“Hey,” he whispered. “You’re safe. You did good, Rhea. You hear me?”
“Yeah,” she managed, her voice muffled. “Safe for now.”
He glanced at me, those dark eyes raw with pain. I brushed a stray strand of Rhea’s hair behind her ear, careful not to press on the swelling there.
“You want water? Painkillers?” I asked softly.
Rhea shook her head. “Just . . . need a minute. Everything hurts, but it’s better now.”
Gavriel’s jaw clenched before he spoke. “You’re not going back. I don’t care what Father says. I’ll burn his fucking world down to keep you away from them.”
Rhea let out a bitter laugh. “You sound like Dad.”
Watching his face twist at that cut me open. For a moment, he looked decades older, bone-tired. He forced a smile. “I’m not him. I’ll never be him.”
A crack opened in my chest—being compared to a hated parent, feeling your own bones hewn from the same poison. I squeezed Rhea’s hand. “You don’t owe anyone anything. Not your father. Not Juarez. Especially not after today.”
Her good eye met mine, glassy and wet. “I just want it to be over. To go somewhere and wake up without looking over my shoulder.”
I nodded. “We’ll make that happen. But for now, you stay here, and when it’s safe, we will move you to my place.”
“He’s going to look for me there. It will be the first place he’ll look after Gavriel’s.”
I shook my head. “He doesn’t know about my safe room, Rhea. They won’t be able to find you there. You’ll be under total lockdown there, which I’m sorry about, but—”
“It’s the only way. I understand.” Rhea curled tighter under the blanket. “Thank you.”
I watched her drift off, her face softening in stages. Gavriel remained kneeling, staring at the floor, his hands trembling.
“You okay?” I asked quietly.
He didn’t answer at first. I saw the wheels turning in his mind—the calculations, the violence. Counting how many men he’d have to kill to rest.
“I’m fine,” he lied. Then softer: “I just . . . I don’t get how he could do this to her. His own daughter.”
I shrugged, anger bubbling anew. “Sociopaths don’t see family like we do. They see assets, weaknesses. You just happened to learn and pull your head from your ass.”
He almost laughed. Almost.
We sat in silence for a couple minutes, the only sound Rhea's occasional whimper in her sleep. I watched Gavriel's face—the tight line of his jaw, the way his fingers clenched and unclenched around my waist. I'd seen him in many states before: submissive, vulnerable, even broken. But this protective rage was something else entirely.
"I need to make some calls and talk to Harley," he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Gavriel." I used my domme voice without thinking. "Whatever you're planning—"
His eyes met mine, and I saw the struggle there. "I won't leave. And I won't do anything. Not yet."
I nodded, knowing that "not yet" was the best I could hope for. Standing, he headed to his office to make his calls. I checked Rhea's injuries again. Sitting on the floor, I just watched her sleep. The shit this woman had had to endure was bullshit. You read and heard stories of families who used their children as currency, but even I, knowing that my father had been mafia, had never thought I would actually see this kind of cruelty. Not even from Ezequiel Azzaro.
My chest was tight as I watched her. It just wasn’t fair. My teeth ground as I saw the swelling around her eye had worsened, but I relaxed as I noticed her breathing was even.
Getting up, I grabbed one of the ice packs, broke it open, shook it until it was cold, and then placed it gently over her eye as she rested.
"Is he still here?" she murmured, her good eye fluttering open.
"Yes, but he went to his office for now."
She tried to sit up, wincing at the pain. "I didn't want him to see me like this."
