Page 48 of Queen of Hell

My anger leaves me in a rush of breath as I think of my perfect girl hurting so badly and nobody being there to help her.

“What scars? What the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t know about any scars. Who the fuck hurt her, Xave?” She exclaims as she goes to storm around me, a look of fury on her face.

“Wait. Kenzi, stop for a minute,” I say as she reaches the door and I grab her arm. She comes to a stop beside me and looks down at my hand.

“Let go of me, Xave. I am going upstairs to speak to Poppy and find out who laid their fucking hands on her, and then I am going to kill every fucking one of them,” she sneers at me.

“No, baby, you can’t go up there like this, you’ll scare her,” I say as I pull her away from the door and sit her at the island. “Listen to me, Kenz. Nobody hurt her. They’re not those types of scars, baby,” I tell her quietly as I shake my head.

“What the fuck do you mean, Xave. What other type of scars could they be? They’re obviously not from any type if surgery if the sight of them has you literally destroying my fucking home,” she exclaims, throwing a hand in the direction of the wall and scoffing. “If nobody hurt her, where the fuck did they come from?” She looks up at me and her brow furrows in thought before I see the realisation of what I’ve not said appear on her face. “No, Xave.Why?”

“I don’t know, she wouldn’t tell me when I asked her. All she would tell me is that she isn’t doing it anymore, and none of the marks I saw looked fresh so I thought it best not to push her,” I say, shaking my head. Kenzi opens her mouth, no doubt to argue with me, but I grab her hands and continue before she can say anything. “Kenzi, baby, you have to listen to me. We will talk about this, trust me, but we can’t push her. She looked terrified after I saw them. We need to allow her some time.”

“I’m going to kill anyone that was involved in her suffering, Xave,” she tells me. “No one will ever make her feel like that again. I fucking swear it.”

“I know, baby, and I’m going to be right there with you. No one will ever hurt our girl again.”

Poppy needed someone to look after and take care of her, and I was going to be that person. She called to something within me that had my instincts screaming at me to slay all her demons and ensure no one could hurt her anymore. She may not know it yet but she was mine now and I would do everything I could to make sure she never had to feel that way again.

I hear a gasp come from the kitchen door and spin around to see Poppy staring at the hole in the wall.Fuck!

“Oh gods, what happened?” She asks eyes wide as she takes a tentative step towards us. “Why is there a bloody hole in the wall? I heard shouting, is everything okay?”

I let out a breath as I realise that the hole in the wall distracted her from our conversation as she walked in, and she never heard what we were saying.

“Everything is fine, Little One. Come here,” I say as I hold a hand out towards her to encourage her further into the room.

“Xave, your hand!” She exclaims, whipping her head to look back at the wall before looking once more at my bleeding knuckles and rushing over to me. She grabs hold of my hand and brings it up so she can take a closer look at it before lifting her head to look at me. “What happened? Why did you do that, Xave?”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Little One, I’m fine,” I tell her with a smile as I try to pull her into my chest and she scoffs, pushing off of me and raising an eyebrow.

“Fine? There is a hole in the wall and you are bleeding all over Kenzi’s beautiful kitchen. How isthatfine, Xave?” She asks with her hands on her hips, daring me to tell her differently. Her shyness is nowhere to be seen when facing someone else's pain.

“Ugh, men are so dumb sometimes,” she says quietly as she shakes her head, before turning her gaze to Kenzi. “Where’s the first aid kit, Kenz?”

Kenzi jumps off of the stool and walks round the island, opening one of the cupboard doors and pulling out the first aid kit. She walks back round to where we’re standing and throws it down onto the island before pulling Poppy into her arms.

“I missed you, Angel,” she tells her before dragging her down into a kiss. Poppy wraps her arms around Kenzi with a sigh and relaxes into her for a minute, before she pulls back with pink cheeks and a small smile on her face.

“I missed you too, I’m happy you’re home safe,” she says, placing a small kiss on Kenzi’s lips before pulling away from her completely and picking up the first aid kit. She turns to me and grabs my hand. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and then Kenzi can tell us what she found out tonight. I can’t believe you punched a hole in the wall, Xave,” she says, shaking her head and mumbling to herself about stupid men as she pulls me towards the sink.

I smile down at her as I obediently follow and Kenzi chuckles behind us.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

KENZI

It’s been nearly a week and we still don’t have any new information when it comes to whoever is selling girls in my city. Xave’s been keeping me updated with what he’s been up to, he keeps on hitting a brick wall when it comes to information on whoever’s in charge, but he has managed to find details of some of Joseph Hamilton’s more unsavoury associates. And he even called me earlier to let me know that he had finally finished getting the house set up for me, and that if I still wanted to hear Clay out I should take him there as we know that it’s secure.

I know I said I would hear Clay out, but to have him in myspace? I really don’t know if it would be a good idea to have him that close.We could always have our talk in my brand new playroom? That could be fun. I smile at the thought of them walking in and seeing all my toys. I wonder if they would freak out at seeing a scaled down version of where I play and it makes me chuckle. Okay, maybe it would be totally worth it to have them in my space.

Poppy and I are sitting at our table in the cafeteria eating dinner when my phone rings in my pocket. I pull it out and look down at it, seeing Xave’s name on my screen.

“Hey, Xave, what's up?” I ask him with a smile when I answer the phone.

“Hey baby, I’ve got some information for you and the start of a plan,” he replies. I hear shuffling in the background before he continues. “You need to get Clay to the house tonight. I’ll explain everything later.”

“Fuck, Xave, why have I got to have them in my fucking place?” I groan and Poppy turns to look at me questioningly, so I hold a hand up to let her know I would explain everything to her in a minute. “I thought I’d have at least a day or two to decide if it was a good idea first. Maybe come up with a fucking plan, you know?”

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