Enzo
I stared down into the oceans of pain and humiliation that dominated
Sera's perfect face. One side was scraped and bloodied from the tree trunk. I lifted my hand to touch her without thinking about it, horrified that I'd hurt her, then let it fall to my side again. Her screams echoed in my ears, a haunting reminder of the past, and my jaw hurt where she'd landed a good punch.
For a moment, my throat was so tight I couldn't speak.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
I'd spotted Sera on the video feed the moment she'd left our bedroom. I'd known immediately that she was leaving. She was running.
My first thought was that I should let her go.
I called the soldiers patrolling the grounds outside and ordered them to stand down. To ignore her. And told them I would handle her myself.
She'd made it around the bottom of the cliff and halfway to the road before I jumped up from the desk and went after her. And when I found her…
I simply lost my fucking mind.
Even as I admired her determination and self-reliance, a god-awful rage filled me that she would dare to disobey me. That she'd put her life in danger like that. I knew the anger I'd displayed was just a mask disguising the anguish I felt that she wanted to leave me. So much so that she'd go with no clothes. No money. No weapons.
She stared up at me now with pain in her eyes. So much fucking pain.
Something cracked wide in my chest when she asked in a horrified whisper, "How could you do that to me?"
"You ran from me," I told her. Like that was any excuse. But I wouldn't apologize. I couldn't. Because I wasn't sorry for what I'd done. Living on her own had made her forget just how dangerous this life was. I'd done nothing but given her a reminder. She was lucky it was me who found her, and not some whack job on the street. Or a gang of them.
"Are you really surprised, Enzo?" she asked bitterly as she wiped at her face, wincing when she accidentally touched the scrapes on her cheek. "What the hell would you do in my situation?"
"I would keep my word and give me a fucking chance to fix this."
"Fix it?" she asked. Then she laughed. "There is no fixing it. You said so yourself. You only have two choices here: Give me back to my father or start a war. That's it." She paused, and her eyes glinted with determination when they met mine. "Or you could give me my money and let me go," she said quietly.
"No," I told her. "I won't do that." I couldn't do that. Because something told me that if I did, I would never see her again. And that was unacceptable to me. If she was with her father, I would know where she was. I would know what happened to her.
A few strands of her hair had come loose from her braids, and I brushed them back off her face. Her hair was wet, and her skin was cold. "Let's go back to the house."
She took a quick step back. "I can't go back there."
I frowned. "Sera-"
"How the hell do you expect me to ever go back there after what you just did?" she asked. She threw one hand in the air, gesturing in the general direction of the house. "Hell, Luca and Tristan and who the hell knows who else are probably enjoying the show you just put on as we speak." She glanced up at the trees. "Oh, my god." She speared me with a horrified look. "There're cameras out here, aren't there? Not just around the house." Of course, there were. "I'll delete the footage. And no one is watching."
She lifted her chin in an attempt to hang onto her pride as her lovely mouth twisted into a sneer. "What about the guards who had a front-row seat?"
"No one will dare to say anything to you. And if they do, I'll kill them." And I meant it.
She stilled as she stared up at me. "I don't want you to kill them."
"Fine. I'll have them reassigned."
"They'll talk."
"I'll cut out their fucking tongues first."
I was dead serious, and she knew it. Her mouth snapped shut. She stared at me as if she'd never seen me before tonight. And perhaps she hadn't. But she sure as hell was seeing me now. "Come on. We're going back to the house."
"No." She shook her head. "I'm not going back. I'm leaving." She started to back away, watching me warily to see if I would still give chase.
I sighed. "You're not going anywhere, Sera. So you can either walk back to the house with me before we get soaked out here, or I'll forcibly drag you back. But either way, you're returning with me now so we can get you cleaned up and into some dry clothes."
Her eyes hardened, and she lifted her chin in that stubborn gesture I was starting to know well.
But I wasn't in the mood. "You won't win this fight, baby girl. Not this time." I crossed my arms over my chest and waited. If she wanted to drag this out, fine, we could do that. But she wasn't going to win. I couldn't let her win. Because to do so would mean letting her go. And I wasn't ready to do that.
She studied my expression for a few seconds, searching for cracks in my armor, and when she didn't find any her shoulders dropped as the tension visibly drained from her and she averted her eyes. "I don't want to go back to my father."
The hopelessness in her voice tore at something inside of me. Something I thought was long dormant. I dropped my arms back down to my sides. She looked so small and helpless in that moment that I wanted nothing more than to wrap her in my arms and swear that I would protect her from her father and anyone else who tried to harm her. But it would be another lie, because I wouldn't be able to protect her from myself. And besides, I knew she wouldn't accept that from me. Not at this moment. "I know," I told her.
She sniffed and looked away again. I could see her shivering.
I took a step toward her. Stopped. "Come back to the house with me. Let me take care of you."