THE BRUTE CEO

cting the glare of lightning. It was impossible to see the end of the storm. The girl huddled inside her cardigan, the soggy hood hid her short hair, leaving only her young

. She settled in behind an old Deere tractor that looked abandoned. The paintwork was dirty and stained with rust ballasts. She then sat down, got rid of the backpack that was on her back and pressed herself against her wet coat. The right thing to do was to take it off and just keep the t-shirt on. She could stretch her clothes out on the tractor so they would dry until the next morning. But she trembled so much and was so terrified that she dared not move. The rumble of thunder echoed through the cracks in the windows and doors. The walls seemed to shake with every gust of wind. Everything evoked a vision of hell. There, huddled in a stranger's barn, chattering from the cold because of her wet clothes, hungry and thirsty, but above all, terrified and defenseless, Mariana wondered if she had actually done what was right. Just as her mind went down the path of self-pity, she heard the explosion of lightning and then saw through the open barn doors the flame consume the tree as it collapsed to the ground in flames. She covered her ears and began to repeat a prayer that she didn't know who she learned from, but that most nights had helped her sleep, or at least calmed her spirit. With God I lie down. With God I rise. In the grace of God. And the Divine Holy Spirit. And may Our Lady cover me with her divine mantle. She had to repeat it several times, speaking softly, hugging her knees. Sleep gradually enveloped her and took her away from there. Chapter 4 She woke up to furious barking. For a moment she thought about running out of the barn, but the situation was too dangerous. She didn't need much information to realize that she was surrounded by two huge dogs and, if it hadn't been for the structure of the tractor blocking their path, she would have been attacked while she slept. The day was dawning without the chaos of the storm, only the torrent of rainwater gave no respite. She crawled under the tractor and huddled as close as she could between the tall wheels. She had the body of a 14-year-old, although she was six years older, s