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What did he mean completely and utterly his?
JUDGE
Breakfast was a short affair, but we were at the mercy of the elements. And the weather as we sailed up the French coast was unpredictable. Even in the summer. It would hopefully calm down, but there were never any real guarantees when you were at sea.
I would have liked to have taken the yacht down to the Med, but I didn’t have time for that. My big day was fast approaching.
Our big day, I reminded myself, my eyes finding Taylor. She sat on the edge of the love seat, her legs demurely pressed together and her chin in her hand. She didn’t look like she was going to vomit, which was an improvement from breakfast when the rolling waves, coupled with far too many drinks last night, had made her positively green. There had been a moment just after our conversation about death that I had thought she was going to puke on her own toes, but somehow she had managed to keep it down.
That sudden nausea was probably my fault more than anything. I should not have been so blunt and honest with her. Talking about death and being murdered probably wasn't the best way to seduce a girl into falling in love with you. But I was a quick study and it wouldn't happen again.
“Taylor?”
“Mhmmm.” She didn't turn to me.
“Tell me about your family.”
Her head moved slowly, her eyes met mine unflinching. “I would have thought you knew all about my family.”
“I do.” Laughing, I knelt. My hands moved her body until she was facing me. It was important to me that she was always looking me in the eye when we spoke. I was good at spotting a liar. So many people had tried to lie to my face that I could spot it instantly. “But I would like to hear it from you. Was your childhood a happy one?”
“Yes.”
She was lying. It was there, weighing her eyes down, making their sparkle dull and listless.
“No, it wasn’t.” Moving between her legs, I forced her back against the chair. “Why are you lying to me?”
“I'm not.” Two pink spots appeared high on her cheeks. “I had a great childhood. My mum and dad were the best, they were–”
I had seen that look on others' faces. Too many others. It was the look of a woman who had buried her trauma so deep down inside of her that she believed it hadn't happened in the first place. It was nothing more than a nightmare, something horrible, but something that wasn’t real.
“Who hurt you?” Anger pooled in my chest, threatening to bubble up and engulf her. “Your dad?”
Her walls went up. She stiffened. “My dad would never hurt me. He was a good man!” she spat. “How dare you insinuate that he would…” Pushing on my shoulders, she stood and stormed over to the bed.
“Someone hurt you.” I didn’t care that she had pushed me. What I did care about was finding out the truth. Nothing like this had come up in any of the checks I had run on her but then that wasn’t surprising. Most victims of abuse didn’t come forward. The crimes against them went unpunished
Unless, of course, I found out about them. Or Gio did or the men in the Savage Sons. We were bad men, all of us, but sometimes, just sometimes, we did bad things to punish even worse men.
“I know the look in your eyes, Taylor. I've seen it before. Gio’s wife,” I hesitated for just a second before carrying on. “She was attacked by someone who she trusted. And there's others…” I trailed off.
“What happened to those men?”
“They are dead now,” I said deadpan.
“You killed them.” It wasn’t a question.
“They are no longer a threat. It doesn't really matter who did the deed. They can no longer hurt anyone else.” Capturing up her wrist, I pulled her into my arms. One arm curved around her waist so she couldn’t escape. “Now tell me who hurt you.”
“No one.” She turned her face away before turning back to me with a smile. “Well, you are right now, but I don’t think you're going to protect me from you, are you?”
Oh, she was a cheeky one, with much more fight in her than I had originally thought. And I liked it.
“It's not likely to happen, no. I like you being at my mercy too much.” Sobering for a second, I rested my forehead against hers. “But I will find out who it was and when I do–”
“You will do what? Kill them? Then you would be killing an innocent man because no one has ever touched me against my will.” A darkness flickered to life in her eyes.
It was a half truth, not quite an outright lie and not the God-given truth either. Maybe she had never been touched against her will, but someone had tried to do something. And I was going to find out who they were.
