Ruthless Savior - Julia Sykes Page 0,47

joyful house was flooded with a grating scream; the sound of our home shattering beyond repair.

Strong hands closed around my shoulders, dragging me away from my family.

“No!” I wailed.

I twisted against the man’s iron grip, but he only pulled me closer.

“Marisol.” He shook me gently. “Marisol, wake up. It’s just a bad dream.”

A rich, earthy scent suffused the air around me, and I gasped in a desperate breath. As it filtered into my lungs, my body absorbed it like a drug.

“Raúl.” His name hitched on a sob, and I buried my face in his hard chest, greedily drawing in more of his unique, calming scent.

His brawny arms enfolded me, one hand bracing between my shoulder blades and the other cradling the back of my head, urging me closer. “It’s all right, corderita.” He brushed his thick fingers through my hair in a soothing rhythm. “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

He continued to pet me until I eventually settled back into my current reality with him. Exhaustion settled in my bones, weighing me down. I couldn’t have moved away from Raúl’s reassuring heat even if I’d wanted to, and I stayed snuggled as close to him as possible. There was nowhere else I’d rather be.

In his strong arms, I was safe. Gehovany couldn’t get to me. He couldn’t hurt the people I loved.

Reading the renewed tension in my body, Raúl finally spoke. “Tell me what happened.”

I hesitated, holding my breath to lock my confession in my chest. I didn’t want to speak my sin aloud. The memories alone were sharp enough to stab deep into my soul.

His hand slid from my hair to firmly grip my nape. “Tell me.”

Compelled by his deep command and domineering, primal hold, words spilled from my lips. “I killed my mother.”

The bloody flower blooming on her yellow dress filled my mind, and a shudder wracked my body.

“How?” His low, even tone betrayed no condemnation or revulsion. He simply prompted me to continue.

“I…” My throat constricted, but he remained silent, waiting. “There was a man. Gehovany.” His name coated my tongue in acid. “We…we were together. I lived with him.” Shame burned my insides. “We weren’t married, but I moved in with him. My parents warned me. They said it wasn’t right. They said a good man wouldn’t ask me to do such a thing.”

Bitterness twisted my lips. “But I didn’t listen. I thought I was bravely independent, choosing to live my life however I wanted. At the time, their expectations for my behavior felt like a cage. And I thought Gehovany was freedom. I felt wild when I was with him, caught up in the whirlwind of romance.”

When I paused for too long, Raúl gave my neck a gentle squeeze. Despite my vulnerable position, calm emanated from his firm hold in a warm pulse. He willed me to continue, giving me no choice but to confess everything.

His control was oddly comforting. I didn’t have to bear the burden of my crushing guilt alone anymore, because he simply wouldn’t let me. I’d thought speaking my sins aloud would hurt worse than holding them inside, but sharing them with Raúl seemed to be lifting a bit of the weight with each word I spoke.

“Gehovany changed once I moved in with him.” I shook my head. That wasn’t right. “He started to show me who he really was, and he stopped showering me with the affection that’d made me fall for him, hard and fast.”

I closed my eyes against a hot wave of shame. It burned behind my eyelids, and tears slipped through my lashes.

“I couldn’t tell my parents the truth,” I whispered. “They’d given me every chance to stay at home—they’d demanded that I stay. But I’d thrown their loving concern in their faces. I told them they didn’t know what love is, and if they did, they would understand how I felt about Gehovany.

“How could I go back to them for help when I’d been so cruel?” That thought had haunted me every time Gehovany had beaten me. I’d wanted so desperately to leave, but I was too ashamed to go home.

“But then, one day…” I shuddered at the memory of that awful day, when he’d come home with blood on his hands. Blood that wasn’t mine.

That’d been when I’d learned of his involvement with the gang. The dangerous vibe about him that I’d found so thrilling was an evil deep in his soul. I’d relished his darkness during our wild, rough sex, especially in the early days