Page 87 of Brutal Obsession

“Cian…” She whispers my name like this Porsche is a sacred place. “Please don’t take me back to New York.”

“What are you so afraid of?” I ask. Then I remember what’s waiting for her. Shane, her father, Finn… Even I don’t know what punishment she’ll be given when we return.

“Don’t take me.” She shakes her head. “He’ll…”

She can’t finish her sentence, but something clicks in my mind when I see the way her lip trembles. I’ve seen that trembling before. It stabs me through the chest with a jagged blade.

That tremble signifies the hesitation of someone who’s suffered harm.

And it makes every gear inside my body grind to a halt.

I’ve spent plenty of time thinking about the De Lucas hurting Harper, and how I would do everything in my power to eviscerate them if I discovered that they had.

Something I’ve never considered until this moment is whether anyone within the Kings has ever harmed her.

My internal temperature starts to rise.

I know exactly what that’s like. What that kind of stress and conflict does to a person…

Iwasthat person, so why is it that I’m only now recognizing this trait in Harper? All those times I watched her from a distance, why did I never notice this primal fear lurking beneath her party girl veneer?

She’s like a well-trained circus animal, dazzling enough that I never thought about what abuse could be happening when the curtains close and there’s no audience to applaud.

I thought Harper ran away to avoid an arranged marriage.

What if she ran for entirely different reasons?

“Harper…”

My tongue grows heavy with dread and the idea that I’ve done something I’ll soon regret.

“Just listen,” she begs with a small, exhausted voice. “I know you think taking me back will keep me safe, but it won’t.”

The strength of my swallow causes my shoulders to twitch. “What do you mean?”

“First, he’s going to break me because I didn’t follow his orders.” She hurries through the words, like they’re hot on her tongue. “Once he’s broken me, he’s going to sell me to the highest bidder.”

“Shane would never do something like that.” I rub her arm from her shoulder to her elbow. “Don’t worry.”

The head of this mafia is the one who wanted the marriage between Harper and his son. He wasn’t pleased when he found out what happened, but I know for a fact he’s not so angry with Harper that he’d beat or sell her.

She’s not an object. Shane values the mafia daughters, as though each one were a daughter of his own. Abusing any woman within his jurisdiction is grounds for serious punishment.

“I’m not talking about Shane.” Harper’s response thrusts me back into chaos. Her eyelids droop. “I’m talking about my father.”

My heart falls to its knees. The memory of my mother’s face races behind my eyes like a film strip. When I think that Harper’s been through even a fraction of what my father put my mother through, rage consumes me, so outsized and uncontrollable I’m surprised the car doesn’t detonate with us inside.

My voice sounds like a different person’s when I set my jaw and say, “Tell me everything.”

I sit there like a ghost, listening, envisioning her every word like she’s narrating a documentary.

I don’t know why Thomas Brennan’s cruel and abusive treatment of his children shocks me. No one becomes a capo in a mafia family because they’re gentle. Obviously, the man is tough, ruthless, cunning, and unforgiving. I just didn’t expect that he’d subjected his family to the same tyranny as my own father did mine. It feels like lava’s pouring down the inside of my chest.

Did I really think returning Harper to New York was the right thing to do? I was only thinking about myself.

I never considered she might have a perfectly good reason for running away. And aside from protecting her from De Luca cronies, it’s just like she said back at the motel. I’ve ruined this new life she built for herself.

Guilt stabs me with a thousand knives. The truth is, I’ve never felt so awful in my life. Even killing my own dad wasn’t this bad.

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