“It’s confidential.”

“Well if you believe we—as you say—trained her, then I don’t see what you could possibly tell me that I don’t already know.”

Once the shock of having seen a ghost wore off, the agony of how she looked settled into his chest, bringing to life a pain that felt as raw as the day he lost her. The image of her bloodshot eyes would haunt him forever. Her body sagged as much as the dark circles beneath those vacant eyes, like she hadn’t slept in days. It was real. She stood before him, but there was no life inside of her.

“Are they all alive? Her parents? Jude?”

“Here’s what you need to know, Dr. Jones. Jessica is alive. She’s not being held against her will. And you will never see her again. If you want to continue breathing, then I suggest you acknowledge who holds the power. You need to answer my questions, and then we will return you to your life.”

“You have my fucking life!” Luke slammed his fists on the table sending Knox’s coffee off the edge.

Knox took a deep breath. His jaw muscles clenched again as he shook the hot coffee from his hand. “Unfortunate circumstances such as this one don’t happen often, but when they do I usually give the forgotten a chance to go home. Ultimately my priority is protecting my own.”

“She’s not yours.”

Knox smirked. “I can assure you … I claimed her long before you did.”

Luke lunged across the table. “You fucker!”

Everything went black.

*

Day

The rescue shelter had told Luke the little black and white Great Dane was the runt of the litter and he probably would only grow to the size of a large Labrador retriever. At eighteen months he measured thirty-four inches in height, weighing in at just under one hundred and sixty pounds—so much more than he ever dreamed. That summed up his relationship with Jessica too.

The nearly two years since he’d met her felt like two seconds. His fear that she would settle into some sort of normalcy and the light that brought life to his existence would fade … it didn’t happen. Even with all his “studying,” Jessica remained as unpredictable as the day they met. He had yet to wake up with her in his arms. The Qin dynasty remained separated from the Nomads. She seemed content with it more than he did. Jessica never imagined him, them, Jones, living together, holidays with family—a life. She never asked for a ring or a wedding, children, or a promise beyond today.

However, Luke wanted that—and he wanted it with her—but not until he could wake up with her in his arms. He wondered if her contentment would prevent that from ever happening. The progress they’d made with her past had by all accounts been remarkable. Separating Dr. Jones from Luke presented a challenge with certain topics, such as her past lovers or as she referred to them “victims.” She doled the information out over many months. They both agreed it was one of the more difficult topics.

“Our kids are going to ride you like a horse, Jones.” Jessica laughed as Jones greeted her at the door. Even in heels she wasn’t that much taller.

Luke listened to her talk to said horse while he poured her a glass of wine in the kitchen. He loved those rare moments of hearing her talk about “our kids,” as if it was a foregone conclusion. Then on cue, he heard one clack followed by a second as she kicked off her heels, letting them fly where they may. In their almost two years together she went from messy to a complete disaster, yet he still adored her beyond words.

“Mmm …” She smiled as he handed her a glass of wine. After taking a sip, she lifted onto her toes and kissed him. That was the reason he too drank wine. It would forever remind him of how her tongue tasted sliding against his. “Therapy Thursday … let’s do this.”

He smiled and followed her to the balcony with Jones right behind them. After a solid year of unofficial therapy three days a week, she requested her “sentence” be reduced. Luke said two days a week, she countered one … so of course it ended up being one. Therapy Thursday.

“I think I’m ready to talk about the sex and blood.”

“Oh?”

Of course most of their sessions had evolved around one or the other, but Luke needed more from her. He needed the missing pieces.

One: Why did she have such a controlling attitude about sex?

Two: What made a vegetarian feel empowered by the taste of blood?

She had seemed as perplexed as him by those questions for a long time. Luke believed her because he loved her and trusted her. Dr. Jones, with his unbiased mental clarity, held a bit more skepticism. Jessica hid something or suppressed it so deep as to try and convince herself it hadn’t happened.

“So last night one of the students in my self-defense class pulled me aside after class to talk. Her boyfriend raped her, but it took her a long time to shed the guilt and acknowledge that it was, in fact, rape.”

“Because he was her boyfriend?”

“No, because he made her orgasm.”

Luke nodded, feeling uneasy about the direction of the conversation. Jessica had a way of disclosing her past with something that had recently triggered a memory.

“I know how she felt.”

Luke tried to keep his voice even as he spoke through clenched teeth. “You were raped?”

Jessica stared at her wine and shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

The reaction that stayed lodged in his throat was one of disbelief. How could she not be sure?

“It was three weeks after Claire died.”

“Wait, you told me you lost your virginity when you were nineteen with the guy from the jazz club. You were seventeen when Claire died.”

“Yes. I told you Pete claimed my hymen.”

He set his wine down to prevent his death-hold from shattering the glass.

“One of the men who trained me took it upon himself to make sure I hadn’t ‘lost my edge’ after Claire died. For the purpose of this story I’ll call him Mick. Anyway, I didn’t want to get out of bed or eat, let alone train for days afterward. All I wanted to do was plan Four’s death. It consumed me. So my father sent me with Mick to a remote location, one of their training facilities that wasn’t being used.

He pushed me hard for days. There wasn’t a part of my body that didn’t hurt. I could barely eat my face was so busted up, and one of my eyes had completely swelled shut. At first I didn’t fight back. It felt like a punishment for being so stupid to go with Claire in the first place. But Mick taunted me … he wanted me to make him bleed, and all I could think about was what a cathartic release it was for Four when he cut Claire. So I fought back and I made him bleed.”

Luke cleared his throat, praying to God that Dr. Jones would take over because the thought of Jessica’s father sending her off with some guy to get beat up, less than a month after her best friend was murdered, filled him with rage.

“How did that make you feel?”

She leaned her head against the back of the chair and closed her eyes. “Alive. It made me feel like a survivor.”

He let the silence settle over them, knowing she would soon confess something that would gut him. Just the feeling alone made it hard to breathe.

“He asked me if Four raped Claire, which was weird because I thought surely my dad had given him all the details. When I told him no, he asked me if I thought I had what it took to keep from being raped.”

Bile eased up Luke’s throat.

“I said yes. Then he asked if I wanted to bet on it.” Jessica shook her head. “I hated him so much. Mick always treated me like I was too young, weak, and naive. So I thought, fuck him, because I wasn’t the only one who looked like shit. His face had caught my fists, elbows, knees, and feet on more than one occasion. I could hold my own.

Anyway, he bet me that I wouldn’t be able to fight him off if he tried to fuck me. He didn’t say rape, but it was implied. I asked what I got if I won. He said he’d take me back home instead of finishing our last few days of ‘training,’ because I would have proven myself to him.”