Page 36 of Priest

“I get it. I can see how it could get addictive.”

I smile, taking the helmet from her. She has a small backpack and nothing else. It makes me feel bad that she has no possessions, or probably a change of clothes, but we’ll have to rectify that. If she’ll let me take her shopping.

“If you like, I’ll call Casey, she could come by later today.”

“If you’re that concerned about me, then okay, but I don’t really like doctors, or medical people.”

I frown. She’s doing this to please me? “She’s nice, I promise. She won’t ask any questions or be nosy, unless you want to tell her things you don’t want to tell me.”

She stares at me then shocks me by saying, “My virtue is still intact, Priest.”

I swallow hard. “I’m glad to hear that. Assholes like Rueben… they’ll prey on women they think are easy targets. I’ve heard he wasn’t a good guy, but I couldn’t exactly kick him out when he hadn’t actually done anything at the time.”

“It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known.”

It feels like my fault. She was in my care and I let her down. I know I can’t be everywhere at once, but that night he was asking for Sarah, I should’ve known he was much too interested in Bella than he should be. To think she spent the entire night frightened and alone in the parish, unsure if he was going to come back bleeding and hurt, has my blood boiling all over again. I will find him, and I’ll make him pay. I wasn’t kidding about that. The man I used to be when I was in jail, was no saint. And right now, I feel like I might revisit that monster that lies dormant in my body. The one who is capable of killing if the time called for it.

“But he asked about you; well, you told him your name was Sarah, right?”

She nods. “I didn’t want him to know anything about me. I had no idea he’d followed me, and probably had been for a while. I thought about waiting at the Soup Kitchen that night, hoping someone would be by in the morning, but then he knew I’d been hanging out there. It’s probably the first place he looked.”

My heart aches at the sadness in her eyes. I take her backpack off her shoulder and sling it over my arm. “You’re safe now, we’ll work out what will be best for you once Casey has checked you out and you can get cleaned up.” Without wanting to embarrass her, I add, “Do you have any clean clothes? The reason I ask is because my sister has some stuff in the spare room she left until we can go shopping. You’re about the same size.”

She looks up at me and the innocence in her eyes makes me all the more protective. She’s like a little dove; something so precious and delicate that you just can’t help but want to admire and nurture it. Even if you know it’s a wild creature and you shouldn’t. None of it stops me — in fact, it only surges me on.

She looks down at her shoes in that way of hers, her cheeks flushing slightly. I didn’t mean it as an insult, but her clothes need washing. She has grass stains on her knees and I don’t want to know how she got those.

Cussing Rueben under my breath, I lead her to the house.

“I… I only have a t-shirt and a jacket.”

“Okay, so tomorrow we can go shopping if you’d like.”

“Um, Priest, I’m sorry but I don’t have any money for clothes or anything.”

I know she has her pride, so I can’t seem like I’m rushing in to save the day. But she needs things to sleep in and girlie stuff.

“It’s fine, I’ve got this.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.”

I unlock the back door and push it open, before moving aside. “Ladies first.”

She smiles, hugging herself as she steps inside at the same time my cat, Jinx, runs across the floor and she jumps about a mile in the air. He’s a fluffy, gray ragdoll and spends all day sleeping and moving around to find sunny spots around the house.

“Holy smokes, Priest!” she gasps. “I just about had a heart attack!”

I grin. “Sorry, I forgot about Jinx. I also have another cat, he’s a little weird, I named him Dexter.”

“After the TV show?”

“Yeah.” I shrug.

“Why is he weird?”

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