Page 12 of The Mafia's Desire

“I’ll be down soon.”

Ethan quietly opened the door to Sara’s bedroom and saw Hope in a chair in the corner reading a magazine and Sara on the bed sleeping.

She looked much better than the last time he’d seen her because a few hours ago, she still had the scrapes and bruises, and her face was still swollen.

“Hey,” Hope said and put the magazine down.

“How is she?” he asked.

“She’s doing better. She got some food in her, and we got her bathed, which helped, and she’s been sleeping the rest of the time.”

“Good. I’m sorry this was put on you guys,” Ethan said.

“We volunteered, Ethan. We really like her. It’ll be hard when she’s better and leaves.”

“Leave?” He never thought of what would happen after she was well. The one thing he did know was he wouldn’t let her go without a fight.

“Yes. What did you expect would happen?” Hope asked.

He walked and stood by the side of the bed, looking down at the sleeping woman. “I haven’t gotten that far.”

“We could introduce her to some of the brothers. She’s beautiful and sweet, so I’m sure one would want to keep her.”

He felt an irrational streak of fury hit him. “No. No one gets her.”

“She asked to leave, but she could barely walk when she woke up.”

A muscle in Ethan’s jaw tightened. “Jesus. She’ll be in bed for at least a week.”

Hope snorted. “Good luck with that.”

“She’ll do what she’s told.”

“Do you know that she thinks you’re going to kill her and that you told the guy it was okay to hurt her? He was going to rape her, but she said you might be mad because you might want to rape her first.”

He looked back at his cousin and saw her fight tears.

“Hope, you know me. I would never do any of that, and the guy that hurt her paid a huge price for touching her.”

“The way she said it was like she expected to die and that you two had talked about the way to kill her.”

Ethan put his arm around Hope when she cried.

Hope sighed. “She’s been beat down so many times she expects it from everyone. I don’t think there’s ever been a person she’s trusted. If she sticks around, I’m sure she’ll talk about it in time, but we’re going to have a hard time keeping her here.”

Ethan squeezed her one more time before he walked back to the bed. “I can guarantee she won’t be going anywhere except my home.”

“Are you keeping her for yourself?” Hope asked.

“Yes.” The word popped out of his mouth before he thought about her question, but he knew the moment he heard himself he’d been planning on keeping her the whole time.

“I think she’s afraid of you, Ethan.”

“I know, but she’ll get over it.”

Hope snorted. “You’re all the same.”

Ethan grinned at her over his shoulder. “And it’s worked out for all of you now, hasn’t it?”

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