There’s the sound of a scuffle, and Rose screaming obscenities, then silence. The woman is doing this to punish me now, making me cooperate, and it might just damn work.
The door opens and closes, and Rose says my name softly. “Get up. You have to try to get out of those ropes while she’s gone.”
The guard speaks up. “What the hell do you think I’m here for?”
I lift my head in time to watch her glare at him while he holds her arms behind her back. “You’re here to raise my body count when I get free again.”
He doesn’t look convinced, but her retort makes me smile. That’s my fucking girl.
The woman returns a minute later, and I’ve lost all the energy to fight. I can’t even move my arms anymore. My legs are tightened down, then my wrists. So tight it’s cutting off circulation and leaving my fingertips to tingle.
She produces another syringe and holds it up to the light to measure the contents of her little cocktail. “I told you not to play games with me, but you can’t just give in, can you?”
I snort, my mouth thick, my tongue heavy. But I can see her, and I hope she sees the contempt in my eyes, the disgust, and how much I want to rip her limb from limb.
She brings the syringe near my arm, and Rose screams at her. “Stop this, please, don’t give him anymore. Can’t you see you’ll kill him if you do? He’s already out of it enough. I thought you wanted to fuck a man, not a corpse.”
The council bitch steps back toward Rose. “You have no idea what I want, little girl, nor can you fully comprehend what kind of man he is or what he can do for me. You know nothing about our relationship.”
I sneer at the word as if I’d ever get within ten feet of her. Once upon a time, I’d been that man, easily swayed by a pretty smile or a handsome face, but not anymore. And she wouldn’t have tempted me anyway. Not with the cruelty written into every line of her face.
Rose shouts again, and I look up to realize I’ve missed something. The guard is holding his face, and somehow Rose has gotten his gun.
Well, this took a turn. I’m smiling like an idiot, but I don’t even care. Not when she looks so strong, so fierce, trying to protect us.
“Rose,” I whisper, but only a moan comes out.
Her voice reaches me again. “Give me that shit.” She snatches the syringe and throws it away.
I can’t keep my head up much longer, but I have to watch her, to look at her, to make sure she stays safe, and now free.
The ropes are too tight, and my limbs too heavy to break out, though. I can’t do anything but watch as Rose faces them down with the guard’s gun. I pray she remembers what I taught her about firing it.
Rose points the gun at the council bitch and motions for her to back away from me. When the cloying scent of her perfume recedes, I relax into the bed a little bit more, no longer tense, waiting for her to touch me again.
“Touch him again, and I’ll kill you,” Rose says, a conviction in her voice that would make me hard if I wasn’t already. This is different, though. It stirs my soul as well as my body.
Rose moves beside me so I can see her face without straining my neck. “Hi,” I whisper.
“Hi,” she says, and I close my eyes, savoring the sight of her above me. Maybe it will be okay this time.
32
ROSE
I understand now. The fear I’ve seen in his eyes, the way he holds me, pushes me, makes me stronger even when it’s uncomfortable. I get it.
Seeing him on that bed, strapped down naked, breaks my heart. This was me not too long ago, and I won’t let him stay that way, not even if it means sacrificing myself to save him.
He lifts his head when I rush to his side, trying to figure out the rope so I can get him loose. There’s shame on his face as he looks away, so I can’t see more of it. I know that shame too. Every second he is here breaks something in me, and I can’t bring him back the same way he’s saved me. I’m not strong enough.
I grapple with the ropes and then lean over the side of the bed. “Kai, look at me.”
But he’s groggy, his eyes going hazy. I have no idea what kind of drugs she’s given him. I hate this woman so much.
I spin to look around the room and lock eyes with the bitch. “What did you give him? How do I bring him out of this?”
She shrugs, seemingly completely unconcerned by the fact that I’m pointing a gun at her. My only conclusion is she thinks I won’t shoot her.