Page 27 of Killer Kiss

Augie easily threaded a needle with some sort of black twine and then held it up in my direction. “My grip is just fine, thanks. You gonna stay still or you gonna squeal like a baby?”

I glared at him. “Just do it.”

He took my chin in his fingers, tilting my face toward him.

I flinched back sharply.

He frowned. “What just happened? The needle wasn’t anywhere near you.”

A cold sweat broke out across the back of my neck.

Riddick had gripped my chin like that. Not gently, the way Augie had. But he’d dug his fingers in, yanking on my head to force me into submission. Anger balled up inside me that I’d let him. I fucking hated that I was scared of him. “Nothing. I’m fine. Just…don’t touch me like that.”

Augie’s gaze darkened, but his fingers slid across my cheek.

I found myself leaning into his touch for the tiniest of seconds, before his hand settled at the back of my neck.

“This better?” he asked. “I need to keep you steady.”

His face was close to mine. Close enough for me to notice the light-blond stubble that coated his strong jawline. Close enough for me to see what looked like flecks of silver in his light-colored eyes. I nodded once, giving my consent.

The needle pierced through my skin, but I didn’t cry out. I’d already embarrassed myself enough in front of this man for one night. I wouldn’t add to it by not being able to handle a couple of stitches without anesthetic.

I’d suffered so much worse in the past.

His breath misted over my lips. Minty fresh. Warm, just like his fingers tangled in my hair at the nape of my neck.

Augie made small, quick stitches in my head and was finished in under a minute.

His gaze flickered to mine. “There. You’re all done.”

He didn’t move back.

And for a moment, I didn’t make him.

A car horn blared, and we both jumped a mile. It took me a second to realize I’d leaned on the horn without even noticing because I was too busy getting lost in his eyes.

Terry gave us a questioning thumbs-up, silently asking if we were okay.

If Augie was okay, I corrected silently. Terry didn’t give a shit about me.

Augie flashed him a thumbs-up while I busied myself inspecting his handiwork in the rearview mirror. The stitches were incredibly tidy. Almost professional level perfect. “You a doctor by day or something?” I twisted my head side to side, but there was no angle those stitches didn’t look pro.

He packed his equipment away into the first aid kit again, neatly tucking the scissors into their designated compartment. “I doubt I’d be working here if I was. My neighbor is a nurse. She taught me how to do stitches a long time ago. Between me and my brother, one of us was always coming home with some sort of injury, and we never had insurance. Unless we were bleeding out, we just dealt with it at home.”

I sat back in my seat. “Your parents just let you stitch your brother up?”

“Hard for them to have an opinion when they weren’t around.”

He’d sounded bitter about it, but sometimes an absent parent was better than one like my mother, who knew every aspect of your business.

“Well, your neighbor taught you well. Your brother was lucky you were around.”

Augie scoffed, “Not sure he’d agree with you on that one.” He glanced at me quickly, like he realized he’d said too much. “Look, the cops don’t have anything other than what we told them. Which was that Eddie took both Fawn and Eve, but Eve was released once Eddie realized her father was a politician. We’re guessing Fawn was always the target and Eve was only taken because she was there. We guess he might have seen Eve as a bonus and tried trafficking her, but when he realized who her father was, decided he didn’t want that level of publicity.”

“But there was no one to make a fuss over Fawn’s disappearance so he could just sneak under the radar with her,” I finished for him.

“We’ve been making as much noise as we can. But without money or resources, we haven’t had much luck. Nobody cares about a missing stripper from Saint View.”

---