A loud horn sound echoed in the stone hallway, making everyone jump. It sounded less like an alarm and more like a ship’s horn.
“Fuck. Weather alert from the Emergency Planning Unit.” Eric pulled his phone out of his pocket, tapping the screen to make the blaring stop.
Regina pulled her own phone out, also tapping the screen. “I didn’t get an alert.”
Nikolett opened her mouth to say something, but the look on Eric’s face froze the words in her throat.
“Go,” Eric snarled. “Everyone go.”
Regina pulled a gun from inside her jacket. “What’s happened?”
“Go,” he snapped. “I need a minute with Nikolett.”
Dread settled in her, heavy and grim.
Everyone exchanged a glance, and then Regina hustled them out of the hallway back toward the Great Room. Grigoris glanced at Nikolett once, waiting for her to nod before allowing himself to be led away.
Wordlessly, Eric pulled her back the way they’d come, until they were sequestered in a smaller hall.
Eric studied her and leaned back against the wall. “I don’t want to watch this without you, but I don’t know if you should watch it.”
“Watch what?” It took her only a moment to guess what it was Eric had just received. “He sent you a video.”
“Yes.”
“Of…of what happened that night?” She’d worked hard not to think about those missing hours when she’d been “drunk” and alone with him.
“I think so. I only…I only saw the cover image. You’re lying on a bed.”
Nikolett met Eric’s gaze. “I don’t think I had too much wine.” She tried to smile, but failed.
He looked raw, his gaze constantly, anxiously searching her face. “I don’t think so either. He drugged you.”
“And then…” She looked at his phone, wishing for all the world that she, they, didn’t have to watch a video to learn how to end that sentence.
“I can delete the video,” he said softly. “If you don’t want to know, then we delete it.”
“Don’t you want to know?”
“Not unless you want me to. Nothing about it will change how much I love you, and I’m already going to kill him slowly.”
Nikolett let out a soft laugh then leaned into him for a hug. Eric held her, and the soft trembling that had overtaken her subsided.
“Audio,” she said softly. “What if we just listen? I don’t think…I don’t think I’m ready to watch myself be sexually assaulted.”
Eric squeezed her, his breath hitching before he slowly exhaled.
He hit play.
Soft breathing. The rustle of fabric.
Nikolett pressed her face hard into Eric’s chest.
A man’s voice, Gus’ voice, murmuringshhh.
“Please.”
Nikolett cringed at the sound of her own voice, the word slightly slurred.
