The next morning when Derek woke up he knew instantly that Elaine was not next to him. He let his senses take in the rest of the room before he opened his eyes. Elaine was on the couch, dressed and with a steaming cup in her hands. It was the look on her face that drew his attention. Something was wrong and he didn’t expect that, considering the night they’d shared. He could only say that last night was the first time they had truly made love. They held nothing back, even their souls were present. It was like a life mating, momentous, permanent. Soul mate permanent.
So what was wrong now? He sat up and faced her, “Elaine?”
She didn’t lift her eyes from her cup, “Get dressed. We need to talk.”
The fuck! If she suddenly decided they weren’t meant to be, he wasn’t going to make it easy on her.
“I can hear your thoughts and no I’m not breaking up with you. I want to tell you about Katarina and what changed her from the happy child she used to be into the demon Jackie the Ripper, only whispered about in the light of day.”
Derek was glad she was volunteering to tell him, but something about her demeanor, how she’d folded into herself made him apprehensive. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know anymore. But it was clear she needed to tell it. So without a word he pulled on the clothes from the day before that were dumped next to the mattress and sat back down.
She looked at him then, just a quick glance and a quicker smile, “Thanks for not coming up here. I don’t think I would have been able to do this with you so close.”
Derek just nodded, waiting patiently even though his heart was pounding a mile a minute. Dear God, Please don’t let it be something bad.
“I already told you how my mother died and how it broke my father and he decided to ignore my very existence. I barely saw him and when I did, he would just glare at me like everything was my fault. It got to a point it scared me to just be in his presence, so I stayed in my room. Ten years I barely left those four walls, I made it my sanctuary.” She stopped, her throat moving up and down several times fighting emotions, but not once did she look up from the cup. Derek had to fist his hands under his crossed legs to keep from reaching for her.
“The day after I turned fifteen, I was feeling a little depressed that no one had bothered to celebrate it. Of course, it had been like that for ten years but that year, I was fed up of being ignored. I stormed into my father’s office, during his meeting with other mob heads and demanded to be seen. I told him I didn’t die with my mother so I shouldn’t be ignored. That her death wasn’t my fault so he needed to stop treating me like it was. For the first time I saw something in his eyes besides contempt,” she smiled sadly, “I thought I’d finally gotten his respect, made him see me. He told me to go back to my room, that he had a birthday present for me. One that I would never forget.” The cup in her hand shook and if it wasn’t for the lack of steam Derek would have been worried about her burning herself when she did spill it.
“I was so excited, especially when my bodyguard Ivan told me to get dressed and ready to go out on a trip. I trusted him. The man was at my door twenty-four seven for most of my life. I saw him more often than I did my father. If he said the sun was blue, the moon as red and fairies existed, I believed him. I always believed him no matter what. I made sure I was dressed to impress. I didn’t want to disappoint my father when he’d finally noticed me. I got to the car and it was just me and Ivan. Ian his brother drove us. I was disappointed when my dad didn’t join us, but Ivan assured me he would meet us there. It was part of the surprise.”
With her free hand she scratched her neck, her eyes darting around and her breath came a little harshly. Derek felt himself shake. He knew what was coming next and he wasn’t ready to hear it. Fuck he didn’t want to hear it!
“Elaine…”
The sound of tearing fabric filled the room. She’d torn the front of her t-shirt from the neckline to the middle. She pushed it open as her breath came fast and hard. “Vladimir was there when we arrived. He said father had sent him ahead, told him to give Ivan his instructions on my surprise. The next thing I knew, arms wrapped around me tight from behind. Then Vladimir stared down at me and said father had asked Ivan to teach me how to be strong, loyal to the family. I didn’t understand until I got into the house,” her face crumbled and she cried out, “inside the bedroom. I was at his house, his room. The man I trusted above all else ruined my life.” She tossed the cup she held and it shattered against the wall behind Derek.
He jumped up then, dragged her down onto the mattress and held her tight on his lap. She screamed, fough, scratched and cursed at him, but he never let go. He held her and he cried with her as she yelled ‘he raped me, he beat me, he broke me. He brutalized me for days. My father told him to do that to me. Why? Why did he hate me so much?’ Derek had no words to say to comfort her, nothing he could do to soothe her so he just held her and hoped she felt the love he had for her.
It felt like hours before she stopped fighting invisible demons and dropped off to sleep. Derek tackled her onto the mattress and just sat beside her in the company of a bottle of gin and just stared unseeingly into the fire. She hadn’t told him the details and he was grateful for it. He didn’t think he would have been able to stomach knowing every single detail. But there was one thing that was stuck in his mind that drove him to drink. He brutalized me for days, exactly how long had she been in that monster’s home and how did she get away?
He brought his knees up and leaned his elbows on them, dropping his head between his arms. He’d heard of fucked up fathers, but Elaine’s took the cake. How wasn’t Elaine afraid to be touched, to trust? Actually, she was. It explained her years of the most feared assassin, but why not with him? How wasn’t Elaine distrustful of Derek with their daughter? He wouldn’t blame her if she were. To have the one man in her life betray her like he did, was her father even alive? Katarina was vengeful, she didn’t believe in forgiveness. Did she seek retribution? Did she make it hurt? God, he hoped she did. He hoped she cut him up and let him bleed to death, for him to have felt nothing but pain and helpless as he died. And that Ivan, Derek wanted to kill him himself. He would take pleasure in it, take his sweet time and let him live half a life before Derek finally killed him.