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He pulls back. “Ellie?” I just close my eyes and breathe. My head hurts, my arm hurts, my heart hurts. And I’m so brutally tired. “You’ve got that look again. You’re white as a ghost.”
“I was hit in the head with a gun after I watched you get shot.”
“No. All of that you took like a champ. One grip on your neck…someone choked you?” I shake my head but he squints at me. “Who. Who fucking choked you, Eleanna?” The tears are back. If they ever left. I can’t keep track anymore. “Someone inla familia. They approached you at our wedding. You lied then and you’re trying to lie now. Tell me what happened.”
“It was a long time ago.”
Mark grips the arms of the chair so hard the wood frame crunches under the upholstery. “I will sit here and wait all night, you know I will. So just tell me. Everything.”
“That’s rich coming from you.”
“Too bad. Tell me.” He fumes at me.
I inhale. “I…it…” He ducks down to force eye contact with me. His eyes are intense, like always, but also almost scared. “I’ve never said it out loud.” His turn to inhale. He backs a few inches out of my space and nods, but keeps his arms caged in front of me.
I squint my eyes shut and just blurt the words. “Myquinceañera. One of my guards burst into my room that night, determined tobe the firstis what he said. I’d known him forever, I thought we were friends.” My voice cracks.
“Go on, baby.” Mark whispers.
“Mateo, my other guard, he was like anabueloto me, and he came in and tried to stop it, save me, and he he… he sliced Mateo’s throat. Just killed him in an instant. Like they hadn’t worked together his whole life.”
“Whose life? Who touched you?”
“He didn’t. I mean, he had me in my bed, covered my mouth, strangled me down, but I grabbed…I grabbed my hairspray off the nightstand, it was all I could grab at and I sprayed him in the eyes. He jumped back and I was able to run to the corner.” Mark is staring, panting, shaking, actually. I just finish as fast as I can. “I picked up a teddy bear and told him it was a nanny cam. That I had the whole thing on video. That he needed to transfer away from me and never touch me again or I would ruin him. But he called my bluff, ran to my Papá and said there had been an intruder who came in and killed Mateo and tried to get to me. Thathesaved my life, my virtue, and the guy ran off. And then…” I sob but I keep going. “Then Papá was so happy he promoted him. He took him under his wing as a third son almost. And there was nothing I could do unless I wanted everyone to know what had happened to me.”
“Shhhhh,” Mark holds me to him. At some point he must’ve picked me up. He has me cradled in his arms on the couch and I let him hold me. I cry and we both shake. “Arlo. Arlo put his hands on you.” I don’t have to respond. My silence is all the answer he needs. He reaches to the side table, still holding me and pulls out a piece of paper and a pen. He writes something down and then looks it over and sets the paper down.
I look up at him. His jaw is twitching. His brow is sweating, for the first time in a long time. I glance over at the paper. What the heck was that?
“What did you write?”
“A little note for Robbie.”
“Huh?”
He reaches a hand up to his eye and takes out a contact. “These are nanocameras.” My stomach flips for the millionth time. Our life has been on camera? He’s been filming me, all day every day? And for who? Who’s been watching? “I normally take them out at home. And there’s no audio. It’s a way for Robbie to constantly watch and analyze. Find things I might miss. See people lurking in the back of the room. Or find someone in facial recognition software who just introduced themselves to me by a fake name. That kind of thing.” He gives me a small squeeze. “He never saw you. I would never let that happen.”
“Robbie. Who was in our house? This is…I can’t…I need space,” I pull away from Mark and he lets me go. I settle into the other side of the couch. “What else?”
“What do you mean?” He’s still livid about Arlo.
“A secret room in your office that leads to a torture chamber, contacts that record our entire life, what else?”
“My senate pin is an infrared camera. I do wear an earpiece often, not that anyone can see it. Robbie gives me intel in real time. Other than that, nothing that different from what you’re used to, state of the art security system, reflective windows, bulletproof, sound proof, cameras in the main rooms and exterior, there are a good number of hidden weapons. Some of the pens can inject poison, some of the outlets are bombs. And other minor tripwire security throughout.”
I struggle to breathe. “…Tripwire?”
“Not literal tripwires. More like secret booby traps. Oh, and your ring has a tracker in it, but that’s also pretty standard for mafia wives.”
A tracker? I can’t. I pull the ring off like it’s diseased. I set it on the coffee table. I hunch over and rest my head in my hands. Out. I want out of this right now. I want to sleep.
“Can I rub your back?” Mark asks gently.
“No. Can I go to sleep yet?”
“Yes, I think it’s been long enough. Let me—“
We both stand and I hold up a hand to stop him. “I’m walking myself tomyroom. In the morning, you’re going to tell me what you want from me.”
