Page 78 of Inferno

“Do you believe in this stupid Barnett curse, love-at-first-sight thing?” I question.

“Yes,” Knight says simply.

“Is that how you know that this woman you intend to marry is the one?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re confident that she’ll feel the same way?”

“Eventually, yes. I’m actually planning to inform her of our impending nuptials in the next few weeks.”

“Is she here then, in town?” I ask.

“Not yet. I intend to collect her and bring her home.”

Shocked to silence, I stare at him, in awe of both his certainty and single-minded intent.

“Would you still tell her that you intend to marry her if something about you could impact her?” I ask, pushing my own dilemma onto Knight’s situation in the hope that he’ll tell me what I want to hear and confirm that walking away from Henry for both of our sakes was the right thing to do.

“Yes,” he says decisively.

“Even if you could hurt her?”

“I’d never physically hurt a woman.”

“What about emotionally, psychologically?”

“My wife was thrown into my path for a reason. If she wasn’t the person I was intended to be with, then I wouldn’t be so sure. I don’t think there’s anything about me that could hurt her, she wouldn’t be my perfect doll if there was.”

“I’m a dominant,” I blurt, struggling to understand where my filter has gone and why I suddenly can’t stop speaking.

“In a sexual way?” Knight asks, his expression thoughtful.

“Yes. But I’m also someone who enjoys control in all aspects of my life.”

“And you see this as a bad thing?” he questions curiously.

“Wouldn’t you?” I ask.

“I believe control is a requirement for happiness and peacefulness. I require immense amounts of control over my home, work, and environment. I don’t consider that a weakness, rather, I feel it’s a strength.”

“And if your need for control negatively impacted your wife?”

“How would it?” he asks.

“What if you needed to know where she was at all times?” I ask, using one of Gabe’s biggest issues as an example.

“I’d put a tracker on her cell, clothes, car, and person.” His tone is so neutral, so…calm that I find myself blinking at him.

“And you think that’s normal?”

“Once my wife is here, I will be accompanying her at all times. If there is an occasion when I cannot, then I think a tracker is a perfectly reasonable compromise.”

“And if your wife didn’t agree?”

“I hadn’t intended on asking for permission,” he says, stone-faced.

“What if you wanted to be involved in every aspect of her life, right down to being in the bathroom with her?”

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