Page 14 of Assassin's Mark
Chapter Eight
“Damn it!”
He dropped me. My belly did that funny flip thing it does when a sudden drop comes out of nowhere, and then my head slammed into the coffee table. Pain radiated through my temple and eye socket, staggering me. I vaguely heard some cursing and muttering, and then I was on the floor, blinking and wondering how the hell I’d ended up there.
Levi knelt in front of me,his fingers digging into my upper arm the only thing keeping me upright.
“Don’t do that again,” he barked. “There’s a reason you’re not tied up. Keep attacking and you might not leave me any choice.”
“Asshole.”
Levi grinned. Actually grinned. “Did you call me a name?”
I’d call him another one if I could get my brain to spit one out. Granted, in a hit man’s world, calling people names probablyhad zero impact, but words were the only weapons I had as I wobbled in his grip.
His hand rose, aimed for my face, and I flinched back.
“Be still.” He probed the bruise I could already feel rising along my cheekbone. “Nothing’s broken. Get up.”
Like I had any choice with him pulling on me. “Do you do anything but bark orders and manhandle women?”
“I also deliver breakfast, but it doesn’t looklike you followed orders to clean up.” His gaze dropped to the fast-food bags on the ground near the front door. “Maybe the prisoner doesn’t deserve to be fed.”
The wordprisonermade this all too real. “How do I know it’s not drugged? Maybe that’s your way of keeping me in line; then you wouldn’t need ropes.”
All amusement drained from his face, leaving behind the cold, dead eyes that scaredthe living daylights out of me. A quick yank up brought me nose to nose with him. “I have plenty of ways, little bird, and you really don’t want to explore them.”
I hauled back and smacked my forehead into Levi’s face.
Ow.
The excruciating pain in my head blocked out everything else until Levi’s fingers clamped onto my jaw. I opened my eyes to face a deadly glare that had me all but cowering.God, I wanted to be strong, but…
“So that’s how you want to play it, then?” Dropping his hand, Levi turned, hauling me across the room by my elbow like I was a naughty child. “This cage is going to get a lot smaller if this keeps up, I promise you that, Abby. But in the meantime”—he stooped to grab the duffel bag on the run—“let me show you exactly how much control you have in this situation.”
My heartbeat went quick and light, fluttering like the little bird he’d called me. I didn’t think that was a good sign since it only made the feeling that I was about to faint stronger. Maybe my brain had taken all the hits it could handle. Or maybe the dread growing in my chest as we barged through the bedroom door had something to do with it. I hadn’t thought Levi would rape me despite the photos—arapist wouldn’t put me to sleep for those, would he?—but when he forced me into the bathroom…
Jesus, don’t pass out, Abby!
I might not have a choice. Being unaware could even be a good thing, but I needed to know what was happening to my body. Every time I thought about what might have occurred last night while I was unconscious, I wanted to gag. I couldn’t leave it to chance—I had to know.
Not that I wanted to go through this either, but Levi wasn’t giving me a choice. He dropped the duffel and started stripping me almost in the same breath. Fighting him did nothing—he had me naked in seconds, my clothes from last night littering the floor around us in shreds, my chilled skin breaking out in goose bumps as he pulled me closer to the shower and reached to turn on the water.
“No.No!”
I struggled, yelled, tried to kick and scream, but nothing affected him, it seemed. He adjusted the water and shoved me into the shower as efficiently as if I was a passive doll in his hands—and I began to get the picture he’d painted all along. I could fight him, but I was only hurting myself. There really was no control in this situation. The only saving grace was that he hadn’t hurt meon purpose, no matter how angry he got. Every injury had been an accident or my own fault.
Don’t hurt the innocent, Eli had said. Maybe he’d been telling the truth? God, please let him be telling the truth.
I finally did the only thing I knew to do. I turned as far away from him as I could and huddled into the corner of the shower, back to Levi, one arm crossed over my breasts—a futile attemptto protect myself. Levi kept his grip on me for a minute, maybe to test my compliance, and then he let go. My second arm joined the first.
It was pointless, I knew, to try to hide. He’d seen every inch of me last night, places I’d never even seen. He knew my body more intimately than I did, but I couldn’t deny the instinct, no matter how ridiculous. I pushed into the walls as if they could absorbme. The only thing I could control was my voice, and I kept silent, denying him the reaction he probably wanted, denying him at least one small part of me.
A metallic scraping sound startled me, but I didn’t look. Told myself it didn’t matter. Until hot water hit my head and poured down over my trembling body.
Only then did the tears come.
“Please…don’t…” I couldn’t let him take care of me,couldn’t let those lines blur while I was vulnerable. They were all I had to protect myself.
