Chapter 18
APOLLO
I clutched the steering wheel with bloody hands while Daphne cried beside me.
When the traffic light ahead of me turned red, I slowed down to a stop and placed one of my hands on Daphne’s trembling thighs. The snowstorm still raged, the outside world a blur of white around us.
Jo?o’s car blew past us through the red light, and I didn’t know what to say to Daphne.
How the hell do you comfort someone after something like that? What was he going to do to her? What had he done to her? Did I want to know? Did she want to tell me? Did she even want to see me?
Once the light changed, I continued through the streets of Redwood until I made it home.
After pulling into my driveway, because I wasn’t really sure where she lived, I parked the car and left it running, so the heat would warm her cold body. I turned in her direction, leaning my head against the headrest and brushing some hair off her face.
Mascara streaks ran down her cheeks, her eyes bloodshot.
“Daphne,” I murmured.
She stared down at her lap, trying to stop crying but hiccuping instead. After a couple moments, just when I thought she was about to stop, she wrapped her arms around her body, curled into a ball, and burst out into a loud sob.
“Daph,” I whispered, pulling her into my arms. “It’s okay, now. I got you.”
While I didn’t think she wanted anything to do with me, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and clutched onto me harder than anyone ever had. She sobbed for fifteen, twenty, maybe even thirty minutes.
And I didn’t say a word.
I couldn’t.
“Can I bring you inside?” I asked her, careful to not overstep. She was so fragile right now, and I didn’t want to hurt her. I had never been in this situation before with a girl who I… who I loved. “Please, we need to get you out of these wet clothes.”
Sniffling and hiccuping, she nodded.
Once I turned off the car, I picked her up and headed to the side door.
One of Dad’s staff members, Lisa, opened it up. “Mr DeLuca, where have you been?”
“I need a change of clothes for her and blankets. Bring them to the guest room.”
“No,” Daphne whimpered. “No, I don’t want you to leave me.”
“I won’t leave you.”
She still shook her head, as if she didn’t want me to bring her into the guest room, so I told the staff to bring them to my room instead and headed into the warm house to my bedroom, hoping that Dad wasn’t around.
Thankfully, I made it to my bedroom without being harassed by anyone else. I kicked the door open and tried to set Daphne down on the bed, but she was clinging to my shoulders like she didn’t want to let me go.
“I have to set you down,” I said softly.
“No.”
“Please, Daph. You’re going to get sick in these clothes.”
After another silent moment, I tried setting her on the bed again, and this time, she hesitantly let me, her eyes filled with tears and her head dropped. I fell to my knees, pulling off all her wet clothes, starting with her shoes and socks.
“You’re safe now, Daph. No one’s going to hurt you.”
Her lips trembled, and I swiped a tear away with my thumb.
I worked on her pants, tugging them off her wet body. “I promise, okay?”
No response.
Lisa knocked on my door. “Mr DeLuca, I have what you requested.”
Once I set Daphne’s pants on the ground beside me, I headed to the door and cracked it open enough to retrieve the warm clothes and blankets. Lisa didn’t need to come in and see Daphne like this.
“Do you need anything else?” she asked.
“No,” I said, shutting the door and returning to Daphne.
After I finished changing Daphne and spotting a couple marks on her body where that fucker had her tied up, I knelt on the floor in front of her legs and gently grasped her face. “Daph, please, listen to me. You’re safe now. I promise, you’re safe.”
She stayed quiet for a long time.
Then fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “Why?”
“Why what?”
Her glassy gaze met mine. “Why did you save me? I stole your clothes and left you.”
I opened my mouth, but before I could reply, she continued.
“Why did you even care about what happened to me? If I’m just some… some stupid challenge to you, why would you do all this? Why would you…” Her voice cracked, and she shook her head, tears streaming down her face. “Why would you risk your life for me? Why did you… Why did you kill him for me?”
“You’re not a challenge to me,” I said, swiping the tears away.
“That’s what you said. Everyone at Redwood knows it.”
“You’re not,” I said. “I promise you that you’re not.”
“Then what am I to you, Apollo? Why did you save me? Why are you being so nice?”
“Because I love you,” I said before I could stop myself.
Her tears slowed, and she stared at me, her lips slightly parted. Then she laughed.
“No,” she said through more tears, and I couldn’t tell if they were tears of sadness or disbelief or something else altogether. “No, you don’t. You don’t love me. Nobody loves me. My family is cursed, and you…” Another laugh. “And you don’t love me. You can’t. You–”
I closed the distance and kissed all her words away.
When I pulled away, she paused for another moment, then shook her head. “You can’t–”
Again, I closed the distance and kissed her.
Every time that I pulled away and she wanted to say that I couldn’t love her, I kissed her. Over and over and over and over. Until she finally didn’t say anything. Until her tears had melted away. Until she stared at me like she might’ve sorta believed it.
“I don’t know what it is about you. But you’re different, Daph. You don’t care about my name or my money or who my father is. You don’t ask me to be someone I’m not. And that drives me insane, because I don’t know how to handle it.”
She blinked a few times and wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand.
“You don’t have to say it back,” I whispered.
“Why?” she asked quietly. “Why do you love me? I’m… I’m a nobody for a reason.”
“You think you’re this quiet, forgettable girl. But you’re not.” I shook my head and gently threaded my fingers through her hair. “You’re fucking brilliant, and beautiful, and stubborn as hell, and I’m fucking obsessed with you.”
Her lower lip trembled, her gaze casted to the side. “I’m not worth killing someone for.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes. You are.” I rested my forehead against hers. “I know you don’t trust me after what I said. I know that you might not trust me for a long time. I know that I deserved you walking out like that last night. But I’ll do whatever I have to do to prove it to you. I promise you that.”