“Oh, she needs discipline,” Keanau growls.
“But not now. Now, she needs rest.”
It is Mattias who speaks. His words, calm and certain, cut through the growing tension and surprise everyone.
“Come here, Trissa,” he says, offering me his hand. “I am going to give you a bath, and some food.”
I take his hand. He’s not a friend, but he is the most familiar.
“Are we going to let him just take our spoils?” Pharaoh questions.
“Those two are cut. They won’t do a thing. Let them take her,” Tore says. “We don’t need a squealing woman interfering in the conversation anyway.”
My temper flares. They may be men, may be warriors, may just have defeated a small army of the sheriff’s most loyal men, but I am the one who drew first blood. I shoot a vicious look at Tore, thinking brutal thoughts. There has been much blood today, but maybe there should be more.
“Oh, she doesn’t like that!” Silver Eyes smiles. He has a way about him I do like. He is calm and he has the kind of authority that doesn’t need to be yelled at people.
“I don’t like that,” I agree. “And I don’t like you.” I’m looking at Tore, but I am speaking to the group of them. “I’m not for sale, and anyone who tries to treat me the way that leaking bag of guts did, will end up the same way.”
The threat elicits varied reactions. Pharaoh laughs, but it is a scornful one. Gladiator and Silver Eyes seem to be genuinely amused by my statement. Zen and Cowboy and Keanau appear to be taking it more seriously. Tore gives me a piercing blue stare.
“You’re going to be tamed,” he tells me. “There are seven of us here to do it, and don’t think you’re ever going to get away with anything like that again.”
“Nine of us,” Mattias says, squeezing my hand.
“You have paid nothing for her.”
“Oh, Elias and I have paid plenty,” Mattias disagrees. “I have handled her. I have a connection to her. I...”
“You let her bring a ceramic knife in here and slit the sheriff’s throat. For all we know, you set her up to murder the man.”
“No, I did that all on my own,” I exclaim. “Mattias and Elias had no idea what I was doing, and neither will any of you. I will not be an owned woman. I was not made for that. If you try to turn me back into a slave, I will go through you. I will never rest. I will never sleep. I will find a way to kill every single one of you...”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Mattias says, drawing me against his body, turning me around, and wrapping me in a hug from behind. “Settle down, nobody is going to hurt you.”
“Oh, I’m going to hurt that little ass,” Keanau growls.
“She dares threaten us?” Pharaoh booms. “She will learn not to do that.”
“She will,” Mattias agrees. “But she will learn better after she has been bathed, and fed, and slept.”
“Let them take care of her,” Silver Eyes says. “We have much to discuss, and she needs to be cared for.”
I like him. He is not threatened by me. None of them are, probably, but some seem to take my threats more personally than others. I don’t know whether it is better to be taken seriously and make a warrior angry, or be laughed at.
It doesn’t matter. Mattias and Elias are taking me away from the warriors. They lead me through the sheriff’s rooms to a bathing chamber that must have once belonged to the sheriff, and they run a bath without hardly a word to me, cleaning themselves off with a little soap and water first to stop the water from being contaminated with the blood of their foes.
In the end, they strip down to the waist, tying the arms of their robes around their hips, exposing the muscular plane of abdomen and torso. I try not to look, but I can’t help it. Whatever implant they have does not affect the masculinity of their bodies. They are sculpted, planes of muscle elegantly flowing from one into the other, abdominals rippling like the washboard I used to use in the river, their chests so broad and so powerful, utterly hairless and smooth.
It’s not lust I feel right now. I am too tired, too disturbed for that. Right now, it’s awe and appreciation at just how handsome they are. Two perfect works of art drawing a bath for me, the murderess.
That is what I am now. I have taken life. I will never be able to take that back. It will stain whichever part of my soul used to be clear. But I will not regret it, and I will never apologize for it.
“Get in,” Mattias says when the bath is ready.
I am surprised by their lack of comment as to the events of the day.
“Are you angry at me?”