“Wha . . . ?” he said.
His pistol, gone. Where? He squeezed his hand, stupid for a few seconds, not able to figure out—
Turk grabbed him from the back of his neck and slammed him facedown on the ledger. A distant part of Albert’s mind worried that his blood would seep onto the pages and make them hard to read.
He groaned as someone punched him in the back and in the side and ground his face savagely against the ledger.
Turk yanked him back and shoved him against the wall. Albert’s legs gave way and he fell on his rear end.
The four of them loomed over him. Albert knew he was crying as well as bleeding. And he knew that both his tears and his blood would make the creeps happy.
“What do you want?” he said, slurring his words, realizing a broken tooth was stuck into his tongue.
“What do we want?” Turk mocked. “Everything, Albert. We want everything.”
After cleaning Penny, Diana felt the need for a shower herself.
She shampooed. She conditioned. She shaved her legs and armpits. So normal. So like being home. Except that here her mother’s creepy boyfriends didn’t sneak in to get a look at her and pretend they’d come looking for aspirin or whatever.
She turned off the shower with great reluctance. She could stand there under the spray forever. But in the back of her mind was the knowledge that they had all wasted food until they were starving. She had learned a deep lesson about waste.
She wrapped one of the soft bath sheets around herself and brushed her teeth.
She went toward her bed and found Caine waiting there for her. He was standing awkwardly, chewing his thumbnail.
“Napoleon?” she asked him.
“No,” he said, and looked down at the floor.
“Uh-huh.”
“I helped with Penny.”
“Yes, you did. And you only threatened to kill her once.”
A flicker of a smile. “Even Sam would have threatened her.”
Diana went to him. They did not touch. But they stood just inches away. Close enough for Diana to feel his breath on her face.
“Why did you save me?” Diana asked.
Caine sucked in a deep, steadying breath, like he was getting ready to dive into a pool. “Because I . . .” He paused, blinked, seeming surprised at the words coming out of his own mouth. “Because what would I do without you? How would I live without you? Because.”
“Because?”
“Because you are the only human being I need.”
Diana looked at him skeptically. Was he changed? Even a little? Or was it all just manipulation?
She might never k
now. But at that moment she also knew this was all she would get from him. And she knew that it was enough. Because she was not going to turn him away.
She grabbed his head in both hands and drew him to her. She kissed him hard. It was a hungry, needy, wild kiss. No time to breathe, no time to be gentle, no time for any more stupid questions or doubts.
Diana took a step back, unwound the towel, and let it drop.
Caine made a sound like a strangling animal.