Page 79 of Monster

“I’m sure you have.”

“I was reading up last night on the Robinson Case.”

I slowly panned my gaze in his direction. “You what?”

He plucked a grape from the tray. “I’ve been reading through the transcripts of that trial, and you were on fire. I mean, some of the questions you threw at him and how you got him to stumble all over himself was an absolute pleasure to read.”

“The man should’ve gotten life in prison without the chance of parole.”

“And you know damn good and well just like I do that a man as disgusting as him won’t be able to ever convince a parole board that he’s ready to be back out in the world.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Is this some sort of peace offering?”

He plopped the grape into his mouth. “I’m not following.”

I waved my hand in the air. “You come in here with food and compliments and knowledge of some past case, and you expect me to be putty in your hands.”

He swallowed. “You seem to have this notion that I want to break you. Or crack you. Or make you some sort of submissive, kept woman.”

I paused. “Well, yeah.”

He reached for a strawberry. “That isn’t what I want.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Well, it isn’t.”

I narrowed my eyes. “All right, I’ll bite. What is it you want, then?”

He stood to his feet. “It’s simple, really.”

“Then, you won’t have any issues spitting it out.”

His eyes met mine. “I want you to want to be here and help me.”

The sincerity behind his eyes robbed me of the very breath in my lungs I needed to properly rebuttal. He wanted what now?

That doesn’t seem right. “So, you don’t want sex.”

He grinned. “I mean, every man wants sex. But, I’m not the kind of man that enjoys taking it without it being freely given.”

“Right. So, you want me to want you willingly.”

“And I want you to stay here willingly to help me take down the Lucchese’s.”

I blinked. “Uh huh.”

He slid his hands into his pockets. “Anyway, I’ll be back with dinner this evening. Though, if you’d like to join me for a swim, I’m headed down to the beach in about an hour.”

“I’ll think about it.”

He nodded. “Good.”

As I watched him exit my bedroom, I wondered about what my mother wanted. He told me what he wanted, and I knew what I wanted, but what did my mother want out of this? If she had tossed out my ransom, then she had a good reason for it. Maybe there was something she knew that I didn’t? Maybe she was working on mounting some sort of case against whoever Mateo Emiliano really was?

If she’s mounting a case, I need to stick by his side. She’ll need as much as I can feed her.

Or, maybe this was my mother’s way of telling me to fix my own problems. I mean, one of the very first things my mother taught me as a child was to never expect handouts. Never expect people to step up for you. Never expect anything from someone that you can’t readily provide yourself. Maybe this was the reason. Maybe my mother was expecting me to dig my way out of this.

“Pretty harsh lesson,” I murmured to myself.

Nevertheless, I decided to eat some of the food before getting ready for the beach. When I boiled everything down in my head, the only guarantee I had was Teo and his actions toward me. I could reminisce and theorize all day on what my mother was doing or thinking, but Teo was the only person in my life whose actions I could see. Whose words I could hear. Whose face I could see when we talked.

He was also the only person willing to touch me. Willing to reach out for me and take my hand. Willing to look at me and compliment me and build me up with his words.

And for now, I’d use those words and those actions to heal my emotional ache. Like a balm to a burn mark that hissed with pain.

Anything to get my mind off the small idea that my mother might not actually give a shit that I’d been taken.

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