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respect for her. She must be scared shitless, yet she hadn’t given up. She wasn’t wallowing and she wasn’t begging.
    “Has anyone hurt you?” he asked, keeping his voice intentionally soft.
    “You mean besides you?” she spat.
    Domenic raised his eyebrows and she flinched.
    “Yes, besides me .” They maintained eye contact for a moment before she shook her head back and forth. “Good.” He slung his arms over the back of the chair and regarded her for a few more moments until she started squirming under his unrelenting gaze.
    “Why am I here?” she asked suddenly.
    “I can’t tell you that.”
    “Does it have anything to do with Santino DiRocco?” she demanded.
    “What do you know about Santino?” he asked, voice like a whip.
    “Nothing!” she answered immediately. “All I know is that my father was meeting him, but he didn’t come home, and then I was…taken.” Everything came out in a rush, the last word ending in a trembling whisper. It hadn’t taken her long to put two and two together.
    “Why you are here is of no consequence,” Domenic said coolly.
    “Maybe not for you! You’re not the one who’s going to die!”
    The girl’s lip began to tremble, and her eyes shone with unshed tears. She opened her eyes wide and looked upward. It was a trick he’d used himself as a child to try to stop tears from flowing. She didn’t want to cry in front of him.
    “What makes you think you’re going to die, Alexis?”
    She looked surprised at his casual use of her name. It helped her regain a little composure, and she looked at him as if she was trying to figure out if he was stupid or playing with her.
    “Well, the fact I can identify you if you let me go is a pretty big indicator.”
    “Aren’t you afraid you’ve just sealed your fate now that you told me that?” he asked curiously.
    “Something tells me you aren’t stupid enough to have overlooked that detail,” she scoffed. “So if I’m going to die , at least I’d like to know why.”
    “You’re pretty demanding, considering the situation,” he said matter-of-factly.
    “Well, it’s not like I have anything to lose.”
    Domenic noticed that she was huddled up on the cot, her arms wrapped tightly around her, and she was trembling.
    “You’re cold,” he said, avoiding her questions.
    “I guess you wouldn’t notice—being fully dressed and all—but it’s kind of freezing in here.”
    “And it doesn’t help you’re wearing a skirt,” he offered.
    “Especially since I’m not wearing anything under it,” she replied acerbically, shooting him an accusatory look. He felt heat flood his face both at the memory of what happened the day before and the thought of her being completely bare underneath her skirt.
    Domenic stood up from the chair and removed his jacket. The girl’s eyes widened and she folded her legs under her, regaining her defensive posture. She eyed the gun in his holster as he walked toward her.
    “I’m not going to hurt you, Alexis,” he said gently. He leaned forward to spread his jacket over her shoulders, then stepped back and looked her in the eyes. “If I wanted to take you by force, I would have done it yesterday.”
    Domenic went to sit back down on the chair and watched the girl. He could see she was considering throwing his jacket off, but the warmth it offered was too difficult to resist. She pulled the lapels around her after a few moments. Finding that unsatisfactory, she put her arms into the sleeves. The suit jacket swam on her, and she had to push the sleeves up in order for her hands to come out. Once she had done that, she pulled her knees up and covered her legs with her skirt and his jacket.
    “Alex,” she said in a low voice.
    “Pardon me?”
    “My name is Alex,” she replied, fiddling with the sleeves of his jacket. “You keep calling me Alexis. People only call me Alexis when they’re mad at me.”
    Before he could reply, he heard someone walk into the adjoining room.