Page 17 of Butcher

My brows shot up, but I was too damn tired to argue with him. I was done fighting. For now. I sat up and lifted my arms when he motioned for me to. He jerked my shirt and bra off and dropped his t-shirt over my head. I waited to see what he’d do. My knife was still lying on the floor near the bathroom. He had to know what I was going to do with that.

He just shoved me over on the bed, forced me to lay on my side, facing the wall, and curled his massive body up behind mine. I stiffened, keeping my muscles tense as I waited. But he just huffed out a breath and put a muscular arm around my waist.

This was what we were doing after I’d tried to kill him—granted it wasn’t my best attempt—and then we’d fucked? My internal question was answered as his breathing evened out. At least he wasn’t a snorer. Slowly, I relaxed, letting my body rest back against his.

I wanted to fight sleep. To sneak out of this bed and either finish what I started, or escape into the night. But he’d tamed me, for the moment, because my eyes dropped shut of their own accord. When in Rome…

Jerking awake,I blinked groggily around the room, trying to figure out what had woken me up. My head throbbed in time to my heartbeats and my mouth was as dry as the desert outside. I remembered waking sometime in the early hours and sliding off the bed. My feethad barely touched the floor before huge hands had snatched me off them and pulled me back into muscular arms again. The plan had been to pee, then go for my knife once more. Instead, I’d fallen back to sleep.

I frowned, realizing I wasn’t in the bed anymore. I was on a chair. Tied up. I sighed. “Well, he definitely figured out what I am,” I muttered to myself. My scowl deepened when I remembered that I still had to pee.

Giggles had my head snapping over toward the doorway. My brows shot up when I saw four little heads peeking around the door frame, stacked on top of each other like a cartoon. I was glad Butcher had covered me in his massive t-shirt or I’d be sitting here naked, tied up. I couldn’t believe he’d managed to get me onto this chair without waking me. It was the alcohol’s fault. That was going on the damn list. Number one hundred and twenty-two, no drinking while on a hit.

“Think she needs help?” The oldest looking girl asked.

“What if she’s like some kind of assassin sent here to kill us all?” One of the others countered, frowning at me.

My brows shot up. How in the hell did a little girl key in on that? There was just no way. She was still young enough to be playing with dolls. Not that I ever played with dolls, other than the occasional execution.

They moved into the room. The two youngest looked to be about the same age. One of them added, “Like a cyborg.”

“You’ve been watching that movie again, haven’t you, Cassie?” the oldest accused.

Cassie shrugged. “It’s really good.”

“It’s scary,” the other young girl admitted.

“She’s not an assassin,” the oldest said with a roll of her eyes.

“Maybe we should ask her, Taylor,” the one scared of the movie whispered, tugging on the second oldest’s shirt hem.

They all looked down at her and considered it. My lips twitched as they tried to decide what to do. These girls, besides the one, didn’t seem to have much fear in them at all. They could be trained easily to be like me.

“Hey,” Taylor called out, catching my attention again. “Are you an assassin?”

“No?” I replied. Even I could hear the lie in my voice.

“Hmmm,” Taylor and the oldest eyed each other then looked at the younger girls.

“What do you think, Taylor?” the oldest asked with a frown.

“Whenever I answer that fast, Dad tells me that’s how he knows I’m lying,” Taylor answered.

What the hell kind of little monsters are standing in front of me?I considered asking them to untie me, but I knew that would send up too many red flags for them.

“You here to kill us?” Cassie asked.

“No?” I paused, wondering if I should make that sound more convincing. After all, I wasn’t here forthem.“No.” That was much better, though it didn’t seem to convince the girls.

“Do you need help?” the oldest asked.

“Yes.” I was keeping it short. Otherwise they might run away and leave me here. I had no idea what Butcher was going to do with me. It was probably my good luck that’d kept him from killing me while we slept. That was really stupid of me to fall asleep in his arms. Stupid to have had sex with him. None of this was like me at all.

Taylor scrunched her nose. “I don’t know, Gabby,” she said to the oldest. “That’s exactly what an assassin would say.”

Dammit. I knew it.

There was something about kids. They could see through the lies adults believed.

---