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“What do you do for work?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Stellina, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, but I promise you don’t want to know that.”
I pursed my lips. “Okay.”
“You’re up to four questions. Do you have any more?”
I gaped, not realizing how many questions I’d already asked. I’d barely gotten any information, but at least now, I knew that we’d face a threat far from home if we succeeded in killing Dante. One that we hadn’t been expecting.
I shook my head.
“Good. How did you and Diaz meet?”
I expected him to ask something more vulnerable. Something that would draw up my trauma response. Instead, I exhaled and sagged in relief. “I needed a trainer. I wanted to learn to defend myself, and I found him. He was a professional boxer, and he offered lessons. We…became more after a while.”
It wasn’t a lie. My stepfather had assigned me to him, and his methods were as brutal as Valentino’s, but he was effective. I learned a lot from him, even if I left the gym bloody most days. I sometimes wonder if that’s what drew his attraction. The blood and pain.
“What happened between you?”
That was more complicated. I sat in silence for a moment, and only his hand on my upper thigh had me focusing on the truth I’d offer. “He misconstrued my conversation with another man as cheating, and he thought that because I hadn’t had sex with him yet—” I cut myself off and took a deep breath, forcing myself to focus. It was a long time ago, and I’d never seen him again. “He thought I hadn’t slept with him because I was getting it from someone else. He came onto me that evening, and when I turned him down, he got…violent.”
“Explain what you mean by ‘violent’.”
“That counts as a question.” He only nodded. “I mean that he tried to force himself on me, and when I fought like hell, he tried to kill me. He said I would be better off dead than unfaithful, and he nearly succeeded. He was stupid, though. He thought I was dead, but I was just unconscious. I woke on his mat and left before he could come back and take care of my body.”
He didn’t say anything as he sat and stared at me. The memory of waking on the mat alone still haunted my nightmares. If I’d taken my training more seriously, maybe I could have escaped. If he wasn’t such a skilled boxer, maybe I would have stood a chance. There were a million maybes that ran through my head for months, but none of it mattered now. Because of him, I could defend myself more thoroughly than ever before.
He looked entirely contemplative as he assessed the honest answers I’d given him. I didn’t mention that Valentino had found me and cut all ties with Cameron.
“Nobody bothered taking care of him after what he did?”
I’d wondered the same thing for months as I recovered from fractured bones and bruises, but I knew the truth. I knew if Valentino had stepped in, it would have become a far messier ordeal.
“Nobody could.”
That was a lie. A messy, blatant one. Valentinocouldhave, but it wasn’t worth the consequences. Not for him.
“I took care of it,” he told me. “You can stop hiding.”
I felt all the color drain from my cheeks. “What do you mean?”
“He won’t be a problem for you anymore. I took care of the threat to you.”
“You—” I froze, wondering what he’d learned. I couldn’t ask it outright, though. It was a dangerous game we played here. “You killed him.”
“Yes.”
Not an ounce of remorse flickered in his eyes, and a weight that had been hovering on my chest seemed to ease. I wondered if it had been as painful as Cameron had deserved. I hoped it had.
I nodded slowly. I couldn’t let him see this relief, not when it had me ready to break down into hysterics. Part of me thought I’d one day repay the favor to Cameron, but this—this somehow felt more fitting.
I stood on trembling legs, clearing my throat. “I need to go to the restroom,” I lied before walking away.
20
Dante
I followed behind her as I strode into the private restroom, glancing over my shoulder to find Bria still captivated by the movie she had playing in front of her. The plane rose in the sky, plateauing every few seconds before climbing higher, but none of the flight sensations phased me as I opened the door and moved inside.
