He still held his hand out, the ointment on his other fingers. When he was on a job, his patience would often be tested, but right now, he felt an overwhelming sense of calm and patience just by being in her presence.
“Let me have your wrist so I can protect it.”
Slowly, she lowered her wrist, and he held her arm. He began to treat the wound, careful as he rubbed the cream into her wrist. At his first touch, she flinched, and he didn’t mind. Everyone who didn’t know they were safe, always flinched. She was just being human. Chains, on the other hand, had lost his humanity in the slums of Kapotnya. He didn’t flinch anymore.
“This doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“In what way?” he asked.
“You’ve kidnapped me. Now you’re treating my wounds. I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense,” she said.
He smiled. “You’ve said that twice now.”
“I don’t know what to think. All my life, when I’ve read and heard stories of women being kidnapped, they’re usually found days, weeks, or months later. They’re raped, tortured, or brutally murdered. I don’t want to die. I have a really shitty life. Probably one that makes people think I don’t want to live, but I do. I have so many plans.”
“What kind of plans?” he asked. Chains never cared about the women he fucked. He wanted to know everything about Lori Dean.
He finished with one cuff, and moved onto the next, treating her wrist. The tension in her body had eased slightly, so that was a good sign.
“I don’t know. I hoped to one day go to college, but because I was too busy looking after my brothers and sisters, I didn’t graduate high school. I was going to take night classes, but my parents needed all the money they could get their hands on.”
He was aware of her financial situation, and the fact she dropped out of high school. “You need to stop worrying about your parents and their kids. They’re not your responsibility.”
“But if I don’t care about them, who will?” she asked. “I don’t want them to have the same experiences as me.”
“I know they’re your brothers and sisters, but you didn’t give birth to them. Your parents did, and they should be the ones to care. If they don’t, they’ve got ways and means of dealing with all of them.”
Her eyes glistened with fresh tears. “You mean go into care, right? The foster system where everyone gets forgotten. And probably much worse.”
Chains saw her pain, and it cut him deep to know she cared so much for her siblings. He’d never cared about anyone, because nobody ever cared about him. She was right though. Foster care was bullshit.
“I can’t let that happen. They don’t deserve it,” she said.
“And you deserve to lose your life because your parents couldn’t use protection? Think about it, Lori, all you’re doing is taking care of kids that aren’t yours. You’re enabling them to have more because they know they’re going to get taken care of. When was the last time someone ran you a bubble bath, or took care of you when you felt sick?
Those tears came full force now, and she released a sob.
“You may think you’re not worth all that much, but you know what? I think you are, and you deserve a lot fucking better than what they’ve been giving you.” He reached up and tu
cked some hair behind her ear. “Now, you could try and see this as a vacation.”
“A vacation?”
“I’m going to take care of you, Lori. No one’s been taking care of you. Even that fucking manager of yours needs to be taught a lesson, making you take the trash down a darkened alley like that. If it hadn’t been me, it would have been someone, and then what would you have done?” he asked.
She frowned. “You shouldn’t have taken me in the first place.”
“How about you give it a week?” he asked, more than willing to compromise to earn her trust.
“A week?”
“Yes. Allow me to show you what it would be like to be taken care of, and in the meantime, you don’t try to run, or to escape. We’ll see what happens.”
“You know this is completely crazy, right? This isn’t what kidnappers do.”
“The way you keep talking about real kidnappers, it’s as if you want me to actually hurt you.” She’d watched too many horror flicks. Then again, some of the scenes left behind by Killer of Kings would give her real nightmares.
“No, I don’t want to be hurt.”