Page 2 of Savage Scream

When my dad shifts back, my eyes land on Dee, still standing curled into herself, unmoving.

“Dee is Principal Rogan’s new foster daughter,” I explain, and my mum steps into the line of sight of my little deranged mute girl.

“Oh good. I can give Cynthia a call.” My mum preens, shooting an awkward smile in Dee’s direction, even though Dee doesn’t see it.

“Great idea. That will give me some time with Dee.” I remind my parents that I want to speak with her alone, and they nod, eyeing both me and Dee as they reluctantly exit the room.

Finally alone, I use the bed remote next to my head to sit me more upright, trying to ignore the dizziness. Dee still doesn’t move, standing in the shadows, just like I know she prefers.

“Come here,” I rasp, but she doesn’t move. “Dee, please come here.” Still, she remains where she stands, unmoving.

Stubborn little pocket rocket.

“Dee, you can either come here, or I’m getting out of this bed to come to you, which I’m pretty sure will result in me passing out.”

That gets her moving, but she’s in no hurry as she walks at a snail’s pace, stepping out of the shadows. Her head is still tilted down, her brown hair tumbling out from the black hood as she slowly steps towards me, like she is… scared?

I wish she would look up or pull that fucking hood off so I can see her face. The only skin on her body I can see right now are her fingers, which are fidgeting at her sides.

She stops a few feet from the bed, and that’s when I see it. A droplet of water falls from her hidden face.

Shit.

“Dee? Are you crying?”

She doesn’t respond, and I feel the telltale signs of anger and frustration gnawing at me, but then a sob escapes her, and the anger disappears as my need to comfort her consumes me.

“Fuck, baby. Come here.” I sit up in the bed, reaching my hand towards her, and the moment she sees it, she takes it and lets me pull her to the bed. “Get up here,” I demand, and she obeys, still keeping her head ducked low so I can’t see her face.

She climbs up on the bed with me, straddling my lap and wrapping her arms around me as another sob escapes her, and then she falls apart in my arms.

I can’t hold back my own damn tears, my eyes heating and spilling over as I soak in the heartbreakingly painful cries flowing from my dancing assassin.

“I’m ok,” I whisper against her hood, over and over, wanting to comfort her in some way, and each time I say the words, she squeezes me tighter.

The door to the room cracks open and my dad pops his head in, his brows shooting high as he takes in the scene. I shoo him away with my hand, and he gives me a nod before closing me back in the room with Dee.

As I hold my girl, my mind goes back to the events that led me here. We had been on a job for Griffin Marx, at a farmhouse a little way out of Fox Pines. It should have been straightforward. Well, as straightforward as it can be when you send Dee, AKA Hush, a seventeen-year-old girl, into a house in the middle of the night, to assassinate some predators.

Everything went wrong, though. She was ambushed. Black-clad figures creeping through the dark and entering the house after her. Griffin had ordered me over the phone to go in and help, giving me a ten second lesson on how to use the gun that was hidden under the driver’s seat of the car he has me drive Dee around in for these jobs.

I would have gone in to help regardless of Griffin’s order. There’s no way I would have let some arseholes kill my girl. I’d never killed anyone until last night, though. I’d never pulled the trigger of a handgun, something that is crazy to think I held in my hand given the strict gun laws here in Australia.

I guess I am dealing with some kind of Australian mafia now though. The Marx family is clearly a big fucking deal in the Aussie underworld, and because of Dee and her brother Travis, I’m now balls deep in that world, too.

Flashes of blood splatter whip past my vision as I remember how I killed a man last night. If I hadn’t pulled the trigger on the gun, Dee would be dead right now. I’m glad I could save her, but fuck. I killed a man. Ended his life. His existence.

The whole fucking incident had been too much for me to deal with. I’d lost my mind after that, driving erratically out to Ebony Falls where I had screamed like a madman at the one person that owns my heart.

Dee.

I was shaken to the bone about what had gone down in that farmhouse. Not just because I killed someone, but also because of how shocked I was at my reaction to seeing Dee kill.

I fucking enjoyed watching her slaughter those men.

She executed them so seamlessly. The way she moved with such precision and grace made it look like she was dancing one of the dances she does in her classes. She was fucking breathtaking.

Which is wrong for me to feel that way. I shouldn’t feel like that about watching someone kill another person. It was those confusing thoughts that had helped send me past my ability to control my anger. What sort of person am I to think like that? So, I took it out on Dee. I lashed out at her, trying to get her to react and fight back, but she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t even give me the one thing I’ve basically been begging her for since day one.

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