dining room. A violent storm had rolled in off the Atlantic,

any table. Gene and Alvie sat on opposite sides. The only sound in

ended, the butler st

ded the main roads. The police have closed the highw

in on the chair, and walked briskly up the sweeping staircase. She

the edge of the heavy oak doo

ess shoe wedged it

open. He stepped inside and slammed it shut behind him. H

" she ordered, her voice cold. "I am

uring dinner. The masculine intuition that another pre

e snarled, his voice thick with desperation. "We are

on her wrist. He yanked her toward the massi

's system. The memory of being tied to the pillar, unable to move

n't cry. Sh

ps, and drove her right knee straight up i

dropped her wrist and stumbled backward, clutching his abdomen, h

the heavy, solid brass base of the bedsid

feral, and complet

her knuckles white around the brass

rrified him. But his fragile ego wouldn't let him back

y knocks echoed f

but it carried an unden

p, icy voice bled through the wood. "And you ar

t hit Alvie like a

veryone in the family knew what happened when Donte was interru

enom. He lowered his voice to a

ked the door, an

s hands shoved casually into the pockets. His expression was completely b

uarely on Gene. She was still standing by the bed, her

rigid tension in Donte's jaw rela

ie," Donte ordered. It wasn't a suggestion

with humiliation. But under the crushing weight of

ickly, his footsteps

ugh the open frame. The sound of the torrential rain

r muscles ached from the adrenaline cr

she said, her

ark eyes roamed over her face, reading the li

toward his own roo

e said over his shoulder, h

in the quiet room, her hear