Hold You Against Me (Stripped 4)

With a casual movement, I drop the bra back into the box and shove it onto the bed. “Can you at least leave while I change? Or do you need to watch me do that too?”

I feel a little bad that she looks guilty, even though she is helping to keep me captive. Mostly I just need her gone so I can read what’s on that paper. It might be something completely innocent like a note of best wishes. Or even laundry care instructions for all I know.

“I have to take Lupo,” Maria says, not meeting my eyes.

So we can have privacy? I hold back a shiver. Partly I’m defiant about what’s going to happen, but mostly I’m scared. “Better you than Romero. He’s still pissed at me.”

Her smile is small. “Mr. Costas gave him hell.”

“I bet.”

She sobers. “I wanted to tell you…what happened to me. But I’ve never told anyone else before.”

I shift, uncomfortable with where this is going. I don’t want to care about her. And I have a sinking feeling this has to do with Giovanni. Except she’s looking too vulnerable, and I can’t be mean to her right now. I nod my head toward the small table, at least getting her away from the lingerie box.

She sits down as if preparing for execution. Her eyes are trained on the empty table, her slender hands clasped together in front of her.

The seriousness of her pose settles any remaining temper I’ve been feeling. I reach across and place my hand on top of hers in comfort. “What is it?”

Her lips press together for a long moment. “When I was sixteen, I was sold to a man my family owed money to.”

“Oh my God.”

“It wasn’t entirely a surprise. My sister had disappeared two years earlier. And I knew they were struggl

ing. Their only hope was for my brother to go to school and support them when he got out.”

“That’s awful, Maria. I’m so sorry.”

Her eyes glisten with tears. “You may be wondering why I’m helping Mr. Costas, considering what happened to me.”

“I…” I blink rapidly, trying to reconcile this with her previous words. “I guess you might not have a choice.”

She gives a small shake of her head. “Not exactly. I mean I don’t have any control over what happens to you. But I could quit working here. He wouldn’t stop me. In fact he offered to set me up with a house, a new life.”

My stomach churns. That’s the kind of offer men make to mistresses. “So you and he were…involved?”

Surprise passes over her face. “No. Oh no, definitely not. He saved me, Clara. He took me away from the brothels and gave me freedom. And he taught me to defend myself. I could have gone anywhere. Some women went back to their families, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to face the world alone either, so I stayed here.”

Sympathy slices deep within me. “I’m glad he saved you,” I whisper.

That’s the Giovanni I loved before. Is it possible that some of him survived?

How can it exist alongside the monster from last night?

She hesitates. “That’s why I didn’t…why I don’t think he’ll hurt you. He killed all the men who held us, the ones who beat us and sold us out every night.”

Maybe only a man with both the lover and monster could have saved those women. It takes a kind of brutality to face violence. It takes a monster to take down a monster.

“I understand.” And I do understand why she believes in him after all that. I can’t fault her for that. But I also know that things are different with me. I’m the one he kidnapped. I’m the one he married.

And I’m the one who has to face him tonight, alone.

“I’ll help you get Lupo,” I tell her. It takes both of us to lure him from beneath the bed and onto a leash. Then she’s gone, leaving me alone with the box—and the note.

I toss aside the tissue paper and the bra. The blue slip of paper falls to the bedspread.

H is coming for you. Meet her in the pool house Saturday night.