Page 38 of To Have and To Hold

Gently, I reached forward lightly, gripping her shoulders. She stiffened under my touch. Slowly, I ran my hands up and down over the soft sleeves of her blouse. Over time, her muscles relaxed. “I think you’re on the verge of shock.”

She shivered. “I-I’m cold.”

“Turn around.”

When she did, she tilted her chin up, meeting my gaze. Her pupils were solid black. “Give me your hands.”

“My hands?”

I reached for them. It was as if her circulation had ceased.

“Let’s get you to the chair before you pass out.”

Instead of arguing, Isabella nodded and walked to the desk chair. I spun it to the side and crouched near her knees. “Look at me.” She did. “Your pupils are dilated. Your hands are like ice.” I held on to them again, my finger landing on her wrist. “And your pulse is rapid.”

“I don’t know... what’s happening.”

There was a water bottle on her desk. Reaching for it, I unscrewed the cap. “Drink some water.”

She took the bottle and drank before setting it back on the desk.

I continued to run my thumb back and forth over her fingers. “If I’m ever fortunate enough to have children, I wouldn’t want them to bear the burdens of the true workings of our business.”

“I’m not a child.”

“No, Isabella, you’re not. You’re a fucking gorgeous woman who just had her entire understanding of her life blown to smithereens.” I lifted my hand and caressed her cheek. “You have a pure heart, and your family didn’t want to darken it.”

“They sent me out here.”

“You said you wanted to go back to Mia’s.”

She nodded.

“Do you want to go back to Kansas City?”

Isabella swallowed. “If I go back, Dario will have been right.”

“Fuck Dario. What do you want?”

Her eyes closed and her nostrils flared. When she opened them, a halo of the softest brown eyes I’d ever seen surrounded her shrinking pupils.

“Your pupils are better. I can see the light golden brown of your beautiful eyes.”

Her lips curled and her cheeks rose. “I’m hardly beautiful. I’m a basket case.”

“Breathe, beautiful.”

She took a ragged breath.

“Whatever you want to know, ask. I’ll never lie to you.”

“Did Reinaldo kill those men?”

“No.”

Isabella let out a long sigh. “What’s going?—”

I laid my finger over her lips. “I won’t lie to you, Isabella. But there are some things I can’t elaborate on. I believe your next question was one of those things. Do you understand?” I moved my finger away.

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