Page 54 of Twisted Knight

“They are calling me Twisted Knight.”

“Okay.” She rested her glass back on the table and locked her all-knowing emerald eyes on me. “You know, I’m not saying or thinking your hands are clean, Dom. I am not as naïve as it seems. You’ve clearly suffered and gone through trauma. I’m not fooling myself thinking you’re a saint. I even suspect what might be what caused this self-hatred but I'm not here to make you talk about what you don’t want to talk about, what you are not ready to share.” She reached across the table and interlinked our fingers together. “And if you’re never ready to share, it’s okay too.”

I blinked a couple of times, not even sure she was real. Did she really suspect what I’d done and still held my hand?

“You asked me about Jake,” she said softly, letting go of my hand as the waitress brought our food.

“You don’t have to,” I said, even if I was dying to find out more about that man that I hated on principle.

She took a deep breath. “I have a tendency to pick men with issues.”

I let out a low chuckle as I cut my veal. “I can confirm, you don't know what you signed for when you picked me.”

She cocked her head. “I think I do.”

“I’m bad.” How many times would I need to say it for her to walk away? I may not be strong enough to let her go, but she had to be smarter than me.

She shook her head. “Not deep down and that’s the main difference between them and you. They were all bright and light outside but so… ugly inside, but you are darkness on the outside, but I saw all the light—in your tender gestures toward Cassie, in your concern for me, in your patience and kindness with Jude. You’re trying to smother it, but it’s there. You’re not a bad man.”

I looked down at my nose, my nostrils flaring, already getting angry at what was to come.

“A real bad man doesn’t think he is bad,” she continued. “I came to help Cassie with her pregnancy and the babies, but I was happy to leave for a while.” She kept her eyes down, running her peach-painted forefinger nail back and forth on the while tablecloth. “I met him a couple of years ago. He’s an architect. On paper he was perfect, but it was on paper only.” She brought her hand to her face, brushing the beautiful velvet skin under her eye.

I wanted to murder that man for touching her in any way that was not consensual, touching her in any way that hurt her.

“India, look at me… Please,” I added as my request sounded too much like an order.

She looked up, her emerald eyes glistening under the light. That man had to die for her distress.

“You are amazing, strong, kind. You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”

“But I’m also the woman who ran past all the red flags, the woman who let a man hit her, using all the same excuses she’d seen her patients use time and time again.” She sighed. “I’m not just one thing. I can be brave and fall too. Same goes for you.”

“I want to kill him.”

“There’s no need to go around plotting his murder.”

“Oh, I don’t need ‘plotting.’ I’ve got it all figured out.”

She laughed, as if I was joking. Little did she know I’d never been more serious in my life. I had plans A to Z already in my repertoire and a call to the West Coast Canadian consigliere of the famiglia… and Jake ‘the girlfriend-beater’ will be nothing but a distant memory.

“Some part of me is grateful to him.”

I couldn’t help but frown in disbelief… That was certainly not something I expected.

She let out a soft melodious laugh. “Don’t worry. I’m not crazy, but as you know, I’ve been raised by a scatterbrained mother who lived her dreams despite bills and other social restraint. I’ve been too used to worrying, and I grew up so serious, never taking any risk, always picking the safest, most sensible choice.” She shook her head slightly. “If things with Jake didn’t happen, I don’t think I would have just jumped on a plane here, to a place I’d never been before, and I would have never met you and that would have been a shame.” She looked away, her cheeks tainted with embarrassment.

My heart squeezed in my chest. How could she think so highly of me? “I’m not sure I’m worth any hardship.”

“I do.”

I wanted to grab her and kiss her senseless right here, at that table.

I shook my head. “You’re something else.”

“Is it a compliment?”

“The best there is.”

---