Darkness and light.
She was deeply, almost irreversibly attracted to both. Again her heart twisted and she looked towards the bathroom.
A crash came a second later, followed by a pithy curse. She was off the bed and running into the bathroom before she could think twice.
'I'm fine!' he ground out.
She hesitated in the doorway and watched him. His fingers were curled around the marble sink and his head was bent forward. 'What's wrong, Theo?'
'Dammit, woman, I'm not made of glass. And I've been grappling with my nightmares long before you came along, so leave me alone!'
Hurt shredded her inside. 'Don't push me away.'
He locked eyes with her in the mirror and sighed. 'You're too stubborn for your own good, you know that?'
'Maybe, but before you throw me out I need the bathroom,' she lied.
'Fine; it's all yours.'
He started to turn. That was when she saw his scars. 'Meu deus, what happened to you?' she whispered raggedly.
His glance ripped from her face to where she pointed to his left hip. The marks were puckered and too evenly spaced and shaped to be an accident. But still her mind couldn't grasp the idea that someone had deliberately inflicted pain on him.
'You mean you haven't guessed already, querida? Your father happened.'
CHAPTER ELEVEN
INEZ STAGGERED BACKWARDS until her legs hit the vanity unit and she collapsed onto it. 'I don't … you're saying my father did this to you?' She shook her head in fierce disbelief.
Theo's mouth twisted. 'Not personally, no. He hired thugs to do it.'
She felt the blood drain from her head. Had she not been seated, she would've swayed under the unbelievable accusation.
'But … why?'
He grabbed a towel and secured it around his waist. 'You did your research on my family. You know what happened to my father.'
She nodded. 'He was indicted for fraud, bribery and embezzlement.'
'Among other things. He was also involved with some extremely shady people.'
He turned and strode from the bathroom.
She followed him, the fear she'd harboured for a long time blooming in her chest. 'And my father was one of these shady people?'
Theo turned and watched her. Shocked knowledge flared in her eyes. For a brief moment, he sympathised with what she was going through. Having the truth blown up in front of you wasn't easy.
In his deepest, darkest moments he still couldn't believe how painfully raw he felt at his father's abandonment.
'My father owed him a lot of money on some crooked scheme they were working on when he was arrested and all our assets were frozen. Your father took exception to being out of pocket. When he realised he wouldn't be paid, he decided to pursue a different route.'
Her haunted eyes dropped to the scars covered by the towel and quickly looked away.
'So I'm here to pay for my father's sins,' she whispered raggedly.
That had initially been his plan. Somewhere along the line that particular plan had become questionable. But he'd be damned before he'd admit that.
'Your father made me pay for my father's. Money and power were his bottom line, and he wanted payback. Nothing else mattered to him, not even the tortured screams of a frightened boy … '
He compressed his lips as her mouth dropped open and anguish creased her face. 'How old were you?'
He raked a hand through his hair. Even as a voice shrieked in his head to stop baring his raw wounds, he was opening his mouth.
'I was seventeen. I was returning from a night out with friends when his goons grabbed me. He had me smuggled from Athens to Spain and threw me into a hole on some abandoned farm in Madrid. Ari found me there two weeks after I was taken. After he damned near bled every single cent he could find from every relative and casual acquaintance in order to stump up the two million dollars ransom that your father demanded.'
Her hands flew to her head, her fingers spiking through the long tresses to grip them in a convulsive stranglehold. 'Please tell me when you say a hole … you don't mean that literally?' The words were a desperate plea, as if she didn't want to believe how real the monster that was her father.
His smile cracked his lips. 'Oh, yes, anjo. A twelve-foot-deep literal hole in the ground with vertical sides and no hand or footholds. No light. No heat. One meal a day with a bucket for my necessaries.'
'No … '
'Yes! And you know what his men did for fun when they were bored?'
She shook her head wildly, her eyes wide and horror-struck as he loosened the towel from around his waist and exposed his puckered skin. 'Cigar tattoos, they called them.'
Tears welled in her eyes and fell down her cheeks. Still shaking her head, she walked to the bed and sank down on it. She buried her face in her hands and a gut-wrenching sob ripped from her throat. After the first one, they came thick and fast.
His chest tightened with emotions he was very loath to name. Each sob caught him on the raw, until he couldn't bear to hear another one.
'Inez! Stop crying,' he instructed hoarsely after five minutes.
She shook her head and sniffled some more.
'Stop it or I'll throw you overboard and you can swim to shore.'
That got her attention. She brushed her hands across her cheeks and speared him with wide, imploring eyes.
'If the only people you saw were his men, how did you know it was my father?'
He couldn't fault her for trying to find a different reality to the one he'd smashed her world with. Hell, he'd done that for a long time after his father had been indicted. 'I followed the money.'
She frowned. 'What?'
'I traced the ransom my brother paid through dummy corporations and offshore accounts. It took a few years but I finally found where it ended up.'
'In my father's account?'
'Yes. And since then I've made it my business to find out how every single cent was spent.'
Her shoulders slumped and tears welled again. He could tell the ground had well and truly shifted beneath her feet.
After several seconds, she raised her head.
'Okay. I'll do whatever you want. For however long you want.'
It was his turn to feel the ground shift under his feet. Shock slammed through him as he realised just how much he wanted to take her. To hang onto her.
But not for the sake of revenge. For an altogether different reason; because he wanted her. Not for her father but for her.
He shook his head. 'Inez … '
'I can never buy back those two weeks that were taken from you or the horror you've had to live with. But I can try and find a way to make up for what was done to you.'
'How? By giving me your body whenever and wherever I ask for it?'
She paled a little. But the brave, spirited woman he'd come to see underneath all that false gloss raised her chin. 'If that's what you want.'
His mouth twisted. 'I don't want a damned sacrificial lamb. And I sure as hell don't want you throwing yourself on your sword for that bastard's sake!'
'Then what do you want? You have his company. His campaign is falling apart. He will be left with nothing by the time you're done with him. How much more suffering do you need before you let go of this anger? When will you feel pacified?'
Theo started to answer, then realised he had no answer. The satisfaction he'd thought he'd feel was hollowly absent, as was the deep-seated sense of triumph he'd always thought he would feel when this moment came.
Looking into her face, he saw the pain and confusion reflected there and his puzzlement increased. The ground was still tilting beneath his feet but he'd been on this path for too long to let go.
Hadn't he?
He forced his gaze to meet hers.
'I will let you know when I'm adequately appeased.'
* * *
Over the next week, she watched as he slowly dismantled her father's campaign piece by piece. Allegations of impropriety surfaced, triggering an investigation. Although nothing was found to indict Benedicto, his credibility suffered a death blow and any meaningful points he'd managed to retain in the polls dropped to nothing.
On the Monday morning after returning from their sailing trip, the calls to her cell phone started. Both her father and Pietro bombarded her with messages and texts, demanding to know what was going on.
She hadn't needed Theo to warn her not to take their calls. After his revelation, each time she saw her father's name pop up on her screen, her stomach churned with pain and disgust.
Although she'd long suspected that her father's business dealings weren't as pure as the driven snow, she'd never in her wildest dreams entertained the idea that he would condone the brutality that Theo had described. Each time she saw his scars-and she'd seen them every night since their return, when he'd moved her into his suite-a merciless vice had squeezed her heart.