Page 33 of Coerced

“Huh?”

She looked confused, and I wanted to kick the crap out of something.

“You told him to let you go and he didn’t! Look, you’re not my pet! I don’t want to put a collar on you or cage you. But I amnevergonna be able to stand by and let someone hurt you! And I know you can take care of yourself. You coulda zapped him to sleep in a heartbeat. So why didn’t you? When he didn’t let you go after you told him the first time, why didn’t you knock him out?”

“I— I don’t— ”

“I’ll tell you why! Because you have the heart of a dove. Soft and kind and gentle. Your self-protective instincts are only ever gonna come out when your life’s in danger. That’s just who you are, and I understand that. But I am who I am, too. If he’d done that toJax, I would have done the same. If you tell someone to let you go and they don’t, they need to be punched in the face!”

Tara and Maddy started clapping, and I blinked. I’d forgotten we had an audience.

“Kerry’s right,” Gigi said. “You were being stupid, Spin.”

“You’re lucky Kerry has tamed down some.” John crossed his arms and glared at him.

“Yeah, a few months ago we would have been vacuuming your ashes up off the floor.” Jax laughed.

“Okay, okay. You’re all right,” Spin admitted and got to his feet. “I was teasing, but I took it way too far. I apologize.”

He held out a hand, but I skipped back, power stirring under my skin like angry hornets. I put my fists in my pockets and backed away even further.

If I touched him now, I’d kill him.

“Don’t say sorry tome, idiot,” I snapped. “I’mnot the one you disrespected.”

I watched as Gemma shook Spin’s hand and gave the jerk a thank-you for the apology.

“Whelp.” Clem pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against the whole time. “Now thatthatis sorted out, let’s get back to business, people. We’re here to hunt something Diabolical, remember?”

Spin finished his report with no more stupidity, then led us outside to where two SUVs were parked. He said he’d packed the vehicles with all the camping gear and supplies we would need for up to a week in the wilderness. After that, we’d need to make a run for more freeze-dried food.

“Michael, next time I ask you to do a scout for me,” Clem said, “bring Rome along. You’re not such a jerk when he’s around.”

“Aw, he’s still torn up over that mess from last year.” Spin jammed his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders up. “I’m worried about him, to tell the truth.”

“I’ll stop by after we finish up with this,” Clem promised. “Keep an eye on him.”

“He’s one of my two best friends. Of course I will.”

Spin climbed into the plane we’d arrived on and I heard the pilot start up the engine.

“Clem?” Gemma touched the old warden’s arm. “It sounds like this other person, Rome, needs help. Is there anything I could do?”

That’s my girl. Even if I can’t understand her way of thinking. Any hurting thing, she wants to help.

If I could plot her priorities on a pie chart, I figured fifty percent of it would be taken up with me. God knew, I was messed up enough to need that much of her energy and focus. Then the pie would have a twenty-five percent slice for friends, ten percent for acquaintances and passing strangers, ten percent for stray puppies and kitties and any other fuzzy animal, and four percent for her enemies. The last little one-percent sliver would be for herself.

My own pie chart was much, much simpler. It only had two slices. Ninety percent for Gemma and ten percent for the rest of the world.

And ten percent is probably generous,I admitted to myself.

“No, he doesn’t need healing,” I tuned back in to hear Clem say. “Not in any physical sense. Hmm. Now that I think about it, I may introduce Kerry to him.”

“I don’t know what kind of helpIcould give anybody.” I shrugged. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Like you, he was forced to kill someone he didn’t want to.”

“Shut up!”

---