Page 29 of Tribute
“It’s almost funny, Akran, you developing a crush on a female and she’s preprogrammed to hate your fucking guts. It’s pathetic.”
Without waiting to see if Anna was okay, Rehz kept moving, dragging a resisting Palk to the front door and throwing him out like the garbage he was.
“Afternoon, sir.”
He slammed the door, activated the alarm system, and took a few deep-gulping breaths before he allowed himself to go backinside to Anna. He knew he’d have to deal with Palk on an official level at some point, but he’d be damned if he’d put up with the male getting in his personal space anymore.
Anna was still hunched up on the floor, her knees to her chest. He knelt beside her.
“Are you okay, Lee?”
She nodded.
He stared at her, and flexed his fingers as he fought the need to drag her onto his lap and make sure she never wanted to leave him again.
Pathetic . . .
Yeah. Palk was right about that.
“I’m going down to the gym. Come and find me if you need anything.”
He unlocked the door that led down to the lower level of the apartment and deliberately left it ajar. If she wanted him, she’d come after him. If she wanted to cry and go back to bed, he’d let her do that too. After Palk’s insinuations, he didn’t really want to face her anyway.
Anna waited until she stopped shaking and lifted her head. There was no sound in the whole apartment other than her ragged breathing. Why the hell had she defended Akran? She didn’t owe him anything.
But he’d saved her from Palk, thrown him out, and then walked away from her as though nothing much had happened. What would become of him if Palk reported his assault? If he was taken away, what would happen to her?
She shot to her feet and found herself staring at the half-open door she’d assumed was just a closet. He’d gone down there. He’d told her to come and find him if she needed anything.
Listening at the door, she heard a set of rhythmic bangs and crashes start, and slowly forced herself to move down the stairs. There was no natural light down on this level, which scared the crap out of her, but there was light. She reached the bottom of the stairs and sank onto the last one.
Akran was stripped to the waist and pumping iron with a ferocity that terrified her. Sweat gleamed on his skin as he forced the bar up and over his head, his chest straining and his breathing as harsh as her own. When the machine beeped, he moved to a punching bag and laid into it like it was a real person.
Anna let out her breath. “Will Palk come after you for what you did?”
He froze and then slowly turned toward her.
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve never threatened to kill him before?”
“I’vetriedto kill him several times. But he always had the power.” He tapped the swinging leather bag with one mighty fist and sent it swinging away from him. “Now he doesn’t.”
“Are you sure about that?”
He shrugged. “I’m not on my knees sucking cock and being whipped, am I?”
“When you came out fromUngrichspace, was he waiting for you?”
He slowly wiped a hand over his mouth. “Yeah, he was.”
“God. How long did he give you to recover?”
“About three days.”
“Before he did what?” She had a terrible sense she knew what he was going to say. Part of her didn’t want to hear it because she didn’t want to have any sympathy for him at all, but the rest of her needed to understand that he had suffered too.
“Before he made me fight him and then he fucked me raw until I bled. All my nightmares rolled into reality. I thought I was going to crack up, but I didn’t.” His voice was curiously flat. “The second time he didn’t even need to fight me. I just gave it up.”
