lamp, and the drawer that was still open, ending on my face.
“For the truth.” He nodded once, slowly. “Dimmi, Scarlett.”
I started from the first time I woke up, when I knew we were in Texas, but when I got to the gas station, he stopped me.
He ran a crazed hand through his hair, his manic eyes twitching a bit. “He robbed a gas station.” He laughed like a crazed man, nothing funny about the situation or his humor. He sat down on the bed but then stood, looking at it in disgust. “With you.”
“Not me,” I said quietly. “I was sick at the time.” Taking the gun from behind my back, I took an easy step closer to him and placed it on the table.
He took it, looking it over, and then said, “The end.”
I nodded. “The end.”
“Bullshit!” He roared, and I flinched. “The truth. Every fucking bit of it, Scarlett. Or no deal. Something happened here. I’m not a man accustomed to repeating myself. For your sake, I will. Once more. Tell me or I’ll have no choice but to believe the story I’m telling myself.”
“It’s not…”
“Let’s make this easy. Did he touch you?”
“Do you really want to hear it?”
“Details.”
He punished me by punishing himself. I hated him for it. I told him everything, though, from the moment we walked into the hotel room, up until the moment Ace left. I didn’t tell him how I cried after. That was none of his concern.
I would have been furious at Violet for not honoring her promise, for being another person in my life who discarded my wishes. But I couldn’t. I understood what she had meant in that moment when she had told me Brando was terrifying. As much as his eyes loved dangerously, they hated just as fiercely.
I took a step back, caught in the pull of his stare. He blinked. Realization seemed to wash over him in that moment. He came to me then. I refused to look at him, but I could feel his eyes on me. He lifted a hand and I sucked in a deep breath, wincing, taking a step back. I didn’t feel as brave as I had been. With him there, I was close to dissolving.
“Baby,” he said softly. He put his hands up, taking slow steps toward me. Then he lifted a trembling hand to my face, removing the glasses.
Ace hadn’t left much of a mark, but my skin was so pale that bruises seemed much more than what they were. A bruise hadn’t appeared, but the sting from his hand lingered.
I moved my face away from his touch when he went to caress my skin. I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t want it.
That’s when he went berserk. The walls. The comforter. The bedside table. He threw a chair through the glass window in the room. I couldn’t seem to stop him, my voice too hoarse to truly scream. But the chant of “please, please, please stop” finally broke through, and he stopped.
“I can’t lose what I gave up. Please. If you destroy anything else, he’ll keep it. Please, Brando. Just. Stop.”
He refused to face me. “You wanted to see me lose control, Scarlett.” His voice came out even, not even a slight tremble. “You wanted to see me come apart at the seams. You wanted to see me unhinged. To see how this is tearing me apart. To see how this is fucking killing me. I’ve never lost control for anyone or anything in my life. I never will. But for you.” He opened his arms, a helpless gesture, and then let them fall. “You’re the only one in life who can unhinge me to madness. You are the only one who can kill me without touching me.”
Blood dripped from his hand onto the carpet. He had split one of his knuckles. He made a noise deep in his throat, not quite a sob, not quite a growl after the silence had stretched between us. He shook his head, as if he were clearing it.
“Time to go.” His voice was as hoarse as mine. He gathered my backpack and then went to pick me up.
Already prepared for his usual, I sidestepped his action. I shook my head and maneuvered around him, not getting too close.
He shut the door behind us.
Brando made good on my pawn. It was not a formal affair. I had given the owner of the motel the ballerina ring as leverage to stay at the motel until my