Page 9 of Brutal Mercy

“And in response to your question, I looked up the store on your shirt. There’s a picture of you on the website.” Hades asks, “Now can you tell us what happened to you?”

Flashes of the assault filter through my memory. I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it ever again. But I nod. “I was working, running my store. And this customer, he, um . . .” This part is harder to talk about.

“It’s all right. You can tell us.”

I stare into Hades’s eyes. I can’t explain why I start talking, but he makes me feel safe, and it just spills out. “He kept saying I belong to him and that it’s time. And he trapped me against the glass. When I refused to go with him and tried shoving him away, that’s when he hit me. He wanted to—” I lower my face and squeeze my eyes shut as a few tears escape.

A hand touches my cheek and lifts my gaze. Hades. His eyes blaze with malice. But I know it’s not directed toward me, but for me. He’s angry someone hurt me. And I don’t know why, but it makes me want to crawl into his lap and have him hold me.

“He tried to rape you?” Hades continues for me.

I nod and swallow the revulsion. “Yes.”

“How did you get away?”

“I kneed him in the balls. And then I ran out the back door. I had to leave without my purse or phone or keys. There wasn’t time to grab them. So I ran to the trailhead and just kept on running.”

“That’s like ten miles,” Hades murmurs, his gaze sliding over me. And it feels like a gentle caress.

I shiver beneath his soft assessment. Is that how far I’d run? No wonder my entire body aches. “I had to get away. I couldn’t be sure he wasn’t following me. And then I lost the trail in my mad dash.”

“But ten miles?”

“I ran track in high school.” I shrug my shoulders, and even those hurt.

“And did you know the man who assaulted you?”

Diego’s evil leer flashes in my mind. “Yeah, somewhat. He’s been visiting the store for a few months. The guy would follow me around, telling me how I will belong to him. And how he will treat me like a princess. But I never wanted anything to do with him.”

“What’s his name? Do you know it?” Hades asks with that intense gaze trained on me.

I take another sip of water before I respond. “Yeah, he was real proud of his name. Diego Alvarez.”

Hades and Ares glance at each other and have a wordless conversation I don’t understand. Did I say something wrong? Don’t they believe me?

“What is he to you?” Hades questions me with more heat behind his words than I’m expecting.

“He’s just a guy who comes into my store. We get a lot of repeat customers, so I never thought it was unusual. But he wouldn’t leave me alone or take no for an answer. But today was the first time he ever got physical.” I wrap my arms around my body protectively. Until today, I have never been touched in anger. And the memory has me trembling.

Hades studies me for a minute. “All right. I’m gonna have Dr. Moreno examine you while I step outside for just a minute.”

“But you’ll come back?”

He glances down with a slight frown, and I realize I laid my hand on his powerful forearm. I snatch my hand away, feeling a blush spread into my cheeks. When I touched him, my palm felt burned by his energy. He’s easily the most handsome guy I’ve ever met, in a severe, almost brutal way.

His face is chiseled perfection with a powerful, masculine jaw and a proud nose. But it’s his eyes, the intensity of his icy stare, that affect me the most. Because it’s like he can see through all my layers to my soul.

Does he see how burned out I am? That the thought of returning to the scene of the crime makes me want to pull the covers over my head and never get out of bed? And just how mental I’ve become because I still want to crawl into his lap and feel his strong arms around me again?

“Yes, I’ll return. Be a girl good for the doctor for me, okay?”

“I will,” I promise with a nod while an uncanny desire to please him fills me. Which is weird. I don’t know him. All I know is that he rescued me and didn’t have to. He caught me before I hit the ground and carried me inside his home and to this bed. His actions tell me I can trust him. And that I’m safe with him. After everything, it’s a balm to my tired, battered heart and soul.

Hades and his brother leave me alone with Dr. Moreno. The kindly older man smiles.

“I need you to put on a hospital gown so I can examine those legs.” He rifles through his bag and withdraws a mint-green hospital gown. “I’m going to step right outside the room and let you change. Take off your bra. But you can leave your underwear on.”

“Okay.” I hold the gown against my chest.

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