“What’s the guard for, Rick?” I can’t stop yelling at him. It borders on a scream, but I don’t want to scream yet. I have to—I have to save the scream for when it’s really bad, when it’s all gone to hell. “What’s the guard for? Is he going to shoot me if I don’t have sex with you?”
“He’s not going to shoot anyone. The guard’s here to make sure—”
“To make sure that I go along with this? I’m not going along with this. I’m not going along with this. You can’t do this to me.” There’s nowhere to go, and I’m so tired, and I need Leo to be here. I wasn’t going to shout. I wasn’t going to cry. But I burst into ugly sobs anyway.
Rick folds his arms around me before I can run. I push at him. He holds on tight. “Stop.” Can’t catch my breath. “Don’t touch me. Get your hands off me.”
“Haley.” Caroline flies in past the guard. “Let her go,” she says to Rick, and I catch the look between them and it’s proof, it is proof of just how much they’ve orchestrated this. Rick releases me into Caroline’s arms, and I could keep shouting, I could be sick, because they planned this. They planned for her to be the one to comfort me. I see what’s coming. All the nights they’ve planned. Line them up. Knock them down.
He’ll rape me, but he’ll do it gently. Caroline will be there to pick up the pieces. Caroline gave him permission in the first place.
It makes me cry harder. That’s the only solution I have, really. To cry so hard that Caroline takes me back to my room. I don’t struggle against the tears. They feel like my only weapon, and they’re not enough.
I don’t want her hands on me, anywhere near me, but there’s no way for me to get out of the dress with my hands shaking like this. She’s the one who slips a nightshirt over my head and pulls back the covers. She’s the one who pats my hair once my head is on the pillow. She’s the one who turns out the light.
I hear her talking in a low voice outside the door as soon as it’s shut. I bet there’s a guard out there. I bet he’ll stay all night.
“Please,” I whisper to no one. To Leo. “Please come get me.”
Chapter Four
Leo
The dining room. It’s the place where I watched Haley’s face light up at the sight of her Jane Eyre. Now it’s crowded with people who don’t fucking belong here.
Four representatives from the teams who were supposed to be guarding the grounds.
Six more people Gerard brought in.
All of them talk at once.
In the middle of this crowd from hell, I’m on fire. Worse than fire. The pain in my back has reached my ankles. The back of my skull. It’s like being cut with a knife—long, thin stripes of agony that come over and over and over until I can’t tell them apart. My head howls with it. My body has been screaming with it since Eva shook me awake in the night.
Eva told me the news. Gerard tells me she insisted on being the one. I’ll never forget it. At the same moment I became aware of the cold sheet—I was just touching Haley’s face—Eva said, “Haley’s gone. Caroline’s bulldog took her.”
The next moment, I became a column of flame and rage.
I am that column now.
There is a fine line between the performance of fury and letting it sink into the bone, and I’m standing on it. One step and I could let go. I could stop holding it back. I could become the snarling creature who bared his teeth at my father until all his attention was on me.
Gerard won’t shut the fuck up. “—move away from the house. I don’t feel confident in—”
“Confident?” I snap at him. “I don’t want your fucking confidence. I’m not waiting for you to feel secure. We’re getting her back. There’s your certainty. It’s happening.”
“Leo.” Eva’s been at my side since she woke me up. She stood in the doorway to my closet and watched me yank a shirt over my head. All my muscles ache. I should be resting. That’s what Carina said, and what Eva repeated, and I will be damned if I’m going to rest with Haley gone. “You need to calm down. Take a breath. We can go to your office.”
“No,” I thunder at her. “Fuck no. I’m not going to calm the fuck down.”
My voice echoes in the room. Conversation comes to a startling halt. My temper is getting away from me. Just a little. Just enough to scare Eva. But I can’t shut it off any more than I can shut off the shrieking pain all down my spine.
Someone from the household staff steps to my side, silent, keeping his eyes off mine. He has a case in his hands, the top held open so I can see the knives inside. I choose one and slip it into the Kevlar sheath on my belt.
Eva watches this with her bottom lip between her teeth. She bites down so hard the flesh is white. Nervous. She’s nervous about what I’m going to do.
I take her face in my hands. It’s too gentle a motion, too careful, and it’s because we’re so close to that line. I would love so much to let the beast take over, and I can’t do it yet. So I take exquisite care with every fucking movement.
I kiss my sister on the forehead, then put both hands on her shoulders to move her aside.
And then I’m going. Striding out of the room. There are more people outside the dining room. More guards. One steps into my path. “Mr. Morelli, it’s not secure outside—”
I have his jacket in my fists before he’s ready. No one is ever ready for me when I’m like this, when I’m on the verge of chaos. He’s a strong man but I’m stronger. I am fucking furious.
It boils and burns, every muscle acidic with it. One step, two, and I have him slammed against the wall. The roar of rage is louder than his skull meeting plaster. My teeth grit together so hard they crack. “It’s not secure anywhere, you fucking fool. You let that bastard take her.”
The rage settles inside me, deeper, deeper, until there’s nothing left of me—of Leo Morelli. I’m the Beast of Bishop’s Landing now.
He struggles against the wall. “Everyone who was on shift at that time has been removed from the property. They’ll be sequestered until the investigation is over.”
“Explain it to me some more.” It’s a taunt.
He looks confused, torn between his duty and his fear. “Sir—”
They’re beginning to gather now. Closing in. I can see Gerard out of the corner of my eye.
“The only reason you remain alive is because I haven’t yet reached for the knife at my belt.” I keep my tone level, like we’re having a conversation at a dinner party, but the dead silence in the foyer means they can all hear me. Good. “When I let go of your jacket, you’ll have a choice. You can stay out of my way and live, or you can put your body in my path and die. It makes no difference to me.”
A single nod.
I hold him another heartbeat because that’s all I’m willing to spare, and then I let go.
It’s not a guard who blocks the way when I turn back.
It’s Eva, looking rumpled and exhausted and scared. She hasn’t changed out of the clothes she was wearing when she woke me up. She’s stayed in soft leggings and a sweater all day. “You don’t have to do this,” she says. “Let them help you. Don’t leave when you’re like this.”