He definitely doesn’t know that she’s been in high stake situations while with her father and had handled them all with more strength than some made men would have.
These days away from her have been the worst of my life. I’ve wondered if she’s thought of me while she’s been gone, but it doesn’t matter now, not with the way she spoke to me and looked at me tonight.
The blue eyes I have memorized look up at me as I rinse the shampoo out of her hair and add the conditioner. I’ve never seen her look as broken as she does now, not even when I held her at Matteo’s funeral.
“He sold me, Logan,” she rasps out, her brows and face scrunching as she begins to sob again.
I don’t remind her of my name; I don’t say anything, I just get on my knees, my drenched clothes slapping against the tile as I wrap my arms around her like I have a million times before.
My chest rattles with a purr, a desperate plea from my body to calm the small, broken woman in front of me.
A relieved exhale escapes me when her small, wet arms wrap around my neck, and she cries in the crook of my shoulder.
“I’m so sorry, princess,” I murmur against her hair.
That only makes her cry harder, but eventually, the only noise in the shower stall is the rumble of my chest purring and the water pelting against the shower tiles.
I rub her wet, naked back and vow to stay in this spot until she lets go.
I’m not sure how long we stay like this, but no words are exchanged between us. My body stills as she pulls away, her arms sliding from my shoulders as she uses them to cover her body.
“Do you want to get out?” I ask her softly, and she nods her head.
All the fire that was in her at that dinner table has been firmly extinguished, and I don’t know if I’d prefer her rage over the vacant expression currently on her face.
I turn the water off and grab two towels.
I’m grateful when she lets me dry her hair and body, wrapping the towel around her and carrying her in my arms to sit on top of the sink.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell her. She gives no acknowledgment as she stares down at the floor.
I undress myself and leave the wet clothes on the floor as I redress and grab some clothes for Elena. Everything is going to be huge on her, but a pair of boxer briefs and a t-shirt will have to do for now.
Elena still has a dazed look on her face as I take the towel off of her head and body and place the t-shirt over her head. She doesn’t assist, and I have to handle her like a doll as I get her into the clothes.
I’m about to pick her up again when her eyes meet mine.
“This doesn’t change how I feel,” she whispers, her eyes lined with redness.
I cup her face, and she flinches but doesn’t move.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life making this up to you, Elena. It was never supposed to happen like this.”
She turns away from my touch, and her chest rattles from a choked-down sob.
“I wanted you to like me. I thought you took your job seriously but that you didn’t have feelings for me,” she confesses.
“I was never with anyone else. It’s always been you. I’ll do whatever you ask to prove it to you, princess.”
She winces at the pet name but doesn’t respond.
“If I asked you to run away with me? To take me away from here?” she asks, her blue eyes boring into mine.
I consider her words.
Could I truly betray my brothers—half-brothers—something they never let me forget?
“It would take time, a lot of planning. We’d be on the run for the rest of our lives, but I’d do it for you,” I tell her honestly.
