I leave the room without turning back.
-
I stay away for the next two days. It’s not entirely my choice. The Feds’ investigation is heating up, and I spend a lot of time interviewing employees. I also have video meetings lined up, trying to get powerful politicians on our side. Little by little, I start breathing easier. We have a lot of allies. People who stand to lose everything if their dealings with us are discovered. They won’t let us fall if they can help it.
It’s eight p.m. when I go down to see her. Lucy’s already brought a tray of food but she hasn’t touched it yet. She’s sitting on a wooden chair at the table, and her face doesn’t betray any pain. Yet I know she must be suffering. The whipping was hard.
I sit down on the other side of her, and she looks up at me without saying a word. I study her face, looking for a sign that my belt has made a lasting impression. But her expression is neutral.
“Feeling better?” I ask at last.
She nods.
“I’ll stay with you while you eat,” I say, gesturing to her full plate.
She nods again and begins to cut into her steak with trembling hands. So there’s the sign. Not in her eyes. In her hands.
I watch her in silence as she chews on the meat. Then suddenlyshe blurts out, “Were you going to take me to a restaurant?”
I stare at her. “What?”
“When you told me we were going to have dinner together. Were you going to take me to a restaurant?”
She’s looking at me with those big violet eyes of hers, waiting for an answer. But I’m too surprised to give her one. I cover my reaction with a scowl.
“I know there’s no hope of eating dinner together anymore,” she says quietly. “I was just wondering… if that was your plan.”
I snort. “Like a date?”
She doesn’t look embarrassed. That’s one thing I’ve noticed about her. She doesn’t blush over the big things, only the little ones. She merely holds my gaze steadily.
“You’re forgetting yourself,” I say coldly. “You are my captive. I was certainly not going to take you to a restaurant. I never had any plans of allowing you to leave this apartment.”
If the words hurt her, she shows no sign of it. “How long?”
“What?” I ask again.
“How long will you keep me here?”
She has a way of taking me by surprise. I would have expected her to ask me that in the beginning, not now. And I’ve been too busy fending off Vale’s suggestions to kill her to think very far in the future.Foreveris the word on my tongue. But that’s not realistic. I can’t possibly keep her locked up in this apartment for the rest of her life.
“If you’re asking when you’ll go back to your old life…”
“No. I don’t want to go back.”
“Good. Because this is your life now. I’m glad you’ve accepted it.”
“But I want to leave this apartment,” she adds.
I grit my teeth. Still, I realize I’ll have to give her a little more freedom of movement at some point.
“If you behave,” I say at last, “I’ll see about opening up the rest of the floor to you. You’ll be able to use the workout room once more and spend time outdoors on the large terrace. There’s a private staircase to the rooftop pool, too. I could give you access to it every so often.”
“I don’t know how to swim.”
“I can teach you. There are a lot of ways I can make life more tolerable for you. But I have to be able to trust you first.”
She nods in a resigned sort of way.
