“Oliver!” she yells again, but louder this time.
My hands shake as I turn the knob, not sure of how I’m going to find her inside. When the door opens, my boots stick to the floor as my mind comprehends what I see.
“Fuck,” I groan, willing my body to move.
Tears stream down her swollen face as the rest of her body trembles.
I rush to her side, untying her hands before pulling her into my arms. “I’ve got you,” I tell her, cradling her against my chest. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. You’re safe now.”
Lulu collapses against me, gripping my shirt in her small hands as her entire body shakes. “I thought he was going to kill me.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, rocking back and forth with her in my arms. If he isn’t already dead, he is going to be.
I want to check her out, make sure there aren’t any wounds that I can’t easily see. But she is too attached to me. It is too soon for me to pull away.
“You’re safe,” I reassure her as she cries in my arms. “He’ll never hurt you again.”
She tips her head back, and I peer down at her as her swollen red eyes meet mine. “He didn’t…”
She doesn’t need to finish the statement for me to know what she was going to say.
“He didn’t rape me,” she continues. “I fought him off the best I could.”
By the looks of her face, I’d say she put up one hell of a fight and Mark wasn’t gentle with her either. “You did good, baby. Real good.”
“Lulu.” Her father’s voice fills the space.
She stiffens in my arms.
“It’s okay, Lulu. Zoey called them.”
“Fuck,” she bites out. “He’s going to lose his mind.”
“He’ll be in good company,” I tell her, pressing my lips to her forehead.
A moment later, her father is in the doorway of the room we’re sitting in.
“Jesus,” he mutters as his eyes scan Lulu’s face.
“It’s not as bad as it looks, Dad,” she tells him, somehow trying to console him at a time when we need to be comforting her.
He’s on his knees in front of us a second later, reaching up to cup her face. “Lemme see, baby.”
She pulls away from me only far enough for him to get a good look.
He winces as he sees both sides, a matching pair of swollen, discolored eyes, puffy cheeks, and a fat lip.
“I will kill him,” Lucio seethes.
“I think I already did that,” I tell him.
He peers up at me only for a moment before he looks back over his daughter’s face. “He’s still breathing, but not for long.”
“No,” Lulu snaps. “I want him to go to prison. Don’t kill him.”
Never in my life have I thought I’d be in this position. I never thought someone would be begging me to save another man’s life, especially someone who deserved not to draw another breath.
“Lulu,” her father whispers as he brushes theunderside of her cheek with his thumb. “Do you want to go through a trial?”
