Page 10 of Fire Bound

Ransom’s fist pulls back, but I’m nothing but a thin veil of smoke before he can make contact with my face.

Remington leansagainst the countertop in the kitchen, clutching her injured arm with her good one. Her face pulls in a wince when Winslow presses a bag of peas to her side. The shirt Remington had been wearing previously is gone, leaving her in only a bright orange sports bra. Dried blood coats the corner of her mouth and temple and her side is already bruised but healing. The ice compress will speed up the process, but her arm needs tending to.

She does a double take when I leisurely enter the kitchen, it’s as if she wasn’t expecting to be in the same room with me again. Remi thinks she’s been given space, that for the past month, she’s been alone, but I was closer to her than I am now just last week. She just didn’t realize it. It helps that the club she frequents is always busy and she insists on drowning herself in cheap liquor. Her heightened senses are shit when she’s in that state. She gets so drunk I could be one of the douchebags she allows to grind up against her and she’d never know it.

Her recklessness makes me want to burn shit down.

“You need to set that arm.” I nod my head at her dislocated shoulder, the bone bulging from the skin.

Remington scoffs. “Oh really? I hadn’t thought of that. I was going to just let ithangthis way a little while longer.”

Unimpressed with her lashing out, I cross my arms and lean against the fridge. “Your body is already trying to heal. If your bones fuse back while your arm is in this state, we will have to rebreak them to get your shoulder in place. I’m just trying to save you from some unpleasant pain in the long run.Trust me, it’s not a fun time.” The rebreak is always ten times more painful than the initial fracture. Nicolai at least got faster at it with time.

She shoves the frozen peas away from her side before taking a threatening step in my direction. “I don’t need you tosave mefrom anything. Just like I don’t need you standing up for me with my brother. I’ve got everything under control.”

My eyes flick over her, head to toe. She’s thinner than she was, dark circles sit under her eyes, the happy spark that used to reside in those blue pools has been replaced with an angry glow. Remington looks like a shadow of the person I first met. “Yeah, looks like you’ve got it all figured out,” I observe sardonically before backing away toward the door I’d entered through just seconds ago. “Well since you’ve got this all handled, I’ll go.”

My back is to her when she spits out, “Good. I don’t fucking need you, Jax.”

“So you’ve said.”Many times.Yet I still don’t believe her. She needs help. Not necessarily from me, but someone. She’s found herself on a path that doesn’t end well. “But…” Pausing in my halfhearted retreat, I hold up a finger before spinning back around. “Do you know how to reset a shoulder, Winslow?” I point my finger at the witch, who looks like she’s been caught doing something bad with the way her big, doll-like eyes widen.

“Uhh, I’m afraid my area of expertise extends to talking to dead people and occasionally, shooting a gun,butI wouldn’t consider myself an expert in the latter,” Winslow offers reluctantly. Talking to the dead is putting it mildly. Like Isabeau and I, she too is a creation of Sterling’s. More importantly, she’s the biological daughter of Kaius. Winnie has necromancy powers but refuses to use dark magic like that. The price is too high.

Remington curses under her breath before instructing, “Winnie, go get Beau. That vampire knows how to do everything.”

“Good idea,” I praise, shuffling on my feet.

Winslow looks between us warily before sighing, “I’ll be right back, there better not be any bloodshed before then.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I lock eyes with Remi across the room. “Cross my heart, hope to die,” I drawl while dramatically making a crossing motion over my chest. “Besides, Remi here knows I’m very skilled at keeping my hands to myself.” Low blow, but she deserves it. Her attitude sucks.

Winslow hesitates only a second before dashing out of the room.

Remi waits for the sound of the back door closing before glaring at me. “You think that’s funny? You think what you did is something to make jokes about?”

Stalking forward, I shake my head. “No, I don’t find any of this funny,” I admit. “I usually find your unwillingness to back down—to accept defeat—as a strength. It’s a trait I admire in you. Fuck, if I’m being honest, I also find it hot, but not right now. Right now, your stubbornness has made you ugly.” She’s so caught up in scowling at me, that Remi doesn’t realize I’ve gotten too close for comfort until it’s too late. She tries to get around me, but I’ve effectively boxed her against the kitchen island. “You have an entire family standing by to offer you help, but instead you’re off rebelling against them. I’m standing here right now offering you help, just like I did six months ago, but you shoved me away then too.” She literally shoved me into the dirt.

Defiantly, she lifts her chin. “I don’t want your help any more now than I did then.”

“I’m aware, love,” I coo, a taunting grin splitting my face. “But I’m not giving you a choice.”

Weak from the pain she’s in while her bones heal, her attempt to stop what happens is useless. It also works to my advantage that she only has one good arm at the moment. I have her body turned around and her hips pressed into the marble countertop before she can so much as make a noise. Using my own hips to pin her in place, I bend to talk low into her ear. “I’ll make it quick. In and out, I promise.”

Being this close to her is dangerous. It stirs the beast inside me.

She tries to free herself, but I’m unmoved. “What the hell, Jax! Let go of me or I swear to God I’m going to put your balls into a blender and—”

Her threat, while widely creative, is never finished. It dies on her tongue when I take her wounded arm and with a movement I’ve perfected over the years, twist the limb back into its socket. Remi’s pained cry makes something in my chest ache, but I don’t dwell on it. “There we go. All better.”

My hand runs soothingly over her arm once before I step back, returning the space she so dearly wants. Wordlessly, I offer her the bag of peas Winslow had left when she turns around to face me once more.

She slaps the frozen vegetables out of my hand, and they go skidding across the dark wood floors. “If you ever put your hands on me again, I’ll kill you.”

“There was a time you were begging for me to touch you,” I remind her. That moment—that night—will forever haunt me. A moment of weakness that would have had lasting consequences had I not stopped.

You did what was necessary, the rational side of my brain reminds me.

“I didn’t hate you then.” Fury burns in her ocean blue eyes, the angles of her pretty face twist with wrath. “Do you hear me, Jax? Ihateyou.”

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