quite place, and I’m surprised when he sits on the edge of the bed beside me and takes my hand in his.
“Tell me what you were dreaming about last night.”
I stare at him in shock because what the hell did I do last night?
“Nothing. I can’t remember.” I turn away and he forces my face to his and growls. “Tell me.”
“Fuck you.” I snarl, hating being backed into a corner like this, and he sighs and fixes me with a determined look.
“You were crying, your body was twitching, and you were calling out.”
“Maybe you were dreaming.” I bat his hand away angrily and he shakes his head.
“Listen to me, Chastity. This is important.”
I stare at him with a hard expression, and he says gently, “Tell me what happened after your parents died.”
“Why?” The word almost sticks in my throat as he shifts a little closer, the power of his aftershave as intoxicating as the man himself.
“I want to know where you went. If you won’t tell me how they died, I want to know what happened after. It’s important.”
“I hit the streets.”
“How old were you?”
He looks angry and I snap. “Fourteen.”
“Nobody came looking for you.”
“They were dead.” I say miserably and heaped on top of the trauma of my nightmare a lone tear slides down my face revealing how weak this subject makes me.
To my surprise, he kisses it away and whispers, “I want to know because something isn’t adding up. I’ve thought about it all night, and we need to be honest with one another.”
“OK.” I sigh, loving how his arm pulls me gently toward him and as the warm skin of his chest rests on my cheek, I take a deep breath and savor the scent of masculinity that makes me feel safer somehow.
“It happened one night. My mom told me to hide in the trapdoor under the bed. I heard angry voices and then a shot rang out, killing my father. I didn’t know that at the time, but I kind of felt it. I somehow knew he had gone and then they brought my mom into my room and asked where I was. She lied and they…”
I take a deep breath as Leo rubs my shoulder comfortingly as I hiss. “They raped her. Every single one of them and then Carlos pissed on her body before he shot her.”
It’s as if I’m a stranger telling something so horrifying it doesn’t even seem true, and I whisper. “One of his men asked if he should search for me and Carlos told him to find me, and I could work off my parent’s debt after he had tested me first.”
“Debt?” Leo’s voice is soft and smooth, and I nod against his chest. “Two thousand pounds.”
He stiffens and a low growl reaches me as he says, “They murdered your parents for two fucking thousand pounds. What the hell?”
“Yes.” I sniff and hide my eyes with my fingers.
“I stayed in my safe place for hours until I was sure they had gone. When I crawled out, I was physically sick when I saw my mom’s bloodied and battered body. I cradled her head in my arms and cried so hard I thought I had used up a lifetime of tears, and then I worried that they would come back looking for me. I covered her body with the comforter from my bed and tucked my toy elephant in with her. I gathered everything I could carry and left without looking back and went downstairs to find my father with half of his head scattered on the walls. I tried not to see it, but it’s imprinted on my memory and I stumbled into the den and searched for anything of value. I found two hundred dollars and a credit card, and I took them and left through the back door.”
Leo squeezes me so hard it almost hurts, but I’m grateful for it. It means he has emotion somewhere inside him and I snuggle in deeper.
“I started to walk. I had no idea where I was going and ended up in the city. I dressed like a tramp and covered my head and carried a brown paper bag with an empty liquor bottle so nobody would approach me.”
I sniff and a small laugh escapes. “It’s funny how invisible a person becomes when they act a little crazy and I began to perfect it. I suppose I was crazy to a degree because the horrors of that night did something to my mind I will never recover from.”
I stare up into his hardened eyes and for a moment a flicker of what could be affection greets me and I smile as he lowers his lips to mine and whispers, “You’re not alone now, baby.”
