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“I know.” I rub my eyes.
“Do something about it, before it becomes a disaster we can’t fix.” She walks from my study without saying goodnight.
I touch the photo of Carly on my desk, having plenty of questions and no answers.
* * *
Valentina
It feels like Gabriel took something from me. I knew he was dangerous, but I had no idea how dark he is. What Tiny did to me was almost more bearable, because it never turned me on. What Gabriel did to me last night made me wet, and that makes me sick. I, of all people, should be disgusted by the violence. It wasn’t the lashes on my back. It was the intense rhythm of the leather between my legs. I both resented and appreciated that he took care of me––both emotionally and sexually––afterward. It was something I needed desperately, and I hate myself for it.
Wanting to hear a kind, safe voice, I call Kris before she’s due at the practice, and speak to Charlie, who sounds as happy as only Charlie can be. It soothes me enough to get me through my Friday morning chores. My body is sensitive from Gabriel’s lashing, and each brush of the rough linen of my dress is abrasive on my skin. Carly is at home today, skipping school to recover, and I do my best not to run into her. I only clean her room when she’s outside by the pool.
Marie avoids my eyes. If she knows about last night, she doesn’t say so. She comes looking for me in the entrance where I’m mopping and fixes her gaze on a spot behind me. “Mr. Louw says the towels in the gym needs washing.”
“Okay.” I mop past her feet.
“You must take clean ones. Now.”
She leaves stiffly, hiding her discomfort behind her brusque manner.
I fetch a clean pile of towels from the linen closet and make my way down the hallway. As I descend the stairs to the gym, my stomach clenches, and my throat closes up. Forcing my feet to move forward, I stop abruptly when the door opens, and Rhett exits, blood all over his naked chest. He’s pressing his palm to his nose, his head turned up, and almost bumps into me before I have time to jump out of the way. The reason for the blood seems to be a broken nose. The bridge is swollen and the cartilage askew. His right eye sports a shiner, and the skin on his cheekbone is split. When he notices me, he glares and pushes past, making for the stairs. I’m still staring after him when Gabriel walks through the door dressed only in sweatpants and clutching the ends of a towel draped around his neck. His face and chest glistens with perspiration.
My face flushes at the memory of last night, and my mouth goes dry. Where I come from, I’ve seen a lot of gangsters who pump iron in the gym all day, but no one as hard or perfectly cut as Gabriel. His upper arms are the size of my waist. Deep lines define his pecs and abs. A trail of dark hair starts beneath his navel and disappears under the pants, the V of his hips cutting sharply down to his groin. It’s not the beauty of his body that renders me speechless, but the power of it. Even with his disability, he stuffed Rhett up badly, and Rhett is a hulk. As he advances, I stand there like an idiot with the towels in my arms, not having words.
A smile flirts with his lips. “Training,” he says with a shrug, grabbing one of the clean towels off the pile to wipe his face. He gives me his intense stare, searching my face. “How are you?”
“Fine.”
“Good.” Dumping the towel in the basket by the door, he limps away.
It’s the first time I see him in anything but a dress shirt and suit pants. The broadness of his shoulders and the tightness of his ass don’t surprise me as much as the way the sight of him, half naked, makes my womb flutter. I can’t feel desire for a man who tortured me. It will make me as twisted as him. It will drag me down to a place I won’t be able to come back from.
Angry at my unwelcome reaction, I enter the gym and pack the clean towels on the shelf before picking the dirty ones off the floor. I take my time to do what I haven’t done last night––take stock of the room. There’s a section with free weights in the corner and a small bathroom off to one side. Judging by the metal rings bolted to the ceiling and the hooks fitted on the walls, this is where Gabriel tortures his enemies. A chill fills my veins, and I’m not able to look any longer.
