Page 97 of Make Her Bleed
"But, you kissed him back," Dax adds.
Did I? Am I losing my damn mind? I've been havingfunwith Malakai Harris, my captor, the man who has tortured me. Is he … brainwashing me?
"It's been a very weird day. He drugged me earlier so there's that," I grumble as Nico sits the foil-covered platter on the counter.
"He drugged you?" Nico gapes.
"Well, shit. I'm usually the one drugging girls," Dax jokes, but it's not funny at all.
What the fuck? Drugging girls? After everything that happened with his mom and Dax is involved with shit like that?
"Calm down, mi amor." Nico grabs my hand with understanding in his eyes. "Dax gives the girls Kai brings here stuff so they'll forget and won't feel pain. Kai has no idea," Nico whispers in my ear softly.
That's a relief. I started thinking that I hadn't just screwed one psycho, but two. Good thing Dax isn't as insane as Kai.
"He just thinks I give them molly, which isn't a lie. MDMA is a key ingredient." Dax whispers in my other ear, flashing a bright smile at me as Nico pulls back the foil from his platter of delicious pastries and cookies.
The question swirls around in my mind on an endless loop. How the hell does Dax know how to manufacture a drug? His mom was a prostitute, but that doesn't necessarily involve drugs and his mom died years ago. It's possible that he does drugs, but doing drugs is different from making them.
And like that, I'm worried about him and what might be going on with him.
I hear the front door open and the quiet sound of whispers followed by laughter that's music to my ears.
It can't be Kai. It's too soon which means …
"Hey," Rowe and Knox say at the same time.
A big grin spreads across my face at the sight of them. Now everything is perfect. I walk over to Knox and give him a big hug, a smile spreading across my face so big my cheeks hurt.
"Thank you for what you did last night," I whisper in his ear as he squeezes me back.
"You don't need to thank me, babe. None of us would let him do something like that to you."
Knox's words remind me of when him, Dax, and Nico stood between me and Kai's gun to protect me, completely sure that Kai wanted to kill me right there. There was only one person that didn't move to protect me. Whether Kai planned to kill me or not doesn't matter. What hurts the most, even though we're on good terms now, is that Rowe would've let Kai do that. He sat by when Kai held a gun in his hands, looking at me like he wanted to hurt me.
I know in my heart if it was someone else holding the gun, Kai would've protected me, but not Rowe.
Rowe threatened to kill Kai if he ever put me in the hospital again. I guess that only counts if Rowe isn't mad at me.
I've never been the kind of girl who wants someone to save them and yet it's like a knife twists in my chest anytime I think about that moment when Rowe didn't step up to help.
I push the thought down because I know Rowe feels bad about what he did or didn't do.
I release Knox and throw my arms around Rowe, his strong biceps tightening around my frame.
"Am I allowed to hug you, darling?"
Instead of answering immediately, I run my fingers through his hair, committing the sensation to memory.
Who knows if I'll ever get to be in Rowe's arms again?
I pull away before saying, "No rules tonight and tomorrow is my birthday so we're celebrating!" I cheer and hurry over to the kitchen cabinet I know houses a mass amount of liquor.
"If you pull out the tequila, Nico will make you drink it the right way," Dax warns.
"There's a wrong way?" I laugh.
"Lime and salt is the only way. I'm Puerto Rican. We only drink tequila properly," Nico says defensively.
