“You have a history of depression?”
“Yes. See? I have the perfect out, and you don’t even have to work hard for it. I won’t fight you.” He suddenly pulled away and began to pace beside his bed, and he glared at her. “You know it’s the only way.” She couldn’t believe that she was begging for someone to kill her. Tears filled her eyes, and she climbed off the bed. “Please.”
“I’m not going to kill you.”
“Why not?”
“I want to tell my story. I wasn’t lying to you about that, and I’m not ready to kill you.” He took hold of her hand and turned it over. “You have no previous scar wounds.”
“I was depressed, not suicidal. I’ve not tried to end my life before. Never thought I had the guts to do it.” She shrugged and frowned. “It’s weird how I’m feeling right now. I’ve never felt like this.” She placed a hand over her lips and stared at him. She didn’t like the sadness in his eyes as he looked at her.
“I’m not going to kill you, Scarlett. Now, do you want to bathe? There will be plenty of hot water.” He tugged back on his joggers and flicked on a lamp.
She crossed her arms over her chest. Did she want to wash? Yes, she did. She smelled and not in a very nice way. “I won’t run away.”
“I know you won’t. There’s nowhere for you to run. This place is heavily guarded. I’m not going to hurt you.” He brushed past her going straight toward the bathroom.
Even though this man held her life in his hands, she couldn’t help but admire his ass. It was so tight as he walked. The sweats he wore molded to his ass, and then went baggy around the thighs.
He paused and turned toward her. “Are you coming?”
“You’re not killing me?”
“I said I wasn’t killing you. You’re easy to talk to.” He shook his head. “You’re fucking confusing me. Just get your ass in the bathroom.”
She stared around the bedroom and wondered what the hell was going on. One moment he wanted to go to bed to sleep, now he wanted her to wash. Nothing made any sense, and tonight was totally illogical.
Entering the bathroom, she saw him bending over the bath, adding some scented bubbles.
Scarlett smiled. “I never imagined you having bubbles in the bath.”
“This one offers to relax muscles, and I need to relax these tired muscles as much as I can. I’m not getting any younger.” He stood tall, and she heard his back click, at which she winced. “I’m no spring chicken anymore.”
“I know that feeling all too well.”
“I’ll be at the door. I’ll give you enough privacy to get in the bath so I don’t see anything.”
She watched as his back was to her, and then she removed her dirtied white blouse, followed by her skirt. As soon as she was naked and in the bath, she let him know. He took a seat and leaned back, arms folded over his chest.
“How is your head?”
“It’s fine. Whatever you did, it eased the pressure, and I can think now.”
“I’m glad I was able to help. Migraines can be the worst.” She ran her hands through the bubbles. Everything was somewhat surreal to her. “Do you have any family?” she asked.
“No. None. I would say in the entire world I have one friend, and I think ‘friend’ is even pushing that description. We’re colleagues.” He ran a hand over his head. “We were captured, and he was one of the hardest people I’ve ever known. Some of the kids the people took off the street, they were lambs heading to the slaughter. They didn’t make it a couple of days, let alone weeks. His name’s Viper.”
She nodded. “And he was a child soldier of some kind? Like you?”
“You could say that. We were given jobs even at a young age to prove our loyalty. The moment they took us, any sense of a childhood was destroyed. There was no time for playing around or games. There was no Christmas or birthday parties. It was work, training, practice. Over and over again. Everything else faded away.”
He was opening up to her, and she found his voice soothing. It was hard and gruff and hypnotic at the same time. Licking her dry lips, she turned so that she was facing him. The bubbles gave her some semblance of modesty.
“What happened to the kids who couldn’t do it?” she asked.
The pain in his eyes along with the disgust cut her to the core. “Their bodies mounted up until they burned them. If you couldn’t do what they wanted, you weren’t good enough to keep around, and if you weren’t good enough to keep around, you were only useful for one thing, and that was training.”
She covered her mouth as she watched a single tear slide out of the corner of his eye, and he moved fast, wiping it away as if it was never there. Sucking her lips into her mouth, she closed her eyes and couldn’t even begin to imagine.