"Exactly, boss," Gerard said quietly. "Exactly."
Raaf could feel himself turning white. Had he been completely wrong? Had he hurt her for nothing? Pushed her away and—-
Fuck.
He remembered the look in her eyes, and only now did it make sense.
That look in her eyes...
No. Fuck. No.
He had only told her it was done between them because it was.
But he had never meant her to misread his words and think that everything between them had been a lie, and that he had asked her again and again to turn herself into a whore...
Because that was all she was to him.
"If you would like to go after the little madam, Ramon already has the speedboat running—-" Gerard didn't bother to finish, with Raaf already running past him like his life depended on it.
And it likely did.
The Words
I don't hear it at first. The sound of waves crashing against the hull of the boat has been deafening, and more importantly, it's effectively distracting. It gives me something to do, like trying to guess its height or how long the interval is between this wave and the next.
Anything is food for thought right now, anything except the stuff that hurts, but this soon proves to be completely out of my hands when I finally do hear it.
And see it.
Impossible not to, when a speedboat suddenly comes roaring into the side of my father's sailboat.
Ramon is behind its wheel and next to him, of course, is Raaf—-
Oh my God!
I dimly hear Father yell for me to run, but it's too late. Raaf has already made the jump, his fingers latching onto the rails. A moment later, he swings himself up like he's freaking Tarzan, and I am left staring at him in open-mouthed shock. Is that part of his cult training—-
Oh my God!
I almost feel stupid and shallow for all the OMGs I'm screaming in my head, but it's hard to make vocabulary expansion a priority when Raaf has lunged for me without warning, and I'm suddenly trapped between his hard body and the wet steel rails of the boat.
"I'm sorry, Sara."
The rawness of his tone makes me want to cry, but I can't let him fool me again. "You're forgiven," I say stiffly. "Can you let me go now?"
"Not until you promise me that you'll come back."
My hands ball into fists against my sides. "Do you really think I'm that big of an idiot? Or that desperate? I won't...I won't..." Tears start pricking at my eyes at what I'm about to admit out loud.
"Sara—-"
"You lied to me," I say brokenly. "You said you'd never...you said I was m-magnificent—-"
"You are," he says fiercely. "You're magnificent—-"
"Stop lying! I won't be your whore again, damn you!"
Just saying the words make me shrink in shame, and when I accidentally glimpse the look of shock in my father's face behind Raaf, it's as if all of my nightmares are converging in reality—-
No!
William is suddenly there, and I have no time to cry out in warning. My father is already driving his fist into Raaf's cheek, and the force of it causes Raaf's head to snap to the side.
"Father!"
"Stay the hell away from my daughter!"
I have never even heard my father shout before, but now he's turned into this violent stranger who hauls Raul off me with surprising strength. "Father, no—"
William starts punching him again and again, but Raaf doesn't make a single move to retaliate.
Even as he crashes down to his knees, his gaze is only on me—-
"My biological father raped my mother, and I grew up in a cult. I was terrified that these things might eventually affect me—-" He breaks off as my father hits him particularly hard, and Raaf spits out blood.
"Father, stop!"
But neither William nor Raaf listens to me.
"I was terrified those things would eventually cause me to hurt you—-"
"How can you believe that," I choke out, "but also think that Gerard and the others are worth saving?"
Raaf doesn't answer right away, his attention focused on avoiding my father's fists.
"Father, please—-"
I take a step forward to stand between them, and Raaf looks my way. "Don't!"
I've distracted him without meaning to, and I realize too late that I've unintentionally given my father an advantage. "Watch out!"
But William has already taken a swing, and he knocks Raaf to the ground.
"Father, please! Enough!"
I cry out again and again, but my father doesn't even seem to hear me, and the next thing I know, I've already thrown my body over Raaf—-
But nothing happens.
I open my eyes, and a sob clogs my throat when I see that the violence has disappeared from my father's gaze. My heart pounds against my chest as I slowly peel myself off Raaf. A part of me still expects my father to strike without warning, and it's only when I've managed to sit up that I tentatively seek my father's gaze.