Page 30 of Plain Jade

He was silent.

“Are you?” she asked.

“I’m fine.”

She highly doubted it. He was clearly injured but she didn’t want to fight with him. It was the last thing she wanted to do. He was hurt, and she needed to help him. There was no fear when it came to Braxton.

Stepping into the shower, she didn’t care if she got wet. Picking up the soap and the sponge, she began to lather it all over his body, being careful of where she touched. He let out a couple of winces.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s fine.”

She knew it wasn’t.

The water didn’t run clear, as some of his wounds were still open. Jade stepped out of the shower, removed her wet clothes, and quickly wrapped a robe around her body. Braxton turned off the shower and she handed him a towel to dry himself. She would deal with the blood on the towel later.

“Will you sit?” she asked. She had already put the toilet seat down.

He didn’t argue with her and just lowered himself down on top of the toilet seat. She nibbled her lips, and then got to work in assessing his body. With the ink on his skin, she found it hard to locate the cuts, but one by one she did.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” she asked. She didn’t know if she should even ask him, but she glanced over at him and he winced. She slowly dabbed the medical wipe at his wounds. She had no idea what she was doing, but she had to try.

“Do you think you’re ready to know the answer?” he asked.

At first, she wasn’t sure if she was ever going to be ready to know the answer, but she would have to. There was no point in hiding it.

“Yes, I’m ready to know the answer.”

Braxton let out a little cough and a grunt as she pressed the medical wipe to one of his wounds.

“It looks like you’ve been slashed.”

He let out a laugh. “You’re not wrong.”

She shook her head. “I hate to break this to you, Braxton, but this isn’t funny. I know you … kill people, maybe even hurt them, or whatever, but now you’re hurt.”

“And how do you know that?” he asked.

“I saw the paper. The dead body that was found. A picture of him in the newspaper. I know what you did that night for me.”

“And you didn’t think to go to the police?”

She shook her head. “That man was going to rape me and hurt me. I wasn’t going to do anything that got you in trouble.”

****

Braxton didn’t know if he should be happy with Jade on his side. Tonight had been … bad. He also knew what had happened—he’d been set up. There were a lot of men that wanted to own him. Wanted him as their own personal dog to keep on a leash and use as a threat when it suited them. He refused to do that.

He could never be controlled. He knew it angered a lot of people who wanted a contract killer at their fingertips. He wouldn’t give them what they wanted and they retaliated.

Staring at Jade, he saw the worry in her eyes, but most importantly, for some odd reason, he didn’t see judgment, which was a big surprise to him.

“I … take care of problems,” Braxton said. “It is not always about killing someone, but for the most part, it is. I do kill.” He let out a moan.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to a hospital?” she asked.

“Hospitals are not safe for people like me.”

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