Hold You Against Me (Stripped 4)

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There is a sudden cry and groan from the man holding me captive, and then he’s up against the metal grate himself, flat with arms spread wide, while Giovanni punches him again and again. The only reply Javier makes is a groaning sound that makes the hair rise up on my neck.

“Giovanni, stop!” He’ll kill him, and that will be so much worse. He’s the governor’s son—and worse than that, he’s Byron’s friend. “Stop!”

Giovanni turns to see me, and the rage parts like dark clouds, long enough for me to see him looking back. Him, the boy who spent those nights in the pool house, cracking jokes and letting his hand brush against mine. The haze clears. “Clara?”

I’m crying, my hands clenched together as if in prayer. Begging. “Giovanni, please.”

He turns and faces Javier. For a minute I think he’s not going to listen. He’s just going to keep beating him until Javier is dead, and then what will we do? I don’t even know what we’ll do if he’s alive. We’re in so much trouble. This goes beyond trouble.

Giovanni speaks low, so low I can barely hear him. “How does it feel without your buddies backing you up, huh? How does it feel one-on-one?”

Then he slams Javier into the wall one last time. Javier’s eyes are closed as he slumps to the ground.

I stare at the unconscious man, his nose bloodied, his crisp tux rumpled and torn. “Is he…dead?”

Giovanni wipes his brow with his forearm. “No.”

“Is he the one who did that to you? The bruises?” With his buddies.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does. Why would he—”

“We need to get out of here.”

Right. What would happen if we were found out here? Every man in there is packing heat. Some of the women too. “We have to find Honor.”

“There’s not time.” He puts his hand out to me. He doesn’t grab me. Not like Javier did. His eyes are as dark as the night behind him—unfathomable. They scare me just as the night too, but I trust him. No matter how much he’s tried to scare me away. No matter that he once stroked my neck, that he once held it in his hand.

I put my hand in his. “Let’s go.”

He doesn’t wait. We run toward the pool house together. We don’t even have to discuss it first. We both head toward there like it’s our north star, our home.

I’m out of breath when we stumble inside. Adrenaline is like lava in my veins, making it too hot to stand still. Too hot to sit down. I can only pace in the small space, running my hair through my hands. “What are we going to do? Oh my God. What are we going to do?”

Gio takes my hands in his, and I finally stand still. I’m breathing hard, trembling.

“You have to go,” he says. “It’s not safe for you here anymore.”

I know it’s true. I knew it from the moment he first punched Javier, from the moment when Javier attacked me. I knew it even before then, when it was only Honor being hurt. But it’s still hard to hear the words. This is my home, the only place I know. And for all that my father has been distant—and maybe not even truly related—he’s the only parent I know.

“You’re the one who told me my father was right to keep me here.”

Gio swears in Italian. “He isn’t fucking in charge anymore. You aren’t safe here. You won’t ever be safe here again.”

I swallow hard. “Honor?”

“She’ll go too. She won’t fight it once she knows about Javier.”

“And you, you’ll come with us, right?”

He rests his forehead against mine. “Clara.”

Panic rises in my chest. “Gio, you have to. He’ll wake up. He’ll tell them it was you.”

Chapter Five