“Look at the poor girl—she’s a frightened shell. Unless you want her to remain that way, she needs more help than you can give her.”
What was he suggesting? That I needed more than Derek to get better? That he wanted to take me away?
“No!” I cried, backing up to the other side of the bed. He couldn’t take me away. Not again. Please god, not again.
“What’s wrong, Pet?” Derek crooned as he made it behind me before I toppled off the edge of the bed.
It was something I’d noticed ever since we’d escaped that night in my first prison. Derek kept reverting back to that name. I liked it. I didn’t know why, but it was comforting and I allowed myself to relax my body back into his arms.
“I don’t want to go with him. Please don’t make me go.”
“I won’t. I promise,” he soothed. “Dr Fuentes is only here to make sure you’re healing physically. Isn’t that right?” His eyes shot up to the doctor’s.
“Yes, that’s right,” he said to me with a sigh.
Then he came closer again, and I pressed harder against Derek’s arms as if I could disappear inside them. I didn’t disappear, and he kept coming, but he stopped a foot away this time and crouched down in front of me.
“Of course I won’t take you anywhere you don’t want to go, ángel. But do you know why I took this job—working for Derek and the man who employed him?”
I shook my head.
“Because if I didn’t, there would be girls—girls like you—who would never get the medical attention they needed. Do you understand?”
Yes, I did understand what he was saying. He didn’t agree with what happened to them—to me—but this was the only way he could help them. The only way he could help me. He wanted to help me—that’s what he was saying. That was good, but still, I didn’t want to go anywhere with him.
I nodded but kept myself as close to Derek as I could.
He eyed me for another minute. The silence was tense as if both of them were waiting for me to say or do something. I didn’t move a muscle. I barely breathed.
“All right,” the doctor said with another deflated sigh. “Will you let me have a look at your wounds, ángel?”
I didn’t want him looking at me, or touching me. I didn’t want to move from the safe cocoon of Derek’s arms. Did I have to do this? I needed my body to heal, didn’t I? Did I even have any say in the matter? It was too much. Just too damn much.
Do it, a voice whispered from somewhere in my head. It was the place that was strong. The place that knew what I needed to heal. And it wasn’t telling me to send the doctor away or to lock myself in the bathroom. That wasn’t what I needed.
“Tell me what do to,” I whispered. Maybe that made me weak, but I didn’t think so. I was making the choice to hand it over, to trust him. It wasn’t being taken from me this time. My choice.
He looked down at me and brushed the hair back from my forehead. Then his eyes closed and he nodded. Did he understand? Could he see what I really wanted to ask of him?
“Stand up and face the bed, Pet,” he said then, though partly a moot point since he was holding me tighter in his arms and helping me to my feet.
He positioned himself in front of me and kept his eyes on mine as he unbuttoned my shirt. I shivered when he slipped it from my shoulders, but I didn’t try to stop him. Instead of letting it drop to the floor though, he held it around me, part way down my back.
I felt the doctor’s hands on me then, on the flesh, Derek had exposed. He pressed gently in various places until he’d reached where my shirt still covered me. Only then did Derek lower it further, revealing the wide bandage wrapped around my ribs.
More light touches until the bandage fell away. Goosebumps prickled my flesh, only in part from the room’s cooler air on my warm skin, but I remained still and kept my eyes locked on Derek’s. He never looked away, not once, as if he knew I needed him to keep me anchored like this.
Of course, he knew. He’d always known me, probably better than I knew myself. So, how did he not know until now what it was I needed? Or had he known? Had he resisted this?—or not wanted it at all?
The doctor pressed on my ribs and I drew in a sharp breath as the pain made my eyes water. It hurt, but at least it didn’t hurt as much as it had before.