The roast beef sandwiches on rolls were the best meal I’ve ever had. It was all the guards could scavenge to bring up before the kitchen staff noticed. I didn’t mind. I was just happy to have something in my belly.
Soaking in the tub in the bedroom on the farthest end of the house from my father’s felt amazing. I feel like a new person. Like I could lie down on the thick mattress and sleep for days. One of the guards even gave me a shirt to sleep in so I wouldn’t have to put on that damn pink dress I’ve worn all week. I handwashed it and hung it over the tub, hoping it’ll dry some before I have to leave in the early morning to go back to the shithole storage building.
Until then, maybe I can finally get a good night’s sleep.
But as soon as I lay my head on the pillow, I hear voices. Distant but shouting voices.
Sliding off the bed, I tiptoe to the door, wondering if I should chance a peek. The sounds are far enough away that I unlock the door to crack it open. There are no guards on my end of the long hallway, but there’s a crowd gathered at the other end. Right outside my father’s bedroom.
My eyesight isn’t great, but I swear that from afar one of the men looks like Titus and another, with long blond hair, looks like Eli. But that’s crazy…
The Eli lookalike turns his head as if he heard my thoughts and waves me over. Is he insane? I’m not going anywhere near my father’s room. I don’t ever want to know what happens in there.
The same time I have that thought, a woman comes streaking out of the gathered group of men, followed by an equally naked man hot on her heels. They both run down the stairs as if the hounds of hell are after them.
What in the world is going on?
Then I hear it. Someone says his name.
I take a tentative step forward, then another, hoping, wondering if maybe I’m dreaming.
But then the crowd parts and there’s no mistaking his tall, intimidating frame for anyone else as he strides toward me with purpose.
“Dante.” He came for me. He’s here. How? I didn’t hear a single gunshot.
The closer he comes, the blurrier he gets.
Instead of wrapping me in his arms, he stops three feet away.
“Oh, butterfly. I should’ve come sooner.”
“What? No. You shouldn’t have come at all!” I say as my throat begins to burn thanks to the moisture filling my eyes. God, I’m so damn glad he came for me. “How?” I whisper, still not sure this is real, that he’s real.
“With a little help from Eli’s ninja friends.”
Okay, this is definitely a dream if Dante Salvato is talking about ninjas. Besides, he exiled Eli.
The blurry dream Dante’s jaw clenches tight. “Where else?” he asks.
“Where what?”
“Where else did he hurt you?”
“Oh.” I touch my face, remembering the swollen mess, busted lip, and black eye I finally saw in the mirror a few minutes ago. I look nearly identical to when Kozlov’s men beat the shit out of me, but at least my ribs don’t hurt this time. My face will heal. I may need plastic surgery on my nose to get it straight again…
“I’m…I’m fine.”
“You’re not fucking fine!” Dante shouts so fiercely that I recoil instinctively.
Dropping like a ton of bricks to his knees before me, Dante says, “I’m sorry, butterfly. I just…I don’t know if I can touch you without hurting you.”
I reach my shaky hand out toward him, to see if he’s real, afraid that he won’t be. But my fingers slide into his soft black hair, and he closes his eyes. They’re still shut, when he says, “Why are you wearing another man’s shirt?”
Glancing down, I realize that’s definitely not something dream Dante would ask.
“Vanessa?” He uses my real name when I don’t immediately respond.
“My dress was dirty.”
Now his ice-blue eyes open to stare at me, a tick in his cheek from his tightly clenched teeth. “Take it off. I need to see…” he trails off, but I know what he wants. He wants to see if there are more bruises.
My muscles are slow and stiff from sleeping and sitting on a hard floor for days, but I manage to lift the hem of the shirt up and over my head, tossing it aside.
Dante’s gaze sweeps up and down the front of my completely naked body.
“See? I’m fine.”
His eyes continue to take in every inch of me, even my bare toes.
“Turn around.”
I do as I’m told, turning my back to him so he can see that for himself.
A second later he asks, “How?”
I had forgotten that there may be a bruise or two on my butt and hips. Turning back around to face him, I tell him the truth. “From sleeping and sitting on the floor of the outdoor storage building.”
“Oh, butterfly,” he says softly. Hearing the heavy sorrow in his voice, seeing the distress so clearly in his face, finally breaks me.
I can’t stand another second apart. I throw my arms out wrapping them around his neck, praying he doesn’t disappear into thin air, like a mirage.
He doesn’t disappear. And when his strong arms come around to hold me to him, the last of my fears that this isn’t real subside.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him. “I told you…I told you I could do this.”
“I know that you could endure anything he did to you; I know you could kill him,” he says into my hair. “But you shouldn’t have to. I can carry that burden for you. I’ll carry all your burdens for you from now on, okay?”
“Okay,” I easily agree, breathing in his familiar scent.
“I missed you. One night with my wife wasn’t enough.”
“I missed you too,” I tell him.
“We should be on our honeymoon.”
“We should,” I agree. “Get me out of here, and we’ll go anywhere you want.”
“Deal. Just as soon as we finish shit once and for all with this son of a bitch.”
I pull back from Dante’s embrace to see his face. “He’s still alive?”
“Yes.”
“And the guards? Some of them helped me…”
“They’re all alive. Restrained for now. I’ll give them a chance to leave town with their families or stay and work for me.”
“That’s…nice of you.”
“It’s the butterfly effect,” he says with a smile. “I’m trying not to kill as a first resort. I want to be a better man for you, for my girls. I won’t ever be a good man, but I can always be better.”
“I love the bad parts too,” I assure him.
“I know you do. And I’m going to give you all the filthiest parts as soon as every bruise on your face heals.”
“That could take a while. There are plenty of other parts that can handle your filthiness for now.”
“Fine. I’ll kiss your pussy until your lips heal.”
“Deal,” I agree.
Dante’s arms leave me, just long enough for him to remove his suit jacket. He helps me slip my arms inside the sleeves. It’s so big that the bottom of it comes down past my knees.
Getting to his feet, Dante takes my hand to lead me down the hall where his guys are still waiting. “First things first, how do you want to handle your old man?”
“I’ll let you decide. You’re way better at torture than I am.”
“We could give him to Eli as a welcome back present.”
“That actually sounds like the perfect punishment for him. Just as long as he ends him, eventually.”
“Absolutely,” Dante agrees. “And you won’t believe how I found him.”
Shaking my head, I tell him, “Nope. I don’t want to know.”
