I roll my neck until it cracks. The sound makes Lorenzo glance at me. He’s been back home for over two months, and I love having him here, but he’s not as involved in our family business as he was. Anya has medical appointments that he needs to attend with her.
I expect he can feel the tension in me too, even from a few feet away, but I can’t fucking help it. This whole situation with Kat and the baby, and how unreasonably pissed it’s made our father, who calls me about setting a wedding date at least four times a week, has me on edge. Not to mention that we still haven’t figured out who was behind the shootout at the restaurant a few months earlier. I need to do something to work off this rage that is burning through me. If she wasn’t five months pregnant, I would work it all out with Kat. Lock us in my bedroom and fuck her seven ways to Sunday until I feel better.
“…so, I told him to go fuck himself,” Tony says, directing my attention back to the two men sitting opposite. My father sent them here because he thought we might need extra manpower.
I don’t particularly like either of the men sitting in front of us, but they are remnants from my father’s glory days, and I keep them around because he asked me to. Despite the fact that they are annoying assholes whose egos are way too big for their position in life, they get the job done when necessary.
This isn’t a private meeting and the door to my study is open. I stare out into the hallway, waiting for an excuse to show these two assholes out of my house. I almost smile when she appears, standing in the open door, wearing the pale blue overalls that Joey bought for her, and despite my protests that they were hideous, they actually look cute on her.
After the four-month scan, we chose a room for the nursery and she’s been decorating it for the past few days. She has a streak of white paint on her nose, and fuck me if she doesn’t look goddamn adorable.
Her eyes lock on mine, and the corners of her lips curl up slightly, as though she’s about to offer me one of her beautiful, genuine smiles.
“And then I told him to go fuck her too,” Tony adds, and both he and Elmo laugh loudly. Elmo has the most annoying laugh I’ve ever heard in my life – like someone is strangling a fucking hyena. The noise offends my ears, but Kat’s expression changes in an instant.
Her face turns so pale the smudge on her nose no longer stands out on her tanned skin. Her lip trembles as she stands there, one hand on the door and the other frozen in mid-wave. If that wasn’t enough to raise my hackles, the wet patch spreading across the crotch of her overalls, turning the pale fabric dark blue, makes my heart start to hammer in my chest. What the hell?
My hands ball into fists as they rest on the arms of the chair. I’m about to go to her, but suddenly as though she’s found the strength to move again, she turns and sprints silently from the room.
I look to Lorenzo. Did he see that too?
His face is unreadable, but he gives me a subtle nod. Yes, he did see. So I’m not crazy. Something in this room has just terrified my strong, stubborn wildcat.
Elmo and Tony are still too preoccupied with laughing at their own wit to notice that the atmosphere in the room has changed dramatically in the last five seconds.
I push myself up from my chair, and the sudden movement draws their attention.
“Everything okay?” Tony asks.
I glare at him, my nostrils flaring as I draw in a breath through my nose. “I just need to take care of something real quick. I’ll be right back,” I grind out the words before I walk out of the room.
Kat disappears up the staircase, and I make my way after her. I call her name, but that makes her run faster. She heads straight for our bedroom, closing the door as though a simple piece of wood might keep me from her. When I walk into the room after her, she spins around, her face wet with tears.
“N-no,” she stammers, taking a few steps backward. “D-Dante, don’t. P-please. I p-promise I-I won’t r-run away.” She’s sobbing now as she continues walking backward until she bumps into the huge wooden dresser.
I cross the floor to her in two strides. Her entire body is trembling, and the thought that I am somehow the cause of this fear is abhorrent to me.
“Kat, why did you run away? What happened downstairs?”
“Dante, please, I’ll be good. I’ll do whatever you say. I’m sorry,” she pleads, her eyes wide as she babbles at me.
Placing my hand on her arms, I grip her firmly, narrowing my eyes as I search her face for some sign of the usually strong and rational woman I know. “What the hell is going on, Kat?”
“Don’t l-let them take me. I promise not to r-run.”
“Who? The men in my office?”
She nods.
My heart is fucking breaking right now. I’ve never seen her like this despite all the shitty and dangerous situations I’ve put her in. Adrenaline thunders through my body. I drop my voice until it’s barely a whisper. “What did they do to you, kitten? Tell me.”
She shakes her head. “No, Dante,” she gasps, her chest heaving with the effort of her words. “I can’t.”
I cup her chin in my hand, my thumb pressing on the curve of her jaw until she stares at me. Her blue eyes swim with unshed tears. “You have to tell me, Kat. Tell me so I can repay them for any hurt they caused you.”
She blinks at me. “Y-you don’t know?”
“Nothing those men have ever done to you has been in my family’s name. I swear to you on my mother’s grave.”
She still doesn’t speak.
“Kat?” I ask, my tone firmer now.
“My scar,” she whispers, and a wave of indescribable rage washes over me, almost knocking me from my feet.
“They were the ones who carved a word into your skin?” I hiss.
She looks at the floor, and I tilt her head up so I can look in her eyes. “Tell me.”
“Yes,” she says as she glares back at me now, some of that fire I admire in her flickering amidst the shame and fear. “It was whore.”
“What else did they do to you?” My teeth are bared because I can barely contain the anger that is burning through my veins like it’s my lifeblood. This is about way more than what she’s already told me.
“They took me,” she says, her voice trembling. “I was leaving the hospital after a double shift. We’d had three RTAs. I didn’t notice their van. They kept me ch-chained in a basement for two days. I think they would have killed me, but I escaped.”
I suck in a lungful of air and force myself to keep staring at her. I want to look away because I can’t stand to see how much this is hurting her, but I owe her more than that. If I’m asking her to bare her soul to me, I at least owe her the courtesy of looking her in the eye while I do it.
“What did they do to you?” I ask again.
“Dante, I can’t…” She closes her eyes.
I brush her tears away with the pad of my thumb. Sliding my hand to the back of her neck, I press my forehead against hers, as though somehow it might allow her to read my thoughts and let her know that she can trust me with this. “Whatever it was, it stays in here. Just me and you,” I say quietly.
The deep breath she takes ripples through her entire body. “They raped me,” she whispers. “They held me down. Over and over. Not just…” She chokes on a sob. “But e-everywhere. One of them carved that word into my back while he was inside me and the other one laughed while he did it.”
My blood burns white hot. I have to force myself not to run from this room and crush their skulls with my hands right now.
“Then they…” Her breath stutters, and her eyes fill with so much emotion that it’s killing me to keep looking at her.
“Breathe. It’s just you and me,” I say through clenched teeth, trying to keep my voice calm and soothing while my insides rattle with rage.
“They peed on me,” she mumbles, her pale cheeks flaming with heat. “But they laughed. The whole time, they laughed at me. Like what they were doing was just a big joke.”
“They won’t be laughing as soon as we go back down there,” I snarl.
Her eyes widen in horror as she tries to wrench herself free from my grip. “No.” Her lip trembles as she says the word. “I can’t go down there.”
“Yes, Kat. You can. Get yourself cleaned up and then we go back to my office.”
“I can’t, Dante. Please,” she pleads. “I promise never to run again…” She sobs now as she struggles in my grasp until I loosen it slightly. She thinks this is a punishment? “Please don’t make me face them,” she begs me as she stares into my eyes, tears flowing freely down her cheeks again.
It would be all too easy to wrap her in my arms and promise her that she’s safe. A part of me would like to tell her that she never has to see those two sick fucks ever again. But life isn’t that easy. Strength is never that easy. “You have to.”
She shakes her head.
I tuck her hair back from her face. “These are the men who haunt your dreams, Kat. You have made them into monsters — powerful monsters. But they are not. They are simply men — weak, pathetic men.”
She blinks at me, her eyes deep pools of fear and uncertainty.
“I will hold your hand every second if you need me to. Come with me and let me show you how powerful you truly are.”
She wipes the tears from her cheeks. “I’m not powerful. I just literally peed my goddamn pants. You are the one they’ll be scared of, not me. Can’t I just stay up here?”
I cup her face in both of my hands now. “You have no idea how strong you are, kitten. You will go in there and make those men tremble with fear, and not because I’m by your side but because you are equally powerful standing alone.”
She blinks at me, her long dark lashes fluttering against her cheeks. “I am?”
I press my forehead against hers again, pulling her closer until she wraps her arms around my waist. “You are the only woman who has the power to bring me to my knees.”
“Dante,” she whispers my name, and the way she does it makes my heart ache. Her arms tighten around me and then she’s silent, letting the enormity of what I just said hang uncomfortably between us for a moment, before she breaks the tension again. “But I peed my pants.”
“I know.”
“I feel so embarrassed.”
I kiss her forehead. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You need me to help you get cleaned up?”
“No. I can do it myself.”
My eyes narrow as I search her beautiful face. “I’ll wait right here. Okay?”
She swallows and then gives me the faintest nod. “Okay.”
I have a view of the study from here although I can’t see inside because the blinds are partially drawn and the sunlight bounces off the windowpane, obscuring the glass. But I know they are in there. Lorenzo won’t let them leave no matter how long he has to wait for my return.
The shower stops, and a few seconds later, Kat emerges in a white towel. Her hair is piled on top of her head and her tanned skin glistens in the sunlight coming through the windows. She used to be so pale because she worked nights and rarely left the house, but she’s been spending so much time in the gardens these past few months. And fuck me, she is beautiful.
I nod to the bed where I have laid out one of the new dresses Joey and Anya helped her choose.
“Thank you,” she says quietly while I turn back to the window and allow her to dress without my eyes on her.
When I turn around a minute later, she’s fully dressed and smoothing the fabric of her dress over her hips in that way she does when she’s nervous. Crossing the room, I take her hand in mine. “You ready?”
“No,” she says with a faint smile.
I brush her cheek with my knuckles. I could pretend that this isn’t going to be difficult for her. I could wrap my arms around her and whisper promises in her ear that this will be a walk in the park, but that is not who I am. And that’s not what she needs right now. “They will never hurt you again. No one will ever hurt you in this house, Kat. Understand?” I tell her, my tone harsh and clipped.
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go.” I stride out of the door, my fingers laced through hers as she follows me. Her hand trembles in mine, and I squeeze it tighter.
The sound of Elmo’s annoying laugh echoes down the hallway as we get nearer the study, and she falters. “Dante, I c-can’t,” she stammers.
I push her against the wall, one hand on the back of her neck and the other still holding onto hers. “Breathe,” I command.
She sucks in a breath and stares into my eyes.
“Which one of them carved that word into your skin?” I growl.
“Not him,” she whispers. “Not the one with the crazy-ass laugh.”
“But he hurt you too?”
She bites her lip and nods.
“Come.” I pull her with me and walk quickly down the hallway because if I don’t get my hands on those scum-sucking little cunts, I will fucking explode.
As we reach the door and she hears both of their voices, she squeezes my fingers but then she tugs her hand free from mine.
She’s going to run. And I can’t say I blame her after what these animals did to her.
But she doesn’t run. She strides into the room all on her own. My fucking tiger. I walk behind her, closing the door.
“Ah, you’re back,” Lorenzo says, his eyes narrowed as he tries to read the situation.
“Yes. I went to find Kat to introduce her to our colleagues. Have you met my fiancée and the mother of my child?”
Elmo and Tony turn in their seats, smiling, as they look at me and then her.
“Pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” Elmo says.
Evil fucks don’t even recognize her.
“Actually, I think we’ve met before,” Kat says. Her voice trembles slightly, but I have never been so fucking proud of her.
Now… they recognize her. Tony’s mouth drops open, and Elmo’s eyes widen to the size of dinner plates.
I slip my arm around her waist and pull her to me. Letting them know that she is mine. Letting them know they will never see the light of another day.
“Is that so?” Lorenzo asks, leaning forward in his seat, his hands steepled beneath his chin.
“Yes,” Kat replies as she glares at the two useless sacks of shit sitting across from her. Now they are the ones trembling with fear. “It was kind of a memorable few days for me. I’m surprised you don’t recall.”
“W-we…” Elmo stammers.
“You know my new sister-in-law?” Lorenzo asks with a scowl.
“It was b-before —”
“We had no idea who she was… who she’d be,” Tony interrupts Elmo’s babbling as his eyes dart around the room, looking for a weapon or something to defend himself with.
He won’t find either of those things. He could be holding a semi-automatic in his hands and he still wouldn’t have a hope in hell. Nothing will protect him from the vengeance I’m about to take.
“You didn’t know who I’d be?” she yells as she steps toward the desk, placing her palms flat on the solid mahogany. Her legs tremble and her voice falters, but she goes on. “It shouldn’t matter that I’m about to become Dante Moretti’s wife. It shouldn’t matter whether I mean nothing to him, or everything. You have no right to do that to anyone. Every woman is someone’s daughter, someone’s future partner or wife, someone’s mother or sister or best friend. Who do you think you are that you can just take someone and do…?” The breath catches in her throat as she forces out those last words.
“What the fuck did you two do?” Lorenzo barks.
“It was just a bit of fun,” Tony says, his eyes wide and pleading as he turns to Kat, trying to appeal to her sweet nature as a last-ditch attempt to save his skin. “Right?”
I’m filled with pride as she reaches across the desk and slaps him across the face so hard that his head snaps backward. “Fun! You kidnapped me. You raped me. You tortured me for two days. You think a single second of that was anything but a living hell for me?” she shrieks.
“Breathe, my little wildcat,” I whisper in her ear, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her back. She shudders against me. “I’ll take care of them for you now.”
“They laughed at me,” she says. “They laughed when I fought back.”
“Rest assured, they will never know a moment’s joy for the rest of their very short and very miserable lives, Katerina,” Lorenzo snarls as he glares at the men in our office with such ferocity that I’m surprised they don’t wither under his gaze alone.
