Page 16 of Brutal Vows

His belt slips higheron my face. A gap forms at the bridge of my nose, allowing a sliver of light underneath, but the warm leather prevents me from lifting my lashes enough to make anything out.

Bile sours the back of my throat. His hard shoulder digs into my stomach. Fatigue lurks underneath my adrenaline, promising a catastrophic drop once my hypervigilance fades.

My senses heighten as he maneuvers through the new space on silent feet, his smooth stride so predatory my urge to flee intensifies. Even without my sight, the sense of being in an enclosed space with him fills me with fresh terror. I clench my fists in his shirt and breathe as best as I can with his shoulder digging into my stomach.

I jerk as a screeching noise fills my ears. As I recognize the sound of shower curtain hooks sliding along the metal rod, he shrugs me off his shoulder. My heart leaps into my throat as I fall, but he catches me and spins me around in midair before dropping me the last few inches into the tub. I hiss at the jarring impact and curse when frigid water rains down on me where I sit.

The dried blood on my hands and face turns tacky before slowly sloughing off under the onslaught. I lift my bound wriststo wipe my face, but Ermanno’s massive fingers close around my hands, forcing them into fists, and push them down to my lap.

“Answer my questions and I’ll adjust the temperature,” he says just loud enough for me to hear him over the rush of the shower.

I turn my head and spit to clear my mouth of the water and grime running down my face.

He grabs my shoulder and pushes me lower into the tub so the spray lands directly on my head and shoulders. I fight the panic rising in my chest and breathe through my nose as much as possible.

When he yanks me higher, I sputter and manage one full breath before he pushes me under again.

As time stretches into infinity, my mind clings to the warmth of his hands on me even though I know he’s the puppeteer behind my misery.

He drags me to a sitting position. I shiver as the cold water sucks the heat from my body.

“What are you doing in New York City?” he asks.

I clench my teeth together and turn my head away from him.

He shoves me under again. I grind my knuckles together in his fist, using the pain and friction to ground me. With an impatient growl, he pulls me up again.

My nostrils burn and my teeth ache from the icy water as I try to clear my airway.

“Why are you pretending to work at that clinic?” he asks.

I spit before clamping my teeth together. The warm glob trails down my chin but turns cold by the time it reaches my throat.

“Who are you working with?” he snarls.

My nerves jangle from the barely leashed fury in his voice. He shifts his grip from my shoulder to my nape and squeezes.

A part of me relaxes. It makes no sense, but his tight grip slips under my defenses and quenches the constant ache of loneliness within me.

“You won’t win with silence, Julieta. C’mon, lie to me like you used to,” he murmurs.

I shake my head. My shivering worsens as ice infects my bones.

“Did you just tell me no? Are you refusing to answer me?”

It doesn’t matter what he does to me; I’ll wield my silence like a weapon. Any other response will put my sister in danger.

He gives a disgusted scoff before shoving me under the downpour and pulling his hands away.

For a horrible moment, my heart seizes in my chest and the black hole swirling behind my sternum threatens to swallow me whole, but his frigid voice reaches through my panic and stops me from descending into madness.

“It’s okay,bugiarda. You can stay here until you’re ready to talk.”

I can’t hear his footsteps over the shower, but when a door closes a few feet away, I realize he left me bound and blindfolded in the freezing water all alone. My numb fingers refuse to pull the belt away from my eyes no matter how hard I try to make them work.

A deeper, darker cold seeps into my veins and transports me into the past. My mother’s lifeless eyes stare up at me as water overflows the kitchen sink and pours down the cabinets to join the pool of blood underneath us.

Nothing will ever be warm again. We’ll stay trapped in the icy red river together, except she’s not here anymore. My mother is gone.

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