Had he known what he was doing?

Probably. He was clever and perceptive and he knew how to manipulate people and situations. He had chosen to manipulate this one to try to help her.

He was studying her expression. "You're not going to start bristling, are you?"

"No."

"I heard sometimes it helps to talk about it."

"Did you?"

"I promise not to blackmail you."

"You couldn't. It was important only to me."

"Not to Dominic?"

"I never told him. It would have hurt him."

"Then that could be why you reacted like that. Maybe if you let it out. It won't hurt me. You wouldn't care if it did." He shrugged. "Only a suggestion."

He could be right. She would try anything to avoid falling apart again when she went back into that gym. "You'd be bored."

"But it might save me some late nights waiting for you to wander downstairs for a midnight tryst with that dumb mat. You'll be going back, won't you?"

Her hands clenched her cup. "I can't let him win. I can't let him make me afraid."

"Chavez?"

She didn't answer for a moment. "I didn't think it would affect me like that. I thought I'd put it all behind me."

"Did you have an affair with Chavez?"

"Affair?" Her lips twisted. "Chavez doesn't know how to have a relationship with a woman. He chose his wife as a meek slave and childbearer. His mistress is the same, except I understand she's very talented sexually."

"And you?"

"He found me different. At first he was amused, and then he wasn't amused at all." She stopped. What the hell. Let it all out. She wasn't ashamed. Why should she hide what had happened? "I was nineteen, and the situation with the rebel band I belonged to had changed. They had begun taking money from Chavez to finance the cause and in exchange they protected him. He was distributing drugs among the soldiers, gaining influence, using us as puppets. I hated it. My father had died the previous year and I was thinking of breaking with the group and leaving Colombia. But I waited too long. I was very good at my job and I was respected. Chavez heard about me and thought it would be interesting to take a woman to his little playground."

"Playground?"

"Chavez likes to consider himself a conqueror. When he was in his teens, he was a soldier with a paramilitary group. He was a good soldier, brilliant with weapons and very strong. He liked it. He found the idea of being a killing machine very appealing. But the money wasn't good enough and he left the army for the drug trade. He wanted the best of both worlds." She moistened her lips. "Now he keeps himself fit at a gym he had built on his property in the hills. It's a fine gym, with every exercise machine you could think of. But a machine isn't a man. He needed combat to give him the rush he needed. So he invited or coerced or paid members of the different rebel groups to come and spar with him. He had no trouble besting most of the fighters he paid to come to the gym and give him a workout."

"What happened to the ones he couldn't heat?"

"He kept them there until he could defeat them. Most of them died. But, then, most of the others died too. Fighting to the death made him feel exhilarated. He said there was nothing like knowing you had that power over another human being."

"He took you to this gym?"

"Took me? I was delivered to him by my own people. I was paid for with a tidy bundle of cocaine."

"Nice."

"I was there for three weeks." She was beginning to shake again. Get it over quickly. "He found me a. challenge. Every night he'd come into the gym and fight me-unarmed combat. Karate, judo, street fighting. It didn't matter how dirty. Whatever worked. The only rules were the length of the session. Two hours. If he got me down and pinned me, he would win. I wouldn't let him do it. He couldn't beat me. I couldn't let him win." She drew a deep breath. "But there was one way he felt all-powerful. After all, I was a woman. Every time I was still standing at the end of that two hours, he'd have me tied down and he'd rape me."

"Son of a bitch."

"That's exactly what he is. He had to win." She stopped. Don't break down. Get it over with. She was near the end. "It was. hideous. The first few times he did that to me I was too stunned to think. Then I tried to pretend that I was giving up and he was getting the better of me. I guess it was too sudden. He knew I was faking it. He brought in a young boy-he wasn't more than fourteen-and he fought him in front of me. He killed him. He told me that every time I tried to cheat him he would do the same thing." She swallowed hard. "Oh, God, I knew I'd die if I couldn't get out of there. That would be a final victory for him." She paused. "But I let it go on and I tried to be patient. I took it slow, very slow. Our bouts gradually became closer and closer, and he was sure it was only a matter of time before he'd triumph. I even made sure I was compliant to every sexual whim. He began to take me for granted."

"Dangerous."

"Then one night I let him win. I had to do it. It was the only way to disarm him. I'll never forget his face. I knew the next time we fought, he wouldn't be satisfied with taking me down. He'd want to kill me. The fun had gone out of it for him. I was right. Before he left he told me that the next session he'd introduce something new. Knives." She drew a shaky breath. "That night I escaped and hid out in the hills. I kept away from our group, but I managed to find Dominic. He'd been told a lie about me and that I'd left the area, but he was still searching for me. He gave me money and told me he'd meet me in a month in Tomaco."

"But you found out you were pregnant?"

"I wouldn't admit it to myself until I was almost four months. I didn't think God could be that cruel."

"You could have had an abortion."

"No, I couldn't. That wasn't an option I was able to accept." She looked down into her cup. "But I was planning on giving him away after he was born. I hated those months. My swollen body and his child inside me. It was as if he'd finally found a way to beat me."

"And when Barry was born?"

"I wouldn't even look at him. Dominic took care of him after the birth while we were trying to find a home for him. Then one night, when Barry was about six weeks old, Dominic was down with the flu and I had to care for the baby." She paused, remembering. "I sat there rocking him and he smiled at me. I know they're not supposed to really smile at you at that age, but Barry did smile. It wasn't like any other smile I'd ever seen. I think God wanted him to tell me something."

"That you should take care of him?"

"No, that he was his own soul and deserved a chance." She smiled tremulously. "It's a beautiful soul, Galen. From the beginning he was full of love and joy and wonder. There's nothing of that monster in Barry."

"I believe you."

"You don't really know him. He's. special."

"And you're afraid Chavez would change him?"

"No. Barry has a strong, loving nature, and I don't believe it can be twisted. But what Chavez can't conquer, he destroys. Barry's only a little boy. I don't know if he could survive him." She drew a deep breath. "But he's not going to have to try. Chavez isn't going to get his hands on him."

"How did Chavez find out about Barry?"