I heard her first. It only took a second more to know exactly where to find her. I was almost to our room when the screams reached me. It was coming from the floor below, right under the Citadel. The room Cole preferred…

I crashed through the doors, splintering the wooden frame. The light was dim, but more than enough. Cole stood in front of a girl who was bound and almost naked. I could see her only from the back. Cole held a whip in one hand and his dick in the other. He took one step back and I took five forward. I looked from him to the girl in the stocks and felt the air leave my lungs. “Grace…?”

I drove my fist into Cole’s face again and again, losing myself in the feel of it. I felt his nose break and watched as blood poured down the sides of his cheeks. Every hit was deliberate and I told myself I was still in control. I’m always in control. Then her voice broke through…

“You’ll kill him, Kaine. Kaine, you have to stop… please…”

I looked from Cole’s battered and bleeding face into Grace’s clear green eyes. I felt sick inside for having left her here alone. This was my fault almost as much as Cole’s. She was my responsibility and I’d fucking left her.

I unlocked the shackles that held her, and put Cole’s slack wrist into one of the metal brackets instead. I clamped it down too tight and felt a twisted surge of pleasure. If Grace knew what I suspected about Cole, she might have been willing to let me kill the bastard after all.

I gathered her into my arms and lifted her against my chest. Minutes later, we were back in the Citadel.

“I told you not to leave!”

Grace had emerged from the bedroom, fully dressed and was pouring herself a glass of mineral water. She spun to face me.

“And I don’t remember agreeing to obey you when you weren’t even here.” Her voice was crisp, short.

I took a step forward, hands balled into fists, the nails cutting into my palms. I exhaled hard and closed my eyes. This wasn’t what I wanted at all.

“Grace,” I said more gently, “Are you alright?” I took another step and put my hand on her shoulder. “Did he hurt you?”

Her green eyes flashed like jewels and locked on mine. “Did he take what you paid for? Is that what you mean?” She shrugged off my hand but stayed where she was, only inches away. “No, Kaine. Your investment is still safe.”

I ran my hands through my hair and examined the ceiling above us. The last few hours had taken the last of my patience. I’d come too damn close for comfort with Cole, and almost lost it. I felt a wave of satisfaction, remembering the feel of my fist making contact. It would have been so easy not to stop… I looked back down at Grace, so fucking close, and wanted to strip her bare. I wanted to bury myself inside her and erase everything but the need we had for each other. No past, no future, just the two of us, and an end to the maddening need that had brought me back to her.

“Please… Will you sit down?” Defiance was still plain on her face. “I’m asking you sweetheart, not telling,” I added gently.

She sat down stiffly in one of the overstuffed chairs. I took the sofa opposite her.

“I know I told you that I don’t explain myself…,” I began, fighting a rising sense of unease. “But I feel like I owe you… information. About why I left. And what I suspect. It involves you, Grace. You have a right to hear this.”

“How can it have anything to do with me? You have a life out there somewhere. And that has nothing to do with me, or what happens in a place like this…”

She looked away from me and I reached out, carefully, to take her hand. She didn’t pull away.

“It was all about you, sweetheart. I’m just grateful as hell that Brian had what I needed. Something told me I needed to get back here.” I reached out to stroke my fingers along her cheek. “I’d planned to be gone until tomorrow, and by then it would have been too late…”

She bit down on her lip. “What about Cole? What you did to him was assault. And sooner or later, someone’s going to find him cuffed in his room. He could press charges.”

“And open himself up to a charge of attempted rape?” I tangled my hand in her hair and cupped the back of her neck. “He’d never risk the scandal, Grace. He’ll keep his mouth shut. And housekeeping won’t bat an eye. Cole’s known for taking the submissive role here on occasion, and there are more than a few girls who’d be glad to take the credit for the bruises I left on him.” I smiled darkly at the thought. “Besides, if what my assistant found on him bears up, there may be a larger kind of justice in his future.”

“I found him in the service stairway, Kaine. He was attacking one of the maids and I tried to stop him… He took me instead… to that room.”

“Are you sure you’re alright?” I pulled her gently from the chair to sit next to me and took her in my arms. She was softening to me. “So help me, if he hurt you I’ll go back and finish him, unconscious or not.” I searched her face, her skin, running my hands down her back.

“I’m fine, Kaine,” she answered softly. “You got there in time… just in time I think. He’d only used the whip. He hadn’t… well, he didn’t…”

“I need to see, Grace. Where did he hit you?”

She unbuttoned her blouse and let it slip down from her shoulders. Thin red weals striped her pale flesh, but the skin was unbroken. “It hardly hurts now. It just stings.”

I ran my hands gently over her skin, careful not to touch the marks. Her skin had been so perfect. And that fucking bastard had marked her. I felt an anger start to build inside like nothing I’d ever felt. That he had done this to an innocent girl. That anyone was capable of hurting another person like this…

“God, I’m so fucking sorry. I never would have left, sweetheart. If I’d known you were in any kind of danger.” I lifted her hair from the back of her neck and pressed my lips to the soft, warm skin and heard her sharp inhale. I turned her to face me. “I won’t leave you again. And I promise you, Cole is going to pay for this. I’m going to make him pay for everything.”

I gathered her into my arms and carried her to the bathroom. I sat on the edge of the tub with her curled on my lap and turned the water on, adjusting the temperature. “Will you let me take care of you?” I asked. I felt the nod as her head bobbed against my chest.

“Yes,” she answered me, then she looked up through those thick dark lashes. “And I’m sorry too. Sorry, that I didn’t stay here, like you wanted.”

I kissed her then, deep and long. Her hands reached up to my shoulders and I felt her pause. “Go ahead,” I rasped out. “It’s alright.”

We kissed, tangled in each other’s arms as the water ran. We tasted and teased. Our tongues met and merged as we strained for more, both needing more of each other than a kiss could offer. My hands moved, stripping her clothes off onto the floor. I held her, warm and perfect in my arms and struggled to keep control. It was the one thing my life had revolved around for so many years, and yet this small innocent girl was challenging everything. I pulled back and shut off the water that threatened to overflow. “Here, sweetheart,” I said, working to catch my breath. I eased her into the tub and stripped off my shirt. “I’m going to bathe you.”

The water was warm, almost hot and her body relaxed as she slipped in. I watched her close her eyes and sigh, as I gathered her hair and secured it with a clip. Soft tendrils escaped around her face. “Just feel the water, Grace,” I said softly, as I worked a palmful of soap into a thick lather. “And feel my hands.” I lifted her arm and massaged it. “Keep your eyes closed and just breathe, sweetheart. I don’t ask anything of you, but that. Just let me care for you.”

I stroked and kneaded, massaging her gently, working the soft lather into her skin. She kept her eyes closed the entire time and let me move her and touch her. I ran my hands under her hips and lifted her in the water, feeling the curves of her body, the firm softness of her muscles and her velvet skin. I washed her breasts and her belly. Turning her easily onto her side, I washed the delicate skin of her back. The warmth of the water turned the marks a darker shade of red. I felt a surge of anger and guilt again, and forced it down. She was safe now. Safe with me. And she’d never be in danger again, not while I was alive.

I watched her as her body lifted and fell with the gentle movements of the water. Her breathing was soft and steady, her lashes resting on her cheeks. I held her hand, kneading the tiny bones between my fingers. She was almost asleep and utterly beautiful. I sat, content to look at her. I’d have to wake her before the water cooled, but for now, I let her rest and held her hand.

The short time I’d been gone had been enough. What Brian had found was enough to jog the memory I’d been trying so hard to remember. An internet search had turned up the photographs, and while it wasn’t proof, it was a place to start. And after what I’d seen tonight, I knew deep inside that my suspicions were correct. I’d left Brian to follow up on a dozen more leads and call me as soon as he had anything concrete. Cole had no idea just how lucky he’d been tonight. That I hadn’t just killed him for what he’d done. He also had no idea just how soon that luck was going to run out…

I needed to tell Grace. But there wasn’t anything that couldn’t wait for morning. Part of what I had to tell her made my gut clench at the thought. But she had a right to know. Even if telling her meant risking everything else.