Page 8 of Dangerous Exile

She nodded, more to herself than to him. “Whatever she did, it must have been enormous for you to take me on. I realize you want nothing to do with me.”

She was astute, even with a half-addled mind and only one good eye.

“It was enormous. She saved numerous lives.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “But that is long in the past and I’m more concerned about the present. Juliet said you need to be hidden. I want to know why.”

Her mouth clamped closed and Ness turned her face away from him, burying her head deep into the pillow.

“No answer? Fine. Then I can presume it has everything to do with this? The broken bone, the cuts and bruises?” He motioned to the full of her beaten body. “But it would make it a hell of a lot easier if I knew who I was protecting you from. So, who did this to you?”

Her head shifted on the pillow and she looked up at him. “I cannot tell you.”

Talen stifled a sigh. He wasn’t about to argue with an opium-foxed woman. Especially one that didn’t trust him. The questions would have to wait for later.

“Then you will rest more.” His arms relaxed to his sides and he inclined his head to her. “Clear your head. And I will ask the questions when your mind is once again your own.”

The brown and blue deep shading of her cheeks quivered and her mouth shifted into what he assumed was a smile. It was hard to tell for the bruises and the cut along the side of her mouth.

Talen turned and walked toward the door.

“Mr. Blackstone.”

He paused, turning back to her.

“Thank you. Thank you for helping me.” Her voice escaped in a whimper, a pitiful warble so soft, as though she’d never been shown the slightest kindness and couldn’t quite believe she’d been allowed to stay there.

It shot through his chest at that moment—the cracking of her voice wrapping around something deep within him he couldn’t quite identify. The jolt of it reared so strongly he almost didn’t recognize it. But there it was.

A visceral need to protect this woman.

In his chest.

In his gut.

And he always trusted his gut. It had gotten him this far.

As much as he’d like to, he couldn’t ignore it now.

Ness was his to protect, at least for the time being.

{ Chapter 4 }

Ness cracked her eyes and stilled.

Stilled, waiting for the pain that had consumed her body for days to shoot through her limbs, twisting her stomach into such a hard knot she never expected to stand straight again.

The pain didn’t come.

Or at least, not as brutal as it had been. The pain in her left arm was now an ache that drifted between torment and an intense itch. The itch most likely because of the heavy bandages that wrapped her arm, keeping it immobile.

She flexed parts of her body, finding that all of her muscles that had been clenched so tightly during the last days held onto residual soreness, but the sharp burn in them was gone.

Her right hand escaped from under the coverlet and her fingers went gently to her face. Bruises along her cheek stung with the touch, but the swelling had gone down about her eyes and her lips.

Wait.

She could see out of her left eye again.

Her eyes opened wider, blinking. She could see properly again. See the coved ceiling above her with fat cherubs painted about the expanse. Whimsy sure to send fantasy into dreams.

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