“Motorcycles?”
“That’s right, sunshine.” He sat down on the bed and gestured to my arm. “Mind if I take a look? Heard you had a bad burn.”
My whole body stiffened with the reminder. I pulled away from the biker and tugged one of the blankets around my body tighter. “Where’s Alexi?”
“Who?”
Suddenly frightened and panicked, I contemplated running for the door. “The Russian who hurt me.”
Patriot’s lip lifted in a snarl. “So that’s his name.”
I swallowed hard and nodded, afraid to go into too much detail about his identity. “He’s going to kill me for good this time.”
“No way.” Patriot pointed to the door. “I’ll take you down to the basement if you want to see him tied up, but it’s not gonna be pretty. My pres and Rael are kicking his ass. He’ll wish he never met you.”
“Rael? He’s here?” That was the biker who saved my life. I never got a chance to thank him.
“Yep. He was hoping you would trust me.”
Our eyes met, and for a few seconds, I didn’t think I could. Trust was something earned, and few people in my life proved worth the effort.
My arm was aching, though, and I really needed the wound cleaned. The bandage was severely soiled. Slipping my arm out, I kept the blanket high up under my chin as he scooted closer.
“Is this alright? I have to be able to touch you and look at the wound. I’ll try not to make you uncomfortable and invade your space.”
He waited for my answer before moving. That simple act of asking for permission was more than I could handle. It had been far too long since anyone cared about what I wanted.
Tears filled my eyes and slipped down my cheeks as I nodded.
“Oh, sunshine. I’m sorry you were abused.” His voice held a note of sincerity that I couldn’t ignore. “I don’t want to hurt you any further, so you tell me if anything I do makes you feel uncomfortable or bothers you, okay?”
Swallowing hard, it took a few seconds to find my voice. “Patriot?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you,” I answered softly, sniffling. “No one has been that kind to me in a long time.”
“Think nothing of it.”
Patriot pulled the bandage off, and his jaw closed with a snap, a vein pulsing low in his cheek as he worked to clean the wound and care for the damaged skin. Every simple touch was painful.
I kept wincing, jerking whenever he accidentally brushed a finger over the exposed area. The tears kept falling, and I couldn’t hold them back, especially when I saw the extent of the damage to my skin.
“I’ll never be the same again,” I whispered, blubbering through my tears. “He made sure of that. I’ll have to look at that wound the rest of my life and remember what Alexi did to me.”
Patriot placed a new bandage over the top and taped it in place before dropping his supplies on a nearby table. He stood and disinfected his hands, returning with a warm washcloth. With great care, he wiped the tears and streaks of dirt from my face.
“Listen to me, sunshine.”
I lifted my chin, searching his dark eyes.
“That Russian fucker tried to take your life. He didn’t succeed. You fought. You won,” he emphasized, “because that son of a bitch will die a gruesome and painful death, but you will wake up every morning with the scars to prove that you’re incredibly strong and brave. Yeah, you’re not ever gonna be exactly the same. So? Every badass has a few scars. They’re a sign of character.”
Patriot lifted his shirt and turned around, showing a full view of his back. “You see that?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. His back was nothing but one gigantic scar, the flesh rippled, puckered, and pink in some spots while pale white in others. Some parts were much redder. One section sort of resembled strips of mangled flesh instead of muscle. “I’m sorry. Did that happen overseas?”
“Took the blast as I blocked the doorway while four of my Marine brothers escaped from the hut that we were in.” His voice was low, full of pain. “They were murdered anyway. Took me a long time to realize there wasn’t anything else I could have done to save them.”