That's why he left without a word. He was going to send my brother; he knew I wouldn't refuse.
“She's resting, the doctor said she'll spend the night there and tomorrow he'll look at her condition.”
This place is not patient friendly, its only purpose is to heal mercenaries, so it looks dark and creepy, I don’t like her here, but I don’t have other choice.
“I brought some things in case you are hungry, Amira said you probably wouldn't want to eat, but she prepared something for you anyway, I also brought some blankets.”
My brother talks to me carefully and delicately, he doesn't want to upset me and that makes me feel worse; I drag my arm around his neck and bring him to me.
“Thank you brother, I’m sorry you have to go thought this, it seems we never gonna be able to relax.”
“Bruno," he says as I let go. “The one who should apologize is me. Do I need to remind you that Sarah has that wound because you two were trying to rescue me? You should stop being so hard on yourself. It doesn't do anyone any good, especially Sarah.”
“It's not that easy to shut up my mind, Dante. Seeing her wounded was too close to home.” I answer as I press my eyes with the palms of my hands.
“In the short time I've known Sarah, I can already tell her empathy for others made her stop paying attention to herself and if she heard you say that it was your fault, well, she would hang you by your balls.”
I laugh, because he’s right, but my smile fades when I remember that I hid the truth from my brother.
“I have to be honest with you about something, Dante...I lied to you when I told you how I met Sarah.”
“I suspected it,” he says as he settles into the chair, drags his back across the backrest and opens his legs, I'm surprised at his posture.
“How did you know?”
“Well, neither you nor Sarah are very good at lying, let alone Carter, but I assumed it was something delicate and that in time you were going to tell me the truth.”
I take the bag between my legs and I look for the food that Amira had prepared for me.
My chest explodes, and a big confession comes out. I can't do anything to stop it. I tell my brother about the day we saw that video and how our parents died internally. I told him why I had joined the army and also why I had left; I was honest about the jobs I did around the world and why I had so much money now.
“...when the opportunity to do this great mission was in front of me, I thought it was my chance to close a chapter, my wound about your death was still as open as it was that day, so I said ‘fuck it’ and jumped in without hesitation. But those sons of bitches, they were holding more than a hundred people captive, it was a fucking concentration camp, all of them kept vegetating in isolation, no one could explain to them why they were there or why they had to suffer. My unscrupulous reputation made the organization assume that I would do anything for money, so I witnessed things that I will never forget. My responsibility was to provide them with weapons, of course, they had everything traced, but we had to wait. Damn, it was such a long wait. The head of the organization was Razzag’s brother, and he ‘gave’ me a captive for my entertainment and for theirs.”
“Sarah...” whispers Dante who looks at me without judging, that helps me to open up to him and get out all my fears and shame.
“Yes, she was so fragile, I could almost see the cracks forming, until one day I broke her. I saw it with my own eyes when it happened, and she just lived by inertia. I wanted to die for what I was doing to her, I was torturing her, you know? Those arms are tattooed to hide the horrors I caused to her skin, she tried to forget, but I know they're there. I could not live with the remorse of hurting her, I hated myself, three years went by and I became more and more protective and obsessive about her. I didn't let anyone see her or touch her, she was mine and it was my mission to protect her as much as I could until the end.
When the day of the rescue finally arrived, I was only focused on two things, killing the head of the organization and rescuing her.” My eyes are wet, my mouth can’t stop talking, “When I finally held her in my arms, I wanted to take her to my house and isolate her from the world so that no one else would hurt her, but I had to leave her in the damn hospital.”
“And how did you meet again?” he asks with sincere interest.
“She came to me,” I smile, “she showed up at my door, I think I'll never forget that day, it was raining so hard and she was soaking wet, but she was as beautiful as ever, I thought she was coming to kill me because she looked like the angel of death.” I shrug. “She just needed to talk; she needed someone to help her get through it, and I couldn't get away from her again. I needed her with me, I went crazy sometimes trying to contain myself.”
Dante nods, understanding where I’m coming from.
“One day I kissed her, and I thought I was going to die of happiness,” I smile remembering her lips, “Then I found out the truth, my brother was still alive, and I couldn’t ignore the call, I had to free you too, I had to fix my family and in order to do that I had to let her go.” I sigh, remembering the pain I felt the day I closed that door, the day I ended our story.
Dante remains silent and thoughtful.
“And how did she get to Arabia? I remember that you arrived together at the party.”
“When she figured out where I had gone and why, she went in search of me, Rage was the one who helped her travel and smuggle herself into the country.”
He helped her...my own words float in my brain. If it wasn't for Rage, she wouldn't be here; and I am still controlling my jealousy...god.
“Let me go over the story, I wanna see if I missed anything, you were her torturer...”
“Yes.”
