Good thing I’m not one of them. I pity any guy who drops into her big pot of hot mess crazy. She was one night away from disaster. The way I see it, I’ll be doing her a favor by pulling her out of this existence.
I know I’m trying to justify what probably can’t be justified. Kat is as innocent as Nadia. She doesn’t deserve me using her as a pawn no matter how horrible her father is. But that can’t be helped. She is the only lead I’ve had on the guy in over a year. She’s my one ticket to evening the score for Nadia.
I don’t have a clue about the bus schedule, but Kat leans against the bus stop sign like she expects one soon, so I fold my arms across my chest to wait with her.
“How did you know I took the bus?” she demands. She may be reckless, but she’s not stupid.
Noted.
“I was on the same bus as you.”
“You were?”
“Da.”
“What’s your plan?” she asks.
I must be feeling guilty because for a moment I think she knows she’s my prisoner. But no. She just means for tonight.
“I take you home. Put you to bed. End of story.”
Or something like that. Take her home. Tie her up in her bed. Figure out what the fuck to do next.
“That means you’re coming in?” She twirls a braid around her finger. “So you can put me to bed?”
“You have roommate? A roommate?” I correct my English.
“Nope.” She pops her pink lips on the “p,” drawing my attention to her mouth. Now that I know she’s kinky–shouldn’t she be too young to be kinky?--I’m picturing her with those pretty lips stretched around my–
Gospodi. I need to stop.
I really fucking wish she was the way I pictured her. Some quiet, shy, sheltered girl. One I would frighten a little but not harm in order to make her father suffer.
This girl, though?
She throws me off my game.
I didn’t expect her to be hyper-sexual. Flirty. Wild and reckless. She’s going to be harder to handle.
Or maybe easier, I can’t tell yet.
Really, this is a gift. She wants me to take her home. Maybe she wants me to screw her. Wouldn’t it be better if she were willing?
No! It’s not.
I rub my forehead, scowling at the bus as it pulls up.
I wanted her unwilling.
I planned to take photos of a frightened girl, tied up in compromised positions. I was going to tell Leon Poval I was doing every single terrible thing to his daughter that was done to Nadia, and if he wanted to see her alive, he would have to come and get her from me. In person.
So I can kill him.
I don’t really know what to do with a girl like this. Letting her think, even for a night, that I am anything but vengeance seems like a cruel betrayal. For some reason, it seems worse than just stuffing her in the trunk of a car and telling her what’s up from the start.
Dammit. I should’ve just let her suffer her own fate tonight at the party.
But no. I could never do that. What those mudaks were doing to her was a problem. She was about to be gang-raped in a corner from the way it looked to me. I may be willing to make Leon Poval believe I’m raping his daughter, but I’m not actually going to stand by and let it happen to her. That’s a different thing entirely.
We climb on the bus, and I pay both our fares. I sit down, and Kat climbs onto my lap, making the other passengers on the bus look at us. Damn her. I don’t need anyone remembering us. I firmly grip her hips and maneuver her to the seat beside me. “Be good,” I admonish, trying to play her game.
She puts one fingertip up to her lips with a pout. “I thought I was being good.” Her fingernails are short and unpainted, which seems at odds with the rest of her, which is done up. But then, my sense was this was a costume, not the real girl.
I pull my knit cap down and slouch in my seat. “Not on bus,” I tell her gruffly.
For some reason, she eats it up. Maybe the molly is kicking in.
“You feel okay?”
“Aw.” She reaches up to stroke my face, but I jerk back to forbid it. She goes on like nothing happened. “Somebody cares.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “You’re on my watch.”
“For how long?” She takes the end of her braid and tickles my ear with it. This time I don’t jerk away because it’s obviously what she wants.
“You’re going to get yourself spanked, little girl,” I warn.
Her knees clap, and she sits higher in her seat like she just squeezed her buns together. There’s no doubt in my mind now. She fucking loves domination.