Page 55 of Greed: The Savage
“He bloody went back for me!” Addien burst out, heat sparking through her veins. “He could’ve walked out. Could’ve just had us leave and kept his mouth shut—but he didn’t.” Her pulse hammered as the truth tumbled free. “He stormed in and tore Dunworthy apart with his bare hands and, aside from the day Dynevor saved me, Malric’s the only man—”
“Malric?” Delilah’s brows shot up. “Oi, I wasn’t talkin’ about Thornwick.”
Addien went still. Bloody hell.
“Oh,” she muttered, looking anywhere but at her friend.
“Hmph.”
Addien’s earlier defense, however, didn’t stop Delilah from putting her displeasure back on Malric. “So he went back for you. Thornwick works for Dynevor. The marquess was there to make sure you were not harmed. It’s no different than any of the other guards here who make sure the lot of us are safe,” she said bluntly.
And he was with the baroness instead.
He’d had his hands all over the woman. He’d been holding her hips, his fingers dug in so deep Addien could now feel the bite of them as if it had been her. He lusted for women built like goddesses, with hearts of Medusas, and not wraith-like women who could pass for girls.
Women like Addien.
That discovery left her bereft.
Delilah must have heard something in the silence. Her brows dipped suspiciously. “What were you doing alone anyway?”
Addien shook her head.
“I thought your role was to sit in on interviews and see if the ladies are willing. Why weren’t you there?”
Words would have been the wiser choice, with her friend’s rapid-fire questioning.
“Why send you at all, if the gents are still going to interview the ladies alone? And where do they send you? Down with the servants?”
Dunworthy’s assault, and Thornwick’s subsequent rage, had Addien all off balance.
“You want to know who should be sacked?” Delilah asked Addien, whose mind was spinning too fast and her jealousy spiraling all the more.
“No, he—”
“Thornwick,” Delilah confirmed.
Addien had gathered correctly.
“Well, oi didn’t need him savin’ me,” she said tightly. “I don’t need some foine gentleman riding in to my rescue! I rescued myself.” She slapped a hand against her chest. “I always have. I always will. And Malric? What does it matter what he was doing?” she burst out. “I could care less.”
The words were as thin as milquetoast. Any friend worth her salt could hear the jealousy stitched through every crude syllable.
Addien closed her eyes.
Please, don’t say it. Don’t ask me about Malric. Don’t make me explain what I can’t even name.
And because Delilah was a true friend, she didn’t.
When Addien opened her eyes, her breathing was steady again. “I’m not like you and the other girls here. I don’t have protectors. I don’t need them.”
But God help her, when she was an old woman drawing her last breath, she’d still remember the feel of Malric avenging her.
“You think you’re not worth saving, girl?” The quiet weight in Delilah’s question pierced straight through her thoughts.
Addien lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
“Why? Because you don’t sell your body the way the rest of us do?” Delilah didn’t wait for an answer—which was just as well because Addien didn’t have one. “You actually believe the only ones of us in danger here are the ones with tits? Don’t give me that. You know the truth same as I do—out on the streets, everyone needs protection. Bloke, babe, or woman, makes no difference.”
