Bane

“Maren, are you okay?”

Looking to Bane, I answered, “I will be. He’s never been physically abusive before.”

Taking out his phone, Bane dialed a number. “Jewel, please.” He paused. What was he going to say to her? A slight bruise appeared on Bane’s chin from the hit. I reached out to touch where Frankie sucker punched him. Bane looked at me, giving me a small smile before he spoke again, “Jewel. Bane. Why was Frank Kincaid in my hotel room today?” He listened. “Okay. Yes. Not a problem. Bye.”

Quietly, I sat in the car after Bane hung up. That had been more civil than I’d imagined after the scene up in the room.

Bane looked deep in thought as he squinted at the road. After a few minutes, he asked, “Did you know Frank called Jewel?”

“No. Frank came by my old apartment as I packed. He said he wanted to call Jewel. I told him I would take care of it. I never planned to tell her I’d moved into the hotel.”

Bane was still, too still, as he drove. No doubt he assessed everything including me. “Why?”

“Because you shouldn’t even be paying anything to them. You’ve done more for me than anyone else has. And quite frankly, Jewel doesn’t own me. I wanted to quit, but didn’t to give us uninterrupted time to escape. Now that Frankie’s ruined that, I’m quitting.”

“What about the money he owes?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“What about the month?”

“That’s up to you.”

“Maren, what do you want?”

This conversation moved quick, not giving me much time to think. The only thing I could do was think with my heart, which was dangerous considering our agreement. “To spend the month together like we planned, then go our separate ways.”

Parking the car, Bane nodded to the building where Security Branch was in large white letters. “You said old apartment. What did you mean by that?”

I felt like this was an inter

rogation, but I wanted to be truthful with him. “After I help Frankie out this last time, I’m leaving. Escaping. Getting away from this life. I want to live.”

“I need to pick up something here. I’ll be back.”

That was a rapid change to the pace we were talking. At times, Bane was his own island state. I noticed I wasn’t given the option to come with him. “Okay, I’ll stay in the car.”

Bane nodded while grabbing his sunglasses from the middle compartment. Checking the rearview mirror first, he got out of the vehicle, locked me in, and jogged toward the door while checking his surroundings. My eyes couldn’t leave his ass. Last night I hadn’t been able to see him naked, but I wanted to.

Stop thinking about sex, Maren. There were issues I needed to deal with. Distracting myself with sex was not healthy.

To the core, I was shocked at everything that went down. I watched the traffic come and go to distance my mind. I was with a semi-stranger who I was sleeping with. My brother took it too far. I still had to come up with a large sum of money. What the hell happened over the last few days?

A few minutes later, Bane came out of the black shiny glass doors with a leather backpack slung over his shoulders. Mirrored Aviators were in place on his face. Bane seemed tenser as he got in the vehicle.

“Everything okay?”

“I called the hotel. Frankie left. I figured we’d get all your stuff and check in somewhere else that no one knows about. How does that sound?” There was something Bane wasn’t telling me as he reversed out of the parking lot.

Shifting in my seat, I looked out the window. “That’s fine. Bane, I want you to know there’s no pressure to continue this thing. I’ll be fine.”

“I want to.”

My head snapped back to Bane at his simple sentence that rang true to my ears. The thought of Bane wanting to spend more time together had the familiar ache returning. A giggle escaped as I thought about the condoms. Was this what it was like to be sex crazed? After one time together?

Amused, Bane glanced my way. “What’s funny?”

“When you told me to pack a few things, I saw the condoms next to my birth control and grabbed the condoms too.” I laughed harder. “I guess I wanted to make sure we were prepared if we didn’t come back.” Tears. I had tears from laughter.