The warehouse was like any other, a three-story structure of brick and metal with high windows along the upper floor, but nothing along the bottom. The fading sunlight poured off the metal roof, glinting from the bottom of the winding driveway before we reached the base.

I pulled up behind Tiberius’s Charger and cut the engine. The other man was already out and pocketing his keys when I pushed my door open and let my feet sink into the gravel.

“You have Gabby here?”

A ghost of a smile ticked up the corner of his mouth. “I assure you, it’s much more than it seems from the outside. But anonymity is always key in such matters.”

I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. He’d been suspiciously quiet about the entire matter, refusing to even give me the proper address. A smarter man, I’m sure, would have known better than to simply follow some stranger to a secret warehouse in the middle of nowhere, especially when said man was friends with the man who kidnapped Gabby in the first place.

But I refused to allow my doubts to cloud my hope, not when there was still a fifty percent chance I could have her back before the hour was complete. That was all that mattered. I was already prepared to give the man whatever he wanted in exchange. There really was nothing more important, nothing I needed or wanted that surpassed Gabby’s safety. He had yet to tell me what he wanted, but it didn’t matter. I would make it happen.

We climbed the wooden steps together and entered the main area, a spacious waiting space with a desk and a pretty blonde behind it. She smiled as we walked in, but didn’t say anything as we moved past her. A set of stairs strained upwards just behind her and stopped at a closed door, but Tiberius led me down a brightly lit corridor leading away from the front doors and her. At the very end, I could just make out a single door with an exit sign stamped into its metal surface. I was beginning to wonder if we were going back outside and what sort of place was set up like that when Tiberius stopped abruptly at an alcove I nearly missed on our right. He wrenched open another door and motioned me to follow him down a row of steep stairs, straight into darkness.

The bottom ended at yet another door that opened overlooking an enormous, open space broken by two rows of cubical that gave the eerie resemblance of aquariums. Only there were no fishes, or water, but people — women, to be exact, half naked and strapped to things, torture devices designed to humiliate and hurt. It was so close to the place my father had taken me all those years ago, so disturbingly similar my gut wrenched. My heart sank even as my blood boiled. The unrestrainable burst of raw fury nearly overcame the calm I’d been so desperately clinging on to.

“You’re keeping Gabby down here?”

Tiberius ignored my snarling growl, which only intensified the brewing panic just beneath the rage. Had they hurt her? Was she pinned to one of these wooden contraptions, whipped, bleeding, and hurt? I would kill them. All of them. I would tear them to pieces with my bare hands. I would leave there with their blood painting the walls and running in crimson tears into the drains. I would leave no survivors. Then I’d pay David a visit. Him I would take my time with, killing and torturing him until he begged me to end it.

The homicidal blood lust should have surprised me. I had never in my life visualized the slow and gruesome death of another person, but it was all as clear as a plasma TV, a 3D picture. I could almost touch it. I could smell its coppery scent.

Nevertheless, I followed him, my strides long and unyielding. My gaze swung from box to box, never lingering too long on the scenes unfolding beyond the plates of glass, but searching. I was a full two steps ahead of Tiberius now, practically sprinting in my rush. I was nearly at the end before I realized he wasn’t following me anymore. He’d stopped midway to the middle, body rigid, head cocked to one side. His stance, any other time, would have been amusing, like watching a Cocker Spaniel survey a squirrel in a tree. But there was no tree, no squirrel, just a sheet of glass separating him from whatever was puzzling him.

I couldn’t see Gabby. I did a quick spin on the spot to be sure, but she didn’t seem to be there.

“Where is she?” I stalked back to where he stood, eyeing an empty cubical with a deep look of contemplation. “What are you doing?”

He didn’t seem to hear me. His eyes had narrowed. The irritation mirrored in the cutting blade of his jaw and in the quick flare of his nostrils.

“Lady.” It took me a full second to realize he wasn’t talking to me.

“What?”

Without bothering to spare an answer, he snapped on his heels and marched back. His hurried, almost angry strides spurred mine into action, coaxing me to give chase with a hefty weight in my gut.

We exited the same way we’d arrived, through the backdoor and up the stairs. We arrived back in the corridor and the blonde who offered me another smile, but one laced with surprise and confusion. Neither I, nor Tiberius stopped to offer her an explanation when he stalked straight past her and up the stairs.

I didn’t wait to be asked to follow. I wasn’t letting him out of my sights until I had Gabby back.

At the top, he wrenched open the door and swung it open with all the impatience of a man catching his teen daughter entertaining a boy in her room. But the room was empty. The parts I caught glimpses of from around his impressive frame sat in perfect stillness, a calm that usually came from an absence of a person.

I was about to lose my shit. I didn’t have time for this. All I could think was that he was playing me, giving me the run around in some sick game. I was ready to knock the fuck out of him when he marched deeper into the wide space. His footfalls seemed to echo with his ire. They thumped loudly as he crossed to the desk on the other side.

“Where is she?” he demanded.

I crept in closer, my earlier blood lust dissolving into wariness.

My earlier assumption proved to be faulty when I spotted her. The sight of her startled me the way a person afraid of dogs would be at the unexpected presence of one.

But the woman hidden on the other side of the desk was anything, but a dog. If I had to place an animal title on her, I would have said she was a cat. Everything from the pointed cat ears poking up at the top of her head to the slitted contact lenses in her eyes was feline. Everything from the neck down, however, was very much woman, a stunningly beautiful one in tight, leather pants and a corset that shoved her generous breasts dangerously to the top. She sat kneeling on a plush cushion, hands placed demurely on her knees, her red talons a crimson contrast to the leather. Her dark hair was scooped back and fastened with a red ribbon that matched the one around her slender throat. Yet, the oddest thing about her was the riding crop resting innocently on the pillow beside her.

“Lady.” Exasperation echoed in the single word.

The woman didn’t move, not even to lift her chin and peer up at us. I could have sworn she was a life-like doll, except I could see the rapid rise and fall of her chest and the rigid lines in her shoulders.

“What did you do?”

She remained perfectly mute, but her chin lowered a notch in guilt or shame.

Tiberius crossed to her and cupped her jaw, forcing her gaze to his face.

“Answer me.”

There was fear in her eyes when she answered, “I let her go, Sir.”

She winced when the blunt curves of his fingertips dented her soft, pale cheeks, but she never cried out.

“Why would you do that?”

Her chin wobbled. I never would have noticed if it hadn’t made her bottom lip tremble. Her eyes filled.

“She reminded me of before, Sir. He wasn’t her person. She didn’t belong here. I was afraid.”

Tiberius snatched his hand back as if that word, that omission had somehow burned him.

Without his support, her chin lowered until we could only see the top of her head and the teardrops that plummeted off the edge of her nose and splattered across her thighs. They rolled down the shiny leather without creating a stain.

“Forgive me, Sir.”

To my surprise, he knelt in front of her. His palms cupped her cheeks with greater tenderness and lifted her face once more. His thumbs swiped away the tears, loving little sweeps that only seemed to create more when she broke into sobs.

“You’re not there anymore, darling. I will never let you go back. I promised you that, didn’t I?” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her brow when she bobbed her head. “But you should have trusted that I would take care of this.”

She nodded again. “Yes Sir. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“No,” he agreed, pushing to his feet. He gingerly brushed away a stray tear from her cheek. “It won’t, but we’ll discuss it later. Where did she go?”

“Backdoor, Sir.”

“When?”

“Twenty minutes, Sir.”

Tiberius turned to me. “There isn’t much between here and the city. Do you know where she would go?”

I did. I knew exactly where she would go.

Not waiting, I hurried from the room. My feet pounded on the steps to the bottom. The blonde jolted when I hit the landing and darted past her desk. I was at my car when I realized Tiberius was following me. He rounded the hood and yanked open the passenger side door.

I paused. “What are you doing?”

Tiberius ducked into the seat without sparing me a glance.

“She’s my responsibility,” he called once strapped in.

I didn’t ask. I wanted to, but there were more important matters that required my attention.

The stretch of road between the city and the warehouse was lined with forestry, looming trees creating walls on either side. There were several exits, but I didn’t believe Gabby would take any of those, not when she could stick to the shadows of the woods and get straight home. She wouldn’t detour. She wouldn’t risk getting caught in the open. My girl was smart. She would come home to me. I knew that with the same absolute certainty as knowing I needed air to live. The only thing that troubled me was the distance. I didn’t believe she would have made it back in twenty minutes, which meant she was most likely still making her way in the dark. I didn’t like that.

“I apologize for Lady’s ... misunderstanding.” Tiberius broke the silence. “As bad as she’s had it, she has an incredibly kind heart.”

I told myself I didn’t care, that it wasn’t my place to ask, yet I found myself doing the opposite.

“Why did she do it?”

To an outsider, the question would have most likely sounded odd. Most would have thought I should have been thankful for Lady’s actions. She had quite possibly saved Gabby’s life. But, although I’d only met the women the once, she didn’t strike me as the sort who disobeyed her ... Sir. Her behavior seemed uncharacteristic.

Tiberius sighed. “Memories.” He paused, and just when I was beginning to think that that was all the answer I would get, he continued. “When she was twelve, her stepfather started coming into her room at night. It went on for a year before he got her hooked-on heroin and started selling her to anyone who would pay. Her mom was an addict herself and barely remembered she had a daughter. It was ten years later before I came across her, high, broken, badly beaten and raped behind a dumpster in an alley. A lot of damage had been done to her in a single decade. It took years to prove to her that I would never hurt her. Like you, she’s my Gabby. I would do anything for her, but even I can’t erase all the scars.”

Part of me wanted to apologize, a knee jerk reaction. How the kidnapping of my woman affecting his woman was my fault was beyond me, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

“I’m sorry.”

Tiberius shook his head. “Not your fault. Lady hasn’t been herself since Gabrielle was brought to us. I should have seen it. I’m usually much more observant.”

My fingers curled and uncurled reflexively around the wheel in time to the anxious gnawing in my stomach.

“Did he touch her?”

I didn’t elaborate, nor did he seem to need it when he went silent. My gut seized with every passing second that slipped by as easily as the yellow strips on the road. I almost wished I hadn’t asked, but I knew his answer would be the deciding factor on what I would do next, on whether or not David would live another day.

“Not in the sense you’re thinking,” he murmured at last. “Lady wouldn’t let me leave him alone in the room with her. She was quite insistent that something about him bothered her. I just never imagined it would be this.”

How could I fault him when I hadn’t seen it, not once in seven years? I had willingly sat idly by while she’d been tortured and hurt right under my nose. I had been so blind, so foolishly oblivious to her pain. How was I to live with that?

“I let her stay there.” The confession burst from my mouth before I even knew it was happening. The words spilled into the car, disturbing the silence and birthing my ignorance. “I let her live with that monster, let him hurt her. I could have protected her. I should have.”

“There are many things we could have and should have done,” my companion surmised. “Knowing what we know, there are always things we think we could have changed, but we know life doesn’t work that way. We can only better things for them now.”

His wisdom did nothing to pacify my inner demons. While logical and simplified, I had still failed Gabby. I had allowed atrocities to befall her and done nothing while she’d suffered. How could she possibly love me?

“Men like him have a talent for blending in like normal people.” He broke into my thoughts as if he could sense my spiraling self-loathing. “But you can always see it in their eyes. There’s just something wrong with them, something missing. A vacancy where their soul should be. I see it a lot, unfortunately. Men who hide behind the guise of a Master to conceal their true motives. So many women have been hurt because of men like him.”

I tried to fathom where he was going with his explanation, but he’d ceased speaking and sat staring out the window. I didn’t have the energy to press him. Whatever the cryptic words meant, I would deliberate them another day.

“Where’s Jeremy?”

Tiberius slanted a glance in my direction. “Jeremy?”

“Gabby’s bodyguard.”

I caught the shake of his head from the corner of my eye. “She was alone when he brought her.”

I risked scrubbing a palm over my face and back into my hair. “How did he get her?”

I didn’t expect an answer. I didn’t expect Tiberius to have one, not for this, but he raised a shoulder.

“She was unconscious when he brought her. He never gave an explanation and I didn’t ask.”

“You didn’t ask?” Leather squeaked beneath my white knuckled grip. “He brought her to you, unconscious, and you didn’t think to ask?” Outrage brewed deep in the very pit of my stomach, a frothing indignation that threatened to suffocate me. “What sort of person wouldn’t wonder why a man would bring an unconscious woman to a place like that?”

“The kind accustomed to a great many different tastes and fetishes,” he bit out tightly. “I have seen stranger. And for the record, he had the paperwork for her.”

I shot him a quick glance. “The what?”

“Paperwork,” he repeated as if, if he said it enough, it might click, but bafflement must have shown on my face, because he continued. “I run a legal and quite profitable business, Mr. Kincaid. I built it with money I made, not inherited, not given or borrowed. I made every penny on my own and I turned a single backroom operation into a billion dollar enterprise. I did that and I did it by running a clean house. So, yes, he had the papers I require all parties to sign, giving consent.”

I turned the words over in my mind, categorizing what he was telling me.

“He must have forged it,” I decided. “Gabby would never—”

“She did,” he cut me off. “She confessed to it.”

That didn’t make sense. Why would Gabby agree to such a thing? I didn’t believe she would.

“Then he forced her,” I concluded with the same unwavering certainty.

“That I do agree,” Tiberius mumbled. “Knowing what I now know, and having met with him that final time, yes. I have no doubt. Also, Gabrielle said as much when I spoke to her.”

“What did she say?”

The quiet hiss of fingernails scratching over a five o’clock shadow followed my question. I wasn’t sure if he was determining whether or not to tell me, or trying to remember the exact conversation.

“From what I understand,” he began carefully. “She had hoped to be gone by the time the date on the contract began. Its sole purpose was to get her away from him until she could make her escape.”

“She told you that?”

“Basically.”

It was something I would need to ask once I had her safely home. Whatever her reasons were for signing that paper, I knew it wouldn’t matter. She had done what she had to and I wouldn’t judge her for being alone and trying to survive.

My focus shifted the moment we turned up my street. The familiar stretch of road loomed far into the distance, a dark stretch of concrete glittering under dim lamplight. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I ripped into my driveway and couldn’t suck in anymore air.

I barely came to a full stop. Adrenaline coursed through my veins in solid thumps that rivaled the pounding of my heart. I prayed even as I threw myself from the car. I begged whatever divine force was listening to please, please let her be home. Loose bits of stone crunched beneath my shoes, the only sound in the night.

I took the steps two at a time to the top. I reached the doors only to remember at the last second that I’d left the keys in the ignition. I cursed and started to turn back.

Tiberius stood at the bottom, my keys jagged pieces of silver dangling between us from his fingertips. Neither of us said a word when I took them and faced the doors once more.

The foyer lay dark, vacant, absent of another living soul. Its cavernous silence echoed from room to room and filled my chest.

“Gabby?”

I locked wisps of air in my lungs, too afraid of making a sound and missing her voice.

“Baby, you home?”

I reminded myself there was a chance she couldn’t hear me. The manor was enormous. It was why Mother insisted a network of speakers be built throughout the place. Shouting didn’t do anyone any good. Plus, there was a good chance she hadn’t made it back yet, which meant she was lost somewhere in the dark woods, at night, alone and possibly hurt.

“We need to alert the authorities,” I decided, no longer capable of keeping this quiet. “Gabby could be lost—”

“While I understand your concern, Mr. Kincaid, I must insist that my doll factory not be brought into this matter.”

I pivoted on my heels and faced the man in my doorway, astounded by his gall.

“Excuse me?”

To his credit, Tiberius never so much as batted an eye under my murderous glower.

“I have a reputation to uphold and a client list who will not take too kindly to accidentally falling into the wrong hands simply because—”

“Gabby is out there, lost, alone, and scared because of you. I don’t give a shit about you or your client list. I want her found!”

His mouth opened, but I was no longer interested in anything he had to say.

I twisted back into the endless void, the sprawling catacomb and silently swore that I would move Gabby from that place. I would build her a new home somewhere far away from that city and those people. I would make it just large enough for us and the children she’d give me, a cozy safe haven. Not like this place that needed cameras and crackling speakers to find each other.

But first, I needed to find her. The rest could wait.

I headed towards my office.

“Kieran?”

Tiberius’s questioning mumble didn’t stop or slow my progress. He was crazy if he thought I would relent on my decision. If anything, I should have phoned the police hours ago, the moment I knew something was truly wrong. At the time, I had been kept company by my arrogant need for revenge. Now, I wanted to kick myself for being so utterly stupid.

“Kieran!”

The urgency this time gave me pause. I glanced back to find him exactly where he’d always been, only he was no longer looking in, but facing the driveway.

My heart leapt even as I sprinted back to him. My shoulder clipped his and he staggered under the impact, but I was on the front steps, breathing slightly out of control.

The figure darkened the start of the driveway, a solitary silhouette stamped against the pale lamplight behind her. It could have been anyone, but I would have known her shape anywhere.

“Gabby.”

Her name hitched on my tongue, a choked little prayer unsteady with longing that spurred me down the front steps.

Hard, rigid lines went slack at the sight of me. Her tiny frame softened in relief. I almost heard her muffled sob a split second before she closed the distance at a run.

Then I had her. My hands, my arms were full of her weight, fisted in her hair, her coat. My face was in her shoulder, inhaling the familiar scent of her, a dying man at his final meal.

“Jesus, sweetheart.” I breathed into the side of her head. “I’ve been worried sick.”

She made a soft choking sound against my chest and she tightened her arms around my waist.

“I think he killed Jeremy,” she croaked after whole minutes had slipped past. “I don’t know what happened to him.”

I shushed her gently. “Don’t think about that right now. You’re home and safe. That’s all that matters.”

She raised her head and the lights from the house glittered on her wet cheeks. They illuminated the ocean in her eyes and the full curve of her mouth. The very sight of her enslaved me. I was mesmerized with the artwork, a beauty unlike any other in the world.

“God, Gabby.” I framed the soft lines and hills of her face between my palms. I smoothed away the tears with my thumbs, all the while drowning in her eyes. “I would die without you.”

I’m unclear who moved. Might have been her. The weight of her body increased and her arms went from my waist to my shoulders. Her fingers locked in my hair, slender anchors dragging my face down to hers.

But I kissed her. I hauled her up and captured her offered mouth in a brutal and almost violent claim. I twisted locks of her beautiful hair around my hands, threading strings of silk through my fingers. I gripped her tight, afraid she might vanish if I gave her space.

“Kieran.” Her soft, little whimper nearly destroyed me.

“I’ve got you,” I promised her. “He’ll never touch you again.”

She lifted her chin and met my gaze. Her small fingers combed through my hair in light strokes that sent shivers scattering down my spine. Her lips parted, housing a concern I could just make out in her eyes.

“He’ll know I’m gone,” she breathed. “He’ll come looking for me. I shouldn’t be here. I’m putting you in danger.”

Although she made no move to step back, I tightened my hold; I had absolutely no intention of letting her go anywhere without me.

“He’s not coming anywhere near you,” I stated simply. “I promise you that. I’ll end him myself if I have to.”

Her lips parted, and she was ready to protest when the subtle rustle over my shoulder caught her attention. I had forgotten about the other man and Gabby hadn’t noticed him, but she did now as Tiberius slipped down the steps towards us.

Gabby choked on her gasp. Her frame turned rigid in my arms, the panicked uncertainty of a frightened bird.

“What is he doing here?”

I tightened my hold, not to confine, but assure.

“He was helping me find you.”

Her gaze shot up to my face, narrowed in fear and suspicion. “Find me? Bullshit!” she spat, twisting murderous eyes towards Tiberius. “He had me locked naked in a box all this time. David’s paying him.”

Being a wise man, Tiberius paused when there was still a reasonable amount of room between us and him, but still close enough for us to talk.

“I assure you, Miss Thornton, your father and I are no longer doing business.”

“He came to tell me where you were,” I chimed in.

“And why would you do that?” I released her when she tugged to be free. “You refused to even listen to me when I tried to tell you.”

“If I hadn’t listened, would we be here?” he pointed out calmly.

“You didn’t help me,” Gabby shot back. “You left me there and told me not to cause trouble or you’d beat me.”

From over her head, I narrowed my eyes at the other man, who met it with a downwards twist of his mouth.

“I said punish,” he retorted drily.

“Regardless,” I interjected before another word could be said. “Tiberius took me to his warehouse, but you were already gone. We only just returned.”

“Why?” The question was snapped at Tiberius. “Why not bring me home instead? Why bring him to me?”

“The rules in my world are a bit different from yours,” Tiberius said evenly. “You are the submissive, and not one of mine. It’s not my place to listen to you without your Master’s permission. In your case, that was a bit more complex.”

“I’m not a submissive and I don’t have a ... a Master,” Gabby snapped.

“In my doll factory, you are and you do. Him.” He jerked a chin in my direction. “So, I came to ask him what he wanted to do with you. As I mentioned, Ms. Thornton, my records are impeccable and everyone plays by the rules, even me.”

Gabby’s jaw muscles tightened. “If you’re expecting a thank you, you’re not going to get one.”

A ghost of a smile moved over the man’s mouth. “I wouldn’t dream of it, but I must return. I have a doll that requires punishing.”

“If it’s because of me getting out, I did it alone,” Gabby blurted before he could finish. “The door didn’t lock. No one helped me.”

A half grin twisted Tiberius’s lip. “I’ll let her know you tried, but my doll doesn’t lie to me. I know everything.” He looked past her to me. “I’ll be in touch tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

With a bow of his head, he headed down my driveway. I started to call out and ask if he needed a ride, but a black Lincoln rolled up just on the other side of the gates and he climbed in.

Then it was just me and Gabby and the rest of our lives. That was a fact I was eternally grateful for. I couldn’t imagine my life without her. Going on just seemed so bleak and empty.

But I had her back. That was all that mattered.

Without a word, I scooped her up into my arms. I waited for her arms to circle my shoulders and for her weight to settle comfortably against my chest before I carried her inside. I took her all the way up to our room.

“I lost my book bag,” she murmured into the side of my neck. “It had all my books and papers inside.”

“We’ll get you new things,” I promised. “And we’ll work the rest out with the school.”

“A new science department?” she teased.

“If that’s what it takes.”

She chuckled and shook her head. Her warm breath whispered along my skin, a welcome sensation I’d missed.

“What about Jeremy?”

I’d hoped she wouldn’t worry about that. I had wanted to deal with it without bothering her with the details.

“I’ll look into it.”

“I can’t believe he’s dead.”

I shushed her gently. My lips brushed her brow. I inhaled her scent, assuring myself I wasn’t imagining her.

“How long has it been?”

I hesitated answering by taking her into the bathroom. I set her gingerly on the bath bench and moved to start a bath. I took my time measuring the bath salts and bubble, careful to make sure everything was just the right amount.

“Kieran?”

I must have taken too long.

I faced her. “A day.”

Her big eyes blinked. “Just one?” At my nod, she snorted a brittle laugh. “It felt like weeks.” Her expression sobered. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”

I went to her and knelt by her feet. Her fingers were bits of brittle ice clasped between mine.

“I would never have given up,” I promised her. “I would have found you.”

A tremor shook her bottom lip, but none of the tears in her eyes slipped.

I swept aside a lock of hair. “Did anyone hurt you?”

This time, when she barked a laugh, it came out in a sob that rattled her shoulders and spilled the tears.

“No.” She rocked her head slowly from side to side. “It could have been so much worse, but I’m okay.”

“What is it?”

She sniffled. “I don’t know. I’m just so relieved and angry, and scared. I’m feeling so much...”

I brought her fingertips to my lips and kissed each one while the water roared in the tub behind me.

“You just need a hot bath and some rest.”

She didn’t resist when I rose and pulled her up with me. She stood still while I freed her of her clothes, watchful as every layer of flesh was exposed to the sharp lights of the room. The garments were cast into the corner where I had every intention of tossing them away first chance I got; I wouldn’t let any part of that day touch her again. I would have erased it entirely if possible, but there were things even beyond my control.

I helped ease her into the streaming pool. She sank beneath the bubbles all the way to her chin with a groan.

I shut the faucet off and claimed the corner by her shoulder with a face cloth. I dampened it.

“Kieran?” She captured my wrist before I could touch her. Her chin tipped up and I was caught in her plea filled eyes. “Come in with me?”

It took no time at all to strip and get into the space behind her. My thighs cradled her hips and I drew her back into my chest. I kept my arms around her.

She sighed and leaned into me. Her head rested on my shoulder and her hands settled over the ones I folded over her belly.

“Talk to me,” I whispered into the side of her head. “Tell me what happened.”

There was a strained amount of silence that strained in the air, tangling with the scent of orchids from the bubble bath and sea breeze from the bath salts. It seemed to hum like a plucked guitar string, tenuous and deep.

I remained patient, allowing her room to collect her thoughts while I ran the rag through the soapy water and up one of her arms to the curve of her shoulder. It wasn’t the first time we’d been in a bath together, but I always enjoyed the soothing act of washing her. I definitely relished in the feel of her, wet and naked against me.

Her fingertips slipped up the forearm of my arm still circling her middle and cupped my elbow; she tightened my hold on her.

“I got a call from Professor Weber’s assistant yesterday,” she began slowly. “She asked us to meet her at his house rather than the library like we’d planned. I didn’t think anything of it until we got there.”

I listened while she spoke, reliving every horrific moment with her and struggling not to lose my shit and murder someone. I told myself there was time for that later, that I would make time for it, and that it would happen. The beast in me seemed temporarily appeased by the promises of bloodshed, but barely.

“I walked for hours,” she was murmuring quietly by the time I ran out of places to wash. “It was too dark to stay in the woods so I followed the sound of cars to the highway and flagged someone down. I didn’t want to. I was terrified it would be David, or Rutherford, or someone worse, but my phone was in my backpack and I had no idea where I was or how else to get help.” She paused and I turned my face into the damp locks over her ear. My arms tugged her closer, reassuring her I was there and she was safe, while simultaneously assuring myself the same thing. It must have worked, because she squeezed my hand in response. Just once, but it was enough. “I got lucky,” she continued. “It was an elderly couple on their way home. I told them my car broke down and I was lost. They were so kind. I hated lying to them, but I couldn’t tell them the truth. I didn’t think they would believe me and I just wanted to get home.”

Neither of us said a word for the next several minutes while the water went tepid around us and goose pimples rose on our skin. Most of the bubbles had long since dissipated and the scent was barely still there, but hints of them lingered like little islands bobbing along the surface. They were washed away when I heaved myself from the water and pulled Gabby along with me. I uncorked the drain before easing her over the edge and onto the padded mat.

“Okay?”

At her nod, I left her just long enough to start the shower, then pull her in.

I rinsed her hair while she clung to me, arms fastened tight around my waist and face buried against my chest. I worked shampoo through the strands, undoing tangle with my fingers and tugging free loose threads to wash down the drain.

She still hadn’t said a word by the time I bundled her up in a thick robe and carried her to the bed. I left her side just long enough to tug on a pair of drawstring sweats.

“Sweetheart.” I brushed damp locks off her face. “Talk to me. Tell me what I can do.”

Eyes the heartbreaking blue of the ocean peered up at me through dark fringes. The fear in them wrenched my heart.

“I’m scared you’ll think differently of me, badly.”

The confession caught me in the gut. It twisted my insides, filling me with a burst of indignation.

“Do you think so little of me?” I protested.

Her big eyes blinked rapidly in surprise. “No, of course not. I just...” She lowered her gaze to the piece of thread poking out from the sleeve on her robes. “I had to do things I’m not proud of and...” She jerked one shoulder up to her with uncertainty. “I wouldn’t blame you if—”

I knelt at her feet and took her hands in mine; they were cold despite her just getting out of the shower. I gave them a squeeze before bringing them to my lips.

“Sweetheart,” I murmured gently, peering up at her over the bends in her fingertips. “What have I already told you?” I didn’t wait for an answer. “There is nothing you could have done — ever — to make me think differently of you.”

“But this is different,” she whispered so low I almost didn’t hear her.

“Doesn’t matter. I love you, Gabby. There isn’t a power on earth that can change that.”

A single tear slipped down her cheek. I caught it with the second bend in my finger and wiped it away. I heard her deep, shaky inhale, a bracing sound that tightened my fingers around hers.

“I don’t know when it started,” she began quietly to our linked hands. “I just remember looking up one day and finding him watching me. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, except there was something in the look that crawled beneath my skin. Everything about it felt so wrong, so violating.” She bit her bottom hard enough to make blood well. Her chin wobbled and little creases formed between her downcast eyes. “After that, it became more frequent, lasting longer each time. I ignored it for the most part, but that only seemed to make it worse.”

I didn’t bother clarifying who he was. That whole day had already painted a reasonably clear picture of the life Gabby had to live up until now. Everything she was telling me now made up the lacquer solidifying what I already knew.

“It didn’t get really bad until I was eighteen.” She sucked in a sharp breath as if that confession was the hardest one she’d ever made. “His beatings became more frequent, but there was always something in the way he’d touch me, something worse than the hitting. He would find reasons to get me alone, or when we were alone, he’d find ways to ... touch me, or brush up against me. At night, I would close my bedroom door, but when I would wake up, it would be open and I could swear, I could smell him everywhere.” She shook her head slowly. “I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t stay.” Her lashes lifted and I was met with the plea in her eyes, pleading for me to understand. “I had a four year plan. I would get my diploma, save up enough money, get a fake ID, and run as far away as I could possibly get. The only thing stopping me was him. He wouldn’t let me leave. He kept telling me I belonged to him.”

“So, you signed that contract,” I finished for her.

She nodded. “I didn’t think he could actually hold me to it. What court would?” Her voice rose in indignation. “I thought if I could just get out, there would be nothing he could do. I entered the auction for the money. After that, I would be long gone and free of him.”

“Oh, Gabby.” I kissed her fingers again. “I wish you’d told me.”

“How could I?”

I sighed quietly before pushing to my feet. I claimed the spot next to her on the mattress. The spot indented, sending her into me.

I welcomed her weight by tucking her into my side. My lips found the side of her head and I inhaled her damp, citrus scent.

“Tell me what you want me to do,” I murmured into the strands. “One word from you and I will take his whole world apart.”

Her head moved side to side against my face. “I don’t think there is anything you can do, short of killing him, that would make this stop.”

I could kill him. I knew people. I could have it look like an accident and no one would ever be the wiser. I could make him disappear entirely. But those were options I wouldn’t put on the table unless she did.

“I have ways,” I assured her instead.

Her face tipped up towards mine. “What do you mean?”

I decided against telling her about hitmen and deep, concrete holes. She’d already been through enough for one day without putting those images in her head.

“My dad had files on people,” I opted slowly. “Friends, coworkers, family ... strangers.” I paused with a brittle chuckle. “They contain every dark, twisted secret that person has ever committed.”

She straightened and shifted to face me better. “You have one on David?”

I nodded. “I have one on all of you.”

Her eyes widened. “On me?”

Rather than answer, I took her hand and tugged her to her feet. I led her down to my office, through the shadow strewn corridors and an endless span of night.

She followed wordlessly.

Inside, I shut the door behind us and guided her to my desk. She continued in watchful silence as I opened the bottom drawer and removed David’s folder.

I set it before her and stepped back.

Green eyes jumped from me to the offered packet. She seemed to hesitate, and I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t sure I would jump right in either, knowing what she knew.

Gingerly, she flipped the folder open.