Chapter Thirty
Gray mist swirled around her as murky and wet tendrils, like tentacles, wrapped around her body, slipping, sliding over her skin. Claws scored her legs and arms, blood oozed from her wounds, ribbons of red seeped from her bones. Blood gushed, spewing everywhere.
The ground shook, the world tilted, and she was tumbling upside down while hands, evil hands with claws instead of fingers, grasped at her. She batted them away, crying, screaming for help she already knew wouldn’t come.
She was on her feet, running, running. Breath wheezed from her overtaxed lungs and fought with the sobs that wouldn’t quit, wouldn’t quit. She had to get away. Anywhere would be better than here. No one would miss her. She was just a pawn. A prize to be won…an object to be used and then discarded like garbage.
Something swirled around her, and she looked down. Rags covered her body. The dress she’d once been so proud of hung haphazardly around her, torn to shreds. But she had escaped. No one could ever touch her again. She was free!
Noises surrounded her, angry shouts and vile threats. She turned slowly around. Scarlet eyes, red-hot with evil, pierced the darkness. He had found her! No, no, no! She wouldn’t go back. She wouldn’t!
Fiery agony seared through her. Blood poured down her misshapen, mangled legs. Dizziness swamped her, and she fell to her knees. Darkness washed over her. She opened her mouth, screamed for help, for mercy. Voices whispered, told her to shut up. Told her she had a destiny. She screamed at them, for help, for deliverance.
Wicked, high-pitched giggles rippled around her. He was coming…he was here! A cliff appeared before her. She looked over her shoulder. He was so close! Her arms formed into wings, and she knew she could fly. She turned and launched herself toward the sky. Her wings vanished, and she was falling, falling. The shrill giggles followed her down into a bottomless, black pit. Hands reached for her, clawed at her, teeth gnashed at her skin, her bones.
She screamed her agony.
“Gabby. Wake up. You’re safe. You’re safe. Shh. Shh. You’re safe.”
Jonah didn’t know how long he’d been saying the words. She was lost in some kind of nightmare that wouldn’t let her go. He’d been ripped from sleep by a heart-wrenching scream of pain and had been out of the bed in an instant. His first thought was she had been found and they were taking her away. Gun in hand, he’d barged into her room only to find her gripped in some kind of death struggle with an invisible monster.
He should have anticipated nightmares. After what she’d endured the last few days—hell, most of her life—not having nightmares would have been abnormal.
Jonah held her trembling body, continuing his litany of comforting words. She still wasn’t awake. The cries had lessened to whimpers, but her body continued to jerk as if she were still being tortured.
“Baby…sweetheart. It’s Jonah. You’re here, safe with me. No one’s ever going to hurt you again. I promise.”
He knew the moment she was awake and aware. Her body went stiff. She inhaled and then held her breath.
“Gabby, did you hear me? It’s Jonah. You’re safe with me.”
“Jonah?” she breathed.
He was about to loosen his arms to give her some room when she wrapped herself around him as if she’d never let him go.
“He found me…I don’t know how, but he found me. He was going to hurt me again. Do what he did before, only worse. He was going to do to me what he did to those other girls.
“People were there, watching. My grandfather, Rudolph Bianchi, my brother. They all watched. Did nothing to stop it.”
“It’s over now. Those men can never hurt you again.”
“Is it?” She moved away from him then, but only so she could see him. “They’ll never stop looking for me. I had accepted that I would always be hunted. As long as Luis lives, so will his quest to find me. But now? With the possibility that I might be…” She shuddered and buried her face against his chest again. “If there’s a child, we’ll never be safe.”
“Yes, you will, sweetheart. I promise you, whatever happens, if it’s just you or you and a child, I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
Gabby closed her eyes, absorbing as much warmth as she could from Jonah’s hard body, then she pulled away. What had happened to her strength and willpower? When had she turned back into this weepy, needy little girl?
“I’ll be fine, Jonah. Don’t worry about me. The nightmare caught me off guard. I haven’t had one in years.”
“With everything that’s happened, I’d be worried if you didn’t have a few.”
She smiled up at him. “Glad I could ease your worry, then.”
The smile wasn’t returned. Not that she should be surprised. Jonah’s smiles were rare, but the expression on his face was both fierce and searching.
“What’s wrong?”
“When I came in, you were screaming for him to get off of you. Was it Rudy?”
Her head dropped onto her pillow. She had stopped denying what had been done to her long ago, but she had never talked about it to anyone but Raiza. What she had told him before was just the tip of the iceberg.
“You don’t have to tell me. I just—”
If anyone deserved the truth, it was this man who had risked so much for her.
“He sexually assaulted me, but not in the way you’re thinking.” She swallowed hard and continued, the images as vivid now as they were when they were happening.
“He tied me down on the bed, then ripped off my dress and underwear. He told me things he would do to me once we were married, but since he had promised not to take my virginity, he would give me a sample of what to expect. He went away for a minute. I lay there, screaming and crying. No one came.
“When he returned, he had things…objects that he used…” She could do this. “To penetrate me. A hairbrush. A curling iron. A bottle of shampoo. He tried them all. The shampoo bottle was too large. I…couldn’t…”
Suddenly, she was back in Jonah’s arms, crying against his chest again. The words continued to pour from her, but in his arms, it was somehow easier to say them.
“He bit me, punched and slapped me. Strangled me till I passed out. I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but when I woke up, he had ejaculated all over me. I was bloody and hurting so bad, but I was still determined to get away from him. At some point while I was unconscious, he had untied me and rolled me over on my stomach. I’m not sure why.
“When I realized I was free, I knew I would only have one chance to escape. I remember him hovering over me. I can still feel his hot breath…it smelled like rotting meat.
“I rolled over onto my back. His pants were open, and he was holding himself. I didn’t think about the consequences. I only knew I had to get away from him. If I had stayed, I’m almost certain he would have killed me. He was like a wild, rabid creature…had lost total control of his senses.”
“What did you do?”
She noted that Jonah’s voice was hoarse and sounded as if he was in pain. His compassion and obvious horror of what had happened enabled her to continue.
“I fisted my hands together, swung up, and hit him as hard as I could. Unfortunately, my aim was off, and I missed my target. I did manage to hit his stomach, though. It knocked the breath out of him, and he fell backward, off the bed.
“Even to this day, it still amazes me that I had the strength to get up and run. I think my brain was in panic mode and couldn’t register pain. I knew going back to the door and pounding on it would do no good. No one was going to come and save me, so I ran to the balcony. I didn’t give it another thought. I simply flew.”
“What floor were you on?”
“The third.”
“How the hell did you survive?”
“I hit one of the balconies below me. I broke my arm when I hit the railing, but that slowed my descent. Otherwise, I’m certain I wouldn’t have survived the fall.”
“Please tell me something happened to the bastard other than a stomach punch.”
“I really don’t know a lot. It wasn’t like Luis was going to admit he made a mistake and assure me that Rudy got what was coming to him. My feelings weren’t important. But Raiza told me that she’d heard he received the beating of his life from Stephan.” She grimaced. “Considering what he did to other young girls later on, apparently the lesson wasn’t sufficient.”
“I wish I could get to him for you.”
That didn’t surprise her. Jonah would want to punish anyone who abused a child. Any normal person would want that to happen. Too bad she’d never had normal.
“He’s locked up and being punished for what he did to those other girls. Now that I know what he was capable of, I guess I got off easy.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Only a strong person would say something like that. I’m glad you’re a survivor, Gabby.”
They were quiet and still for the longest time. Jonah’s heartbeat against her own was a beautiful moment, and one she had never experienced. When she was twenty, she’d had a very brief fling with a boy named Juan, the son of one of her guards. The relationship had been short-lived, barely two weeks, and had ended abruptly when she had overheard him bragging about their tryst to the cook’s son. There had been no intimacy, no real feelings attached, so when it ended, she hadn’t grieved or even been hurt. Oddly enough, she’d felt gratitude. She had feared that after her experience with Rudy, she wouldn’t be able to let another man touch her ever again.
But being here with Jonah, both of them fully dressed, felt much more intimate than anything she’d ever shared with Juan.
“Asinine question, but did you ever receive any kind of help for what you went through?”
“If you mean therapy, no, there was nothing formal. It’s certainly nothing Luis would have given thought to providing. But Raiza helped me through much of it. She had been through something similar when she was younger. She made me realize I had done nothing wrong. His filth could not really touch me.”
He squeezed her gently. “I’m glad.” He moved as if to get up. “Think you can go back to sleep?”
Everything within her wanted to ask him to stay with her. The very thought of closing her eyes and seeing those images again was almost more than she could fathom.
“Probably not. I think I’ll read for a while.”
“Would it help if I stayed?”
“You don’t have to.”
“What if I want to?”
“Then I would appreciate it. I hate to be weak, but—”
His fingers pressed against her mouth. “You are the least-weak person I’ve ever known.”
“I don’t feel very strong. I keep thinking of what’s been done to me. What’s inside of my body and might be happening.”
“Don’t think about it.” He propped several pillows against the headboard and then gathered her close. “Just close your eyes and drift off to sleep knowing that no one will ever hurt you again. What’s done is done, and we’ll deal with whatever happens. But for now, shut those thoughts away and rest.”
He held her for a while, and then when she started drifting off, she felt him shift and heard the light click off. She thought he might get up and leave then. Instead, he pressed a kiss against her forehead and held her all night long.