Speaking of her father having money as if it would make a difference, I knew we were witnessing the beginning of her abduction. The slave in Isabella quickly learned her ordeal was not about a ransom. It was about revenge. All taken out on her.
Mr. Giordano was pitifully mewing below, hating hearing her plea for him while experiencing some sort of nightmare she appeared to be trapped in.
Thud! Thud! kept coming from somewhere on the second floor. Common sense told me men were trying to bust through her bedroom door she must have blocked.
“Isabella,” I gently called out, still climbing the tree. “It’s me. Angelo.”
When my foot slipped due to a small branch breaking, I caught myself but looked down to see where I could put my foot next. It should have been no surprise to see that Sal was following me up the tree. My heart warm, I told him, “No. Please, get to her room in case I need you.”
No questions asked, Sal dropped from the tree and ran in the direction of the front door.
Once to a sturdy branch, I tried again, “Isabella,” a little louder this time. Crawling closer, I knew I couldn’t reach her due to the tree being too far away, but hoped she could see and hear me better.
My chances were slim. Her eyes were closed as tears flowed like a waterfall.
“Isabella, my friend, please try to hear me.”
She gasped, but not because of hearing me. Suddenly, her wrists came together, overlapping as if someone was forcing them that way. To people we couldn’t see due to her nightmare, she cried, “Please, no more. If it is money you want—” Abruptly, she started to scream as her arms slowly, and eerily, rose into the air, her wrists still joined as if tied together, but there was no rope to be seen.
Only in her mind.
Only in her memory.
My stomach soured with the sight. “Isabella,” I called out for her as she screamed and struggled against the invisible restraints. “You are asleep!”
In horror, we all watched as her hips bucked forward, over and over, as if something was hitting them from behind. I wanted to look away, I wanted to rescue the young woman who was taken against her will, in more ways than one, but I refused to abandon her. Even as she grunted through a rape that happened so long ago.
Her father sank to his knees and screamed for his tortured daughter.
It was awful. It was too much. I immediately thought of Scarlett, and how the men raping Isabella in her nightmare now had her daughter, who was possibly facing the same fate.
As haunting grunts of pain echoed into the night, I broke wide open. It would be the last time I ever let myself be completely exposed, but Isabella needed me. I had to reach her heart to reach her tortured soul. “My friend,” my voice cracked, “it is your dark angel.” Tears fell to the limb I was balanced on. “You are safe now.”
Mercifully, the grunts stopped.
A dazed Isabella opened her eyes. “Angel?”
I scrubbed a palm down my face. “Yes. I’m here.”
Her arms lowered as she softly told me, “You are in a tree.”
Smiling, tears dripped into my mouth. “Yes. Like when I was a child.”
“I used to be a child once.”
I tried to act casual, which was almost impossible after what I had just seen. “I have heard. A beautiful one.”
“Angel, did they take me again?”
Determined to never let that happen again, I shook my head with vigor. “No. Never. I won’t let that ever happen to you again.” Behind her, I watched as the dresser and chairs, blocking her bedroom door, finally budged, and her door cracked open enough for my best friend—with his smaller than mine shoulders—to squeeze through.
“I believe you,” Isabella told me.
So that only Sal noticed, my hand cautioned his approach, while I told Isabella, “Thank you.”
Fading tears began to dry on her cheeks. “Is Scarlett home?”
I swallowed deep regret. “No, but soon.”
Absently, she exhaled. “I am very tired.”
I blew out a breath, doing my best to not spook her. Her mind was still distant, possibly still asleep. “I understand that. Since I need to stay in this tree to watch over you while you rest, would you mind if Sal helps get you back to bed?”
Her head tilted. “Scarlett’s protector?”
I nodded. “And yours. And yours, my friend.”
“That would be fine. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Isabella.” I acted surprised. “Oh look, there is Sal now. He is already with you.”
Isabella smiled and faced him. “Oh!” I was surprised when she reverted back to Italian, “Perfecto! Hello, Sal. We were just speaking of you.”
Sal’s arms opened wide as he delivered one of his best smiles. “You ask, and you shall receive!” He gestured to her room. “Madam, may I escort you back inside?”
“Thank you! That would be lovely.” She pointed to me from over her shoulder. “Look. My Dark Angel of the Night swooped down to visit me.”
Peering down, I studied my black suit and how I was squatted, perched on my fancy shoes. My hands were gripping nearby branches to keep me sturdy.
I had no wings, yet Mrs. Rossi, Noemi, and Isabella kept claiming I did.
The next day, I went to Isabella’s bedroom when she postponed meeting with me until the following day. She told Mrs. Rossi it was because it was too cold, but I feared she was embarrassed by the night prior. When I knocked on her closed bedroom door, I jolted as she screamed, “No more visitors for the day!”
Isabella was in no frame of mind for me to be inquiring about details of her nightmare. “I apologize. Maybe we can speak tomorrow.” In my work boots that I had missed, I turned to walk away.
“Angel?”
I stopped. “Yes?”
“Are you alone?”
I observed the hallway. “Yes.”
“You can come in.”
Entering, and seeing her sitting on the floor, leaning against her bed, I quickly shut the door behind me.
She covered her mouth. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I thought you were another brother.”
I shook my head, wondering how a brother had provoked her to be so upset.
“Is it true?” she asked me. “Was I playing out being raped on the balcony?”
Feeling a bit queasy at the memory, I sat on the floor and leaned against the door. Her question had me realizing she didn’t remember waking on her balcony. “Playing out?” I winced. “That is quite harsh. I believe you were lost in a nightmare.”
She nodded. “I was there again, Angel.” She grimaced. “It was starting all over again.”
I was right. She had dreamt of the very beginning of her cruel ordeal. “I would be grateful if you told me about it.”
Her eyes closed in a stressed fashion. Her head leaned back against the bed as if wanting to pull away from what she was seeing. “It was where I would deliver Scarlett.” Hands wrung in her lap. “Mountains. Snow at my bare feet.”
She had been taken during the winter in Italy, so this was telling me Australia and that hemisphere, where Isabella had been found, was not where Scarlett was.
“Rope hung from a tree.” With her eyes still slammed shut, she shook her head. “Eyes in dog houses.”