Page 34 of Bitter Desire
“Got it. I’ll get on it when we get back to the city. You callin’ Charlaine again?” he asked, falling into step beside me.
I turned, stalking towards the back door of the venue. “Yeah, I already had her working on a favor for me, but I’ll pay for this one.”
Taylor grunted and kept walking. I opened the door and we went quiet. The back room was as dark as I’d left it and I tilted my head, listening in the darkness for Honey. “Princess?” I called out, taking a step forward and then another. “Honey, where are you?”
“I’m over here,” she whispered, and I felt the pressure in my chest, the pressure that had been pushing down on me all night let up slightly when I heard her voice. She was safe and she was here. Everything was okay.
“Come here, Honey.”
She was quiet again before she asked. “Did you kill him, Daddy?” Her voice was small and scared. I could hear it. She was scared of what I’d done, and I hated it, but there had been no other way forward. My hand had been forced and my precious girl had been there for it.
“No, princess. I didn’t.” I heard her get up then, a whisper of fabric, the skirts of her dress moving across the floor. “Come here, Honey.” I held out my hand and waited. The red of the Exit sign was glowing around me, the light of it extending a few feet in front of me and Honey was somewhere beyond its edges in the darkness of the room. I wanted to go to her, to bring her to me, but I knew I had to wait. I couldn’t rush this. She’d seen another side of me, a side that I hadn’t let out in a very fucking long time.
I’d done it for her.
“I’m scared.”
My chest ached. Fucking hell, I didn’t want her scared of me. “I know.”
She moved to the very edge of the red light, and we looked at each other. “You have blood on your face,” she said, coming forward.
Fuck.
I reached up and rubbed my sleeve across my face, wiping it away. I stopped when Honey was in front of me. She was watching me closely like she’d never seen me before, and I guess she hadn’t. Not this version of me.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. I held my hand out to her again and I waited. I could wait for her to touch me.
She swallowed hard and slipped her hand into mine. “I know.”
Taylor opened the back door for us, and we walked out into the night together.
Chapter Fifteen
HONEY
The ride back to the cabin was quiet. Law sat with his eyes out the window and Taylor was, as always, focused on the road. I heard him take a call, his voice too low, and the call too quick, for me to catch anything other than “she’s safe,” before he disconnected the call. When we pulled up to the cabin I was surprised, I hadn’t thought we would come back here, not after what had happened at the masquerade ball.
“What are we-“ I began, but Law spoke, cutting me off.
“Gotta get you packed and cleaned up before we head back to the city.” He opened his door and paused, scanning the woods around us, but then looked back at me. “Come on, Honey. Gotta move.”
I followed him out of the car and up the stairs of the cabin. The place that had seemed so safe only the day before was now sinister to me. I turned, looking out at the trees while Taylor took up a post by the bottom of the steps, his eyes on the trees around us. Law unlocked the door and let me in.
“I’ll go upstairs and get packed,” I told him quietly, heading for the stairs. It was when I passed the mirror at the bottom of the staircase that I saw I was still wearing my gold mask. I stopped and looked at myself in the mirror. The woman who had left here earlier tonight had been excited, but now I looked tired. Even with the mask on I could see the tiredness in my eyes and my hair was falling from the half up do I had put it in. The crown I’d worn before was gone, probably lost in the back storage room behind the stage. I took the mask off with a yank of my hand and let it hit the floor.
“It’s going to be okay,” Law was beside me now and he reached out, but I shied away from him and hurried towards the stairs.
“I know,” I said quietly, not stopping until I was at the top of the stairs. I could still see Law’s face when I’d approached him. Bathed in the red light of the Exit sign he’d hardly looked like the man I knew him to be. This man was a killer. Had been a killer before I’d known him. I’d stared at him with the blood splattered across his chin and cheek, the dark of it stark against the white collar of his dress shirt, and I wondered if he’d killed the man that had grabbed me.
Part of me wished he had.
I tried not to think about that part of me.
But he’d told me he hadn’t killed the man and that was what had made me come towards him. What had me putting my hand in his. Because even if he had once been a killer, he hadn’t done it this time, and he’d only done what he had to protect me but...but..
“What if he had?” I whispered, pushing away from the railing and striding into the bedroom. I started filling the bag Law had packed me with the toiletries and clothing he’d bought me. When I was finished I paused in front of the closet and looked in at the dresses. They were so lovely, but they had been here when we had arrived. I gathered them up and carried them down the stairs with me. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I could hear Law talking with Taylor outside. The low murmur of their voices was comforting. It meant I had protection. That more men like the one that had grabbed me wouldn’t be able to get to me.
I was safe.
