Page 62 of Rockstar Untamed
Sailor tried to keep her voice steady, but it was difficult. “You’re drunk, you’re hurting. You have every right to be angry at me, every right. But, please, don’t leave my little girl without a mother.” Her voice broke at the end of the sentence.
Claudio remained unmoved. “Soleil never got the chance to be a mother,” he barked at her, “So why should you?”
Sailor closed her eyes. She didn’t really believe he would kill her; he was just hurting so badly that he was lashing out. She studied him as he paced. His hair had grown wild, his handsome face marked and lined with grief, his hazel eyes stricken. So much pain. Sailor cursed Bartholomew Foy all over again. Claudio seemed to read her mind.
“It was your father who ordered her murder,” he said, his voice calming now, almost cold. “An eye for an eye seems a good idea right now.”
Sailor was silent. Maybe if she let him rant himself out…Then Claudio did something that made her stomach curl with terror. He grabbed a dish cloth, tearing it into strips and bound her hands behind her, to the chair.
“The police told me someone held her back while the killer stabbed her. She couldn’t defend herself…so why should you be able?”
The feeling of being tied to chair made Sailor’s body tremble. Memories flooded back. Her father. The knife. The pain. She couldn’t help the whimper of fear that escaped her. Claudio pulled up a chair and sat in front of her. Sailor only reigned in her screams because he wasn’t armed. Claudio studied her before he spoke, Sailor smelled whiskey and cigarettes on his breath.
“Youarebeautiful. When I first met you, I admit, I had a crush. I know Soleil liked you…hell, there was proof all over the news that she liked you, wasn’t there? You fucked her…did you actually desire her too or were you just using her to get your rocks off?”
“I loved her,” Sailor said softly, figuring honesty was the only thing which could save her now. “I loved her, maybe not in the same way I love Bodhi, but yes, I wanted her that day and she wanted me. It was one of the happiest days of my life, and when Soleil died, a part of me died too. There isn’t anything I would do to bring her back but I can’t. If I had known Bart Foy…”
“Your father.”
Sailor choked on the words. “My father – in biology only – if I had known he would kill her…I would have swapped places with her in a heartbeat. I loved her, Claudio.”
Claudio got up suddenly, pacing around the room and Sailor saw that she had gotten through to him – a little. After a few tense minutes, he sat down.
“Tell me.”
Sailor was confused. “Tell you what?”
“Everything. From as far back as you can remember. Tell me everything about how you were raised, what Bartie Foy was like.”
Sailor let out a shuddery breath. He was doing it to torture her.Okay, then, let him,she thought. She told him everything, about her mother, about Tilly, about her destiny to be his wife. “He wanted to fuck me, Claudio. My own father. And as he always wanted to be seen as pure and a good man, I have no doubt that he would have murdered me eventually to stop me talking about his incestuous violence.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?” Claudio’s voice was like ice. Sailor shook her head.
“No. You asked me to tell you, and I’m telling you. The day I met Bodie, I had escaped from Bart but was working for his agent, Maurice Winston. Winston tried to rape me, and Bodhi saved me. It seems so prosaic to say it, but we really did fall in love quickly. He wanted to protect me.”
“Which is why he asked Solly to pose as his girlfriend? To protect your whereabouts?”
Sailor nodded. “And she agreed without hesitation.”
Claudio looked down at his hands and was silent for a long time. All Sailor could hear was his ragged breathing and the sound of her blood rushing in her ears. When Claudio looked up again, there were tears in his angry eyes.
“They stabbed her twenty-seven times.Twenty-seven.The medical examiner said twenty-two of those stab wounds were fatal in and of themselves. Heguttedmy sister. By the time the doctor officially declared her dead, she had bled out entirely. Solly didn’t stand a chance.”
“I know,” Sailor said in a whisper, “I’m so sorry, Claudio.”
His face hardened. “So, who could blame me for doing the same toyou, Sailor?” And he got up and grabbed a lethal looking bread knife.
Sailor closed her eyes and waited to die. Somehow, in her heart, she knew this had been inevitable, that her happiness was temporary, that she was destined to die young.Oh my god, Bodhi, Solly, Tim…I love you, I love you…goodbye
She felt Claudio rip open the bodice of her dress…
Bodhi tried Sailor’s cell phone again, his heart beating faster and faster. Why wasn’t she answering? He cursed, not seeing his mother behind him holding Solly.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” repeated Solly cheerfully until her grandmother shushed her. Vittoria studied her son. “What is it?”
Bodhi took his daughter and hugged her before answering. Solly wriggled in his arms. “I can’t get hold of Sailor. I would have thought her phone would be on, especially in a city.”
Vittoria looked guilty, and Bodhi squinted his eyes at her. “What? What’s going on?”
