Page 79 of Savage Little Secret

Dmitri nods in agreement. “I was thinking the same thing. I think everyone needs some rest. Did you lose anyone?”

“One,” he replies with a grim look on his face. “A worthy cause, though.”

My eyes meet his, and I feel more conflicted than I have in a long time. When I was a teenager, those first few years after we met, he did show me some kindness. But once I grew up and was old enough to understand his world, he started growing colder toward me. Harsher.

Where is this sudden concern coming from?

Is it guilt? Did it take me getting kidnapped and almost killed for him to feel a hint of paternal responsibility or affection for me? If that’s the case, I don’t know if I want it.

I don’t know if it’s even real.

“I’ll give you a call tomorrow. We’ll go from there,” Dmitri tells him.

My father nods before looking at me again. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I watch the SUV drive away, leaving us behind as the last vehicle on the property. Now that everyone else is gone, the farmhouse looks even eerier with the moonlight cast on it. For weeks, I was tortured there. Starved. Beaten.

I almost want to burn the place to the ground.

“Are you okay? I’ll explain everything about your father on the drive home,” Dmitri asks me as he helps me to the bench in the back of the van where I can sit with him.

I have so many questions and so many things to tell him that I don’t even know where to start, but I can answer that one question.

“I’m okay now,” I say, letting him buckle me in before he sits down next to me.

One of his men gets into the back with us and slams the van door shut. “Good to go!”

Relief washes over me as I feel the van back up before driving forward, leaving the farmhouse behind us.

As Dmitri starts from the beginning, I lean my head against his shoulder, letting his voice fill my ears and feeling so grateful that it’s not just my imagination. So much hasn’t hit me yet, but when all of reality finally falls down on me, I’ll need him beside me.

I know this isn’t over.

I think it’s only the beginning of something bloodier.

29

Cara

When I get back to the city, safe and breathing, I realize the fantasy that kept me alive isn’t waiting for me.

Dmitri and I aren’t riding off into the sunset. There’s no clean reset. No easy “after.”

We’re not going to forget the past and move forward like nothing is holding us back.

I honestly don’t know what’s going to come next.

Steam lingers in the bathroom at Dmitri’s penthouse as I step out of the shower, my body still aching from all that I endured even a week later. I fear that a part of me will remain broken from all the damage they did.

Dmitri had a doctor here waiting for us the day he rescued me. I was so dehydrated that she gave me fluids by IV for several hours. Other than needing to eat and drink more, she reassured Dmitri that all my physical injuries were superficial. Cuts and bruises that would heal with time. I wish that was also true for the emotional trauma.

It’s still hard to sleep at night. If I’m not startling awake to nightmares of fists and knives, it’s the smallest things, like Dmitri tossing his keys on the kitchen island too loudly that cause my heart rate to spike. I can’t even sleep in a dark room, needing the bathroom light on to feel safe.

The way Dmitri’s been acting doesn’t help ease my anxiety either. It’s like he’s afraid that if he touches me the wrong way, I’ll shatter.

I chew on my bottom lip as I strain my ears, hearing his muffled voice coming from the living room as he speaks to someone on the phone. I can’t make out the exact words, but he sounds aggravated.

He’s been so on edge. And even though he told me that he loves me, I can’t help but wonder if he truly means those words or not. Since the night that he rescued me, he’s only touched me to help me get around or tend to my wounds.