Page 40 of Relentless Sinner
All the fear, pain and helplessness pour out of me in a way I couldn’t allow until now. But I need to rein it in. If I don’t I’ll never stop crying. Tears like this come with the added baggage of everything sad that hurts your soul. For me that started with losing my mother.
Cora pulls back just enough to look at me, her hands still on my shoulders, her face streaked with tears, too.
We look similar enough for people to tell we’re related, but she has bright green eyes and honey-blonde hair. She’s also two inches taller than me and has the willowy figure of a ballerina. In her light pink summer dress she almost looks like one.
“I’m so sorry for what happened to you,” she mutters. “Are you hurt? Please tell me no one hurt you.”
I can’t. “I was but I’m better.”
“Did Jaxon?—”
“No. Not him.” How strange that the one person I expected to hurt me hasn’t. Instead, he’s saved me every time I was meant to be hurt worse than I was before. “I’m okay now.” My voice breaks on the last word, betraying the truth, but it’s what I need to say for both of us.
Cora’s lip quivers and she lifts a hand to my face, her thumb brushing my tears away. “Let’s talk.”
I nod and gesture toward the wicker table where she previously sat.
Eve prepared sandwiches, fresh lemonade and some Russian-style cookies I’ve grown to like since I’ve been here.
Cora and I sit. She looks around us, assessing the area.
“How much privacy do we have?” She drops her voice to a whisper.
“Not a lot. We have to be careful. Keep our voices low.”
“My God, Gabriella, this is a nightmare.”
“I know.”
“And as for your father…” She balls her hand into a fist and shakes her head vigorously. “He’s evil. Pure evil. I’m ashamed to call him my uncle. No one else in the family behaves like him. I don’t understand what the hell he was thinking. All of this is his fault.”
Her father, Uncle Russo, is my father’s younger brother and absolutely nothing like him. It’s like my father was adopted from the devil.
“It most definitely is his fault. I think he’s in trouble.” That was the answer I came to and I don’t think Dad is only in trouble with Jaxon. I think it’s bigger than that.
“You shouldn’t have to pay for his trouble. Nor Natasha. I pray she’s safe wherever she is.”
“Me too.” Guilt weighs on me at the mention of Natasha’s whereabouts. I want to tell Cora where she is but I mustn’t even be tempted. I trust Cora but I won’t put her in danger with that knowledge. I also won’t betray my sister’s trust. Natasha told me where she was because she didn’t want me to worry. For that I’m grateful. Worrying about her in such a way would have made everything so much harder.
“Talk to me, Gabriella. Tell me everything you couldn’t over the phone. I need to know.”
I rest my hands on the table, calm my breathing, and blink away the brewing bout of tears, then I look back at her and talk.
I fill her in on everything. All the parts I couldn’t speak about in detail over the phone. When I’m done fresh tears stream down her cheeks and she looks so distraught for me anyone would think it was her who had been through it all.
“I can’t believe it was so bad. I just can’t. You went through so much.” She grabs one of the napkins and dries her eyes. “Your father is such a bastard, Gabriella.”
“I know.”
“Oh Gabriella, you shouldn’t have run away. Can you imagine if those men had done worse to you? Or if your father had caught you. He made you sign that contract at gunpoint.”
“I fucked up, but I couldn’t sign my life away. I still can’t.”
“Gabriella, listen to me. You have to be careful you?—”
“I can’t stay here,” I whisper-shout, then carefully look to my right and left, making sure we’re still alone.
“What do you mean? Please don’t tell me you’re thinking of trying to run from Jaxon Bortsov.” Cora stares back at me with eyes so wide her pupils dilate, almost swallowing her irises whole.