The letter opener drops to the carpet with a thud, and Gabriela goes limp in my arms.
I lift her up, put her over my shoulder, swallowing back the pain in my balls, and open the door.
Two soldiers watch, as does Millie.
But they all know to stay back as I carry her up to my bedroom and lay her on my bed.
Her hair is matted to her forehead, and she looks sad, even unconscious. I look down at her, at her young face, her sad face and I think how much she’s seen for her eighteen years. How much violence. How much loss.
I think about how she’d looked at me at the restaurant when I’d given her that phone. A simple fucking phone. How she’d tried to hide the fact that she was crying.
I bend and take off her shoes and cover her with the blanket and I think for the first time in my life, I am not only a predator but a protector.
Her protector.27GabrielaI wake up feeling nauseous, my head aching. It doesn’t take me long to remember why and for a moment, I think it’s not true. Not real. But I know it is. And sadness overwhelms everything else.
I’m in Stefan’s bed. Again. I know right away. He must have brought me here after our fight.
Alex.
Alex is dead.
Alex. Is. Dead.
Sadness overwhelms me and I roll onto my side and for a moment, I let it. I let myself feel this agony. This loss.
But then I think about Stefan again. Stefan at dinner and how he was. Even laughing.
The Stefan at dinner was a world different to the man I’ve come to know. The true monster. He took me off my guard with his gesture today, but he is a monster. I can never forget that.
I don’t know how he got me up here. Did I pass out? Did he do something to me? Give me something?
He’s so strong, it takes nothing for him to overpower me.
I remember Alex’s text. How he thought maybe Stefan wasn’t a bad guy and how wrong he was. That mistake, it cost Alex his life.
I suck in a deep, shaky breath, push through the pain in my head to sit up. I wait for the world to right itself.
The clock beside the bed tells me it’s a little after three in the morning.
I have to get out of here. I have to get away from him. He’s a sadist. A murderer.
And here, he’s king.
He can get away with anything. Even murder.
Climbing out of the bed, I use the joint balcony to walk back to my room.
I’m still dressed at least. He didn’t strip me this time. I find the phone he gave me on the nightstand. I pick it up and I dial the one man who can help me. The one man who is as heartless as Stefan. As much a monster.
Because I was right.
Coming here, Stefan taking me, it was jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
Because Stefan is more cruel. More dangerous.
My father answers on the second ring. He sounds like I just woke him up and I wonder if he’s still in Rome. I’d thought he’d have gone back to New York by now.
“Dad?” I say, tears coming again, tears for Alex, for Gabe. For myself.
“Gabriela,” he pauses. “I heard what happened.”
He already knows?
I sob. It takes me a long time to talk.
“Has that bastard hurt you?”
I shake my head, but he can’t see me, and I can’t seem to talk.
“If he’s hurt you, I’ll fucking kill him.”
“I want…” I can’t get more words out, every time I try, sobs choke me.
“He’s got men watching your brother too. Who knows what he’ll do to Gabe.”
“Gabe?”
He wouldn’t hurt Gabe. Gabe’s been hurt enough. But he hurt Alex. After Alex told him the truth, he still hurt him. And hadn’t Alex been through enough too?
“Where is Sabbioni?” my father asks, sounding angrier than I’ve ever heard him.
“I don’t know.”
“The house in Palermo has sea access. You’re there?”
“Yes.”
“Can you get down to the cove?”
“I will.”
“I’m sending a boat, Gabriela. It’ll be there in twenty minutes. Can you get there in twenty minutes?”
“Yes. I will.”
“Fuck this bastard. Fuck his contract. I’m bringing you home. Go.”
I nod, hang up. I go into my closet, change out of my dress into a pair of dark shorts and a black T-shirt, put on jogging shoes. I stuff my phone and iPod into my pockets and listen at the door. The house is quiet.
I walk out into the hallway. It’s dark. I make my way downstairs where it, too, is dark.
The patio doors are closed but not locked. No need to lock them. This house is built on a cliff. The only access to the back is from that cove which is only possible by sea.