Vow to Protect

He gently pries my hand away from my face and holds them. “I’m sorry I can’t stay with you today. We have a lead we need to chase down before he moves somewhere else.”

A slither of fear works its way through me, and I’m grateful he didn’t say his name out loud. Not here in our bed, especially while we are both naked and he’s touching me.

I nod once and shake my head, trying to give him a smile. “I’m sorry. It might just be hormones or something. I’m still tired and maybe just need some more sleep.”

“Then rest today. I’ll check on you later.” He climbs off the bed, and I don’t even hide the fact that I’m watching his beautiful round ass disappear into the closet.

He’s beauty and brutality in perfect harmony. And I want both for as long as he’ll keep me.

I roll over and snag my phone off the bedside table. It vibrated a few times while I cowered under the covers. I quickly click through to the read alerts and find a new text from the same number as last night.

Suddenly my stomach is in my throat, and I can barely draw in a breath. All thoughts of him nude and dripping wet flee my mind, leaving only naked fear. I open the text, but this time, it’s a video.

Instead of waiting, I turn the volume to zero and glance at the closet. He’s still dressing, so I have a minute. I hold my breath as I click the video and wait while it starts.

What pops on the screen isn’t what I expected, yet it turns my stomach all the same. Bile rises in my throat, and I toss the phone into the covers and race to the bathroom. I barely make the toilet before I dry heave over the bowl a few times. The video images swimming in my head cause my body to try to expel them all over.

A cool hand on my neck, gathering my hair, breaks me from the vicious cycle, and I can sag back onto the tile. It’s cold, and I let it cool me down, every part of me burning from fear, shame…I don’t know.

“Are you sick? Do I need to call the doctor?” he asks gently.

I shake my head. “No. I’m fi—”

“If you say fine, I’m going to turn you over my knee and spank your ass until it’s pink and you’ve spilled the truth. Don’t fucking lie to me, Valentina.”

It hurts to lie to him, and I don’t want to, but I don’t want him to see the video. If he sees me like that, he won’t want me anymore. Who would?

I shake my head and lean back into his hand. It’s wrapped completely around the base of my head as he cradles it.

“Angel,” he prompts.

It turns my stomach all over again to think about him watching that disgusting video.

“My phone,” I manage, unable to give him anything else.

He gently eases his hand away until he’s sure I’m sitting up on my own, then heads back into the bedroom. A few seconds later, I hear glass shattering.

It takes me a moment to heave myself off the floor, with vertigo trying to pull me back down.

He’s standing at the end of the bed, my phone clutched in his hands. There’s a broken lamp on the floor, and I stare at it a few seconds too long. It’s not that I fear he’ll do that to me, just that I wish I could let go that way, break things, destroy them when something hurts me. It must feel good. Yet I can’t. I wouldn’t feel right, no matter how cathartic it might be.

“Put some clothes on, Angel. We’ll have company in a moment.”

I cross to the closet and throw on a T-shirt and a pair of black leggings. Quickly, I gather my hair up into a messy bun and gingerly step around the broken lamp. A few seconds later, a knock on the door reveals all of the five, followed closely by Kai.

They survey the scene, but he hands Vincent my cell phone. “Get what you can from this. Then gear up. We’re going hunting.”

“But, boss, we haven’t finished our research.”

He glares at all of them. “When you see what’s on that thing, what that bastard sent her, and you don’t want to go get him as bad as I do, then you can walk out the door now and don’t bother coming back.”

I step into his side and cling to his arm, trying to take his full attention off his men, and put some on me. He’s always gentler with me when his temper rises, and I don’t want to see any more of them hurt.

“Angel,” he grits out between his teeth. “Get in bed and rest. Kai will be here with you while I’m gone.”