Page 41 of Victorious Vice

I turn to Elmo. “Do you believe her?”

“Hell, I don’t know. His setup is every bit as good as your grandfather’s.”

I hold back a wince at his use of the wordgrandfather.

Elmo doesn’t know. No one knows.

“What is it that you need?” I ask Daniela.

“I don’t want to marry that old man.”

I nod slowly. “I hear you. I don’t want to marry the person I’m supposed to marry either.”

“My father…” She bites her lip. “He said he’d give me to you.”

I nearly fall off my feet. “You just told me you were promised to Vega. Your father knows damned well thatI’malready promised too.”

“He said he’d make it part of the deal. Part of the deal with your grandfather. He would marry me to you if I could get you to ask for my hand.”

“I’m twice your age, Daniela.” And I’m desperately in love with someone else, though I have a feeling her father already knows that. He’d be a fool not to know everything there is to know about me.

“I want to go to the States,” she says.

“There are plenty of ways to go to the States,” I say. “Get a student visa. You seem very intelligent. I’m sure you could get into one of the many schools that have openings for international students.”

She shakes her head with a huff. “You think he’d let me go to school?”

“You’re not in school now?”

She frowns. “I have private tutors. This is my last year. If this doesn’t work, I’m going to be forced to marry that old man. Vega.” She tugs on my arm. “Please. It’s my only chance to get out of here. We could get an annulment once I’m in the US. You don’t even have to sleep with me if you don’t want to. I don’t care about any of that. I just want to get out of here. I want to go to the US and pursue my dream. I can’t marry Señor Vega. I just can’t.”

“You’d rather marry me?” I shake my head. “I’m not available. And I’ll never love you.”

“At least you’re handsome. Tall. I only see a few gray hairs at your temple.”

“And what will he offer me,” I ask, “if I take you off his hands?”

“I doubt it will change any deal you’re making with him,” she says. “This is for me. To get me out of marrying Vega.”

“And you think this man loves you?” I scoff. “I’m disgusted by what fathers do to their daughters in this world.”

“In his way.” She looks down. “He doesn’t touch me.”

“But he lets other men touch you.”

She nods, biting her lip. “Yes. But no one has ever been abusive.”

I lift my eyebrows.

“All right. Not horribly abusive.” She swallows. “Maybe I’ve been slapped around a little here and there.”

“Is the slapping consensual?”

She shakes her head slowly.

“Then that’s abusive, Daniela.” I pace around her, shaking my head. “It makes me sick how people like you have been raised to not even recognize abuse when it’s happening to you. Just him letting other men have you is abuse. It’s sure not love.”

“Do you? Do you know what real love is, Señor Gallo?”

---