Chapter 9 - The Bound Hands
The wine cellar fell into an immediate, heavy quiet.
Leo rushed forward, securing Julian’s unconscious body with heavy plastic flex-cuffs before dragging him out toward the upper landing to join the security team.
Damian stood in the center of the room, his chest heaving slightly, his tailored coat dust-streaked from the movement.
He holstered his sidearm.
He turned toward Khloe.
She sat bound in the iron chair, her chin buried against her chest, her body shaking in silent, uncontrollable sobs. She didn't look up at him. She couldn't bring herself to face the man whose life she had invaded, whose trust she had shattered, and whose heart she had compromised.
Damian walked over to her slowly.
He knelt down on the cold stone floor in front of her chair.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small tactical folding blade, and carefully sliced through the heavy wire bindings securing her wrists behind her back.
SNAP.
The wire fell away, dropping onto the concrete floor.
Khloe brought her bruised, red wrists forward, clutching them against her chest, her shoulders shaking as she wept into her lap.
"I'm sorry..." she sobbed, her voice a fragile, broken whisper. "I'm so sorry, Damian... I should have told you three years ago... I should have let you kill me..."
Damian didn't answer with words.
He reached out his broad, strong hands, closing his fingers gently around her bruised wrists. He lifted her hands slowly, inspecting the raw skin where the wire had cut into her flesh.
He pulled a silk handkerchief from his breast pocket and gently wrapped it around her left wrist, tying a neat, protective knot.
"Damian..." she whispered, looking up at him through her tear-stained hazel eyes, her heart breaking at the quiet tenderness in his hands. "Why aren't you furious with me? I lied to you every single day."
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Damian looked into her eyes—seeing not an enemy, not a spy, but the woman who had spent three years standing beside him in the dark, protecting him from her own blood.
"You lied about your name, Khloe," Damian said softly, his thumbs gently wiping away the damp tears from her cold cheeks. "You didn't lie about who you were."
