“You’re not fine. You’re hurting.” He took hold of her chin and turned it this way and that, muttering under his breath. “That first guy really did a number on you.”
She touched her face, and winced. “It does hurt.”
“Yeah, there’s not a lot we can do with your face.” Sliding his fingers down her arm, he stared at where the men had gotten close to injecting her. There wasn’t a single mark on her skin, and for that he was thankful. Just the thought of those animals putting that junk into her veins made him angry. He should have been allowed the time to torture them properly. “They didn’t get to you.”
“It was close.”
“I know. I wouldn’t have let them actually put that shit in your veins.”
“How were you going to kill me then?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“You know? I need to die of natural causes. The drug overdose seems natural. A daughter’s guilt over losing her mother, and not being there. How would you have killed me?”
“I hadn’t thought about that.” He lied. He wasn’t about to tell her that he’d intended to drug her, place her in the bath, and slit her wrists.
She laughed. “Wow, you were just going to play along or what?”
“There are ways of killing you that wouldn’t come from an overdose, or a beating, or a mugging. Besides, I have no intention of killing you … now.” He didn’t need her thinking stuff that wasn’t the truth.
Kneeling down on the floor, he lifted up her skirt and touched her ankle. He’d noticed she was favoring one instead of the other. Running his fingers around her ankle, he heard her wince. If it was broken, she wouldn’t be able to stand on it, so he knew without a doubt that it was sprained. Opening up her sneaker, he slowly eased it off and tossed it aside. “You need to take a shower, and get out of these clothes. If you were on the run, why did you use your own name?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I didn’t know he was chasing after me. I didn’t want to be at home where he was hurting me. I want him to be thrown in jail, and the key tossed into the ocean or something. He killed my mother. Ever since he came into her life, her health declined for no reason. There was a lot more I’ve seen. I just know he did it.”
Viper released her other sneaker, and tossed that aside. He stood up and pulled off his shirt. “First of all, princess, no one is investigating your mother’s death. It was completely natural. You don’t know that he killed her.”
“For your information, I caught him feeding her bleach. I watched him do it, and when I tried to stop him, he said no one would believe me. Why are you getting undressed?”
“You need to shower. It’s getting late. Food and sleep are what I have in mind. You can’t stand on that foot, and right now, I don’t really trust you. I have this feeling that you’re going to be on some kind of mission to get your stepfather thrown in jail. Just a word of warning, everyone is out looking for you, not him.”
“I want him to suffer,” she said. “He took everything from me.”
He helped her down off the counter, and began to pull up her dress. She fisted the fabric, and shook her head.
“You want to stink?” he asked.
“No one has seen me naked before.”
Her cheeks were a beautiful shade of red, and he smiled. “I’ve vowed to take care of you, so you’ve got nothing to hide from me.”
She fought him for another few seconds, and then finally gave up. He liked that she still had that fight inside her. For her to survive he needed to work on her desire to live. He’d already seen up close and personal how she viewed herself, and he found it sad. She was a beautiful woman that believed she wasn’t.
It hurt him to see how much belief she had that she was a horrible, ugly person, and that simply wasn’t the case. When he looked at her, he only saw beauty, and a strong spirit. She had been hurt, but deep down inside she was a fighter.
“But I’ll be naked.”
“So will I. We’ll both be naked together.” He pulled her dress up over her head, and let it fall to the floor. There was some bruising on her ribs, and he assessed the damage. She’d been really lucky. There was nothing broken, but it would hurt for a few weeks. “You’re going to be fine.”
“How are you going to keep me alive?” she asked. “He’s hired so many people to kill me.”
“Boss will be taking care of it. Right now, you’re with me, and that’s your best way to stay alive.” He reached behind her and unsnapped the clasp of her bra. Those glorious breasts sprang free. More than anything he wanted to cup those big tits, but instead, he knelt at her feet, and helped remove her panties.
The fine hairs on her pussy were so light that it looked almost bare. He wanted to taste her, and to have those tears changing to cries of pleasure.
Not yet.
He turned on the shower, waiting for the water to run warm.