Page 13 of Inflame Me
Without words, I do as she asks in an attached bathroom that is dirty as hell and needs to be cleaned, like, last year. Gross.
When I am done, I sit back down, and Princess moves my face this way and that, inspecting every inch of me. “Fucker got you good. Lift your shirt.” I look to the guys in the room, and she follows my gaze. “Don’t worry about them. They get more pussy and tits than they’ll ever need.” The directness of her words is like nothing I’ve ever heard. “What?” she asks me.
“Why do you talk like that?” Maybe I should be embarrassed, but I’m not. Shocked is more like it.
“Like what?” She waits a beat before it dawns on her. “Oh! The pussy and tits thing? Sister, if you’re gonna be around these guys, you need to leave that prissy shit at the door. It won’t fly here. I grew up around this. By the way, who are you?”
Prissy shit?I’ve never considered myself a priss before. I feel slightly offended yet say nothing.
“Apparently, I’m Dagger’s daughter.” Her eyes grow wide, and it feels kind of good. Something tells me she doesn’t get shocked very often. “At least, that’s what my mother decided to tell me a few hours ago.”
“No shit?”
I feel the urge to chuckle at her puzzlement.
“No shit.” I pull the T-shirt up over my head, my black bra covering all the essentials.
“Fucking hell, girl. He kicked you good.”
At those words, Rhys turns to me. His gaze is so penetrating, so deep I try to cover myself up, protect myself from … I don’t know, but something. His eyes narrow as he takes in every bruise and cut on my body. He hasn’t even seen the ones on my legs or back yet. I feel so exposed, naked, bare.
“Let me check. It’s okay.” She follows my gaze over to Rhys. “You’re scaring the ever-loving shit out of her.” She speaks the words I would have wanted to say.
He does some grunt thing, shakes his head, and turns back to the other guys.
Princess pokes at my ribs, and while sore, I’m pretty positive nothing is broken.
“Are you a doctor or something?”
Princess grins. “Nope, just stitched up a lot over the years. If the Doc can’t get here quickly, I come in to check it out.” So she has no medical training whatsoever. Great. “No worries. I watch those hospital shows on TV.” She winks so I know she’s joking.
I want to relax, but it’s just not there. There are too many unknowns to enjoy any relaxation.
“The motherfucker you killed do that to your mom?” she asks, looking over at the bed where my mom is sleeping without a care in the world.
“Yeah. He was gonna take us both out. I didn’t mean to …” I can’t lie, because if I were in that exact situation again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I would have killed him. “Never mind. I did mean to. He was hurting her, and I couldn’t let him do it anymore.” I wait for her disgust or anger at me for taking another human’s life. It doesn’t come.
“Good,” she says, surprising me. “Assholes like that need to be taken out.”
I gape at her. I’m pretty sure I’ve entered a parallel universe. Since when do people talk so nonchalantly about taking another person’s life? I don’t even know what to say, but I cry out when she touches a spot on my side.
“You peeing blood?” she asks as I catch my breath.
“No,” I grit out through my teeth. Damn, that hurt.
“Good. It’s probably just bruised pretty good, but we’ll have Doc take a look to make sure. You want something for the pain?”
Lord, do I want something to knock me the hell out so I can forget, but I can’t, not now. This place is too different, and for my mother’s sake, I need to keep my eyes open.
“Just some Ibuprofen would be nice.”
“You sure you don’t want some of the good stuff? I can make it so you won’t feel a thing.” She smiles warmly, and I have no doubt from the look on her face that she has an arsenal of feel-good pills.
“No thanks.”
She nods, opening the box she laid on the floor at my feet. Inside are lots of little bottles filled with pills, and at the bottom are all kinds of medical supplies.
“Does this place have hurt people in it a lot?” The words flow out of my mouth. Where the hell is my filter?
