Page 59 of Lacey's Fight

Dressed in black jeans and a simple black, long-sleeved blouse, she looked beautiful, but the dark colors accentuated the dark circles under her eyes and gave her a washed-out look, making her appear so much paler. While he knew it wasn’t possible, it seemed like she had lost weight, she looked far too fragile.

Vulnerable.

It terrified him because in just under twenty minutes this place was going to be filled with gunfire.

Distracted as she was, it made Lacey an easy target. There was no way she was up to this right now. Between the wounds covering her back and the trauma she’d been through, she was in no condition to be participating in a raid. Human traffickers were ruthless, and as soon as they realized they were under attack the armed guards wouldn’t hesitate to shoot anyone who wasn’t one of them.

What if something happened to Lacey?

Those couple of hours when he hadn’t known where she was or what was happening to her had been Hell on Earth. Knowing that it was his fault, that he had failed in his one job while he was here, to provide protection for Lacey so she could do her thing, that had almost killed him.

He had already been responsible for the death of one wife he couldn’t be responsible for the death of another.

Lacey might not really be his wife, but she was his responsibility and he didn’t want her death on his conscience.

“You don’t move from my side,” he told her. If it came out a little gruffly or like an order, then he couldn’t help it, knowing she was soon going to be in danger all over again filled him with a vile sense of dread that made it hard to function.

Instead of giving him any response, she merely walked past him, careful to make sure her body didn’t brush against his and went to perch on the edge of the bed.

Ben would prefer that she yelled at him, blamed him for what happened, or for rejecting her, of anything at all. He couldn’t take this silent treatment much longer, he was losing his mind.

As though she didn’t have a care in the world, Lacey leaned over and slipped her left foot into her left boot.

Of course, he didn’t miss her wince as she pulled on the wounds covering her back. It would be so much easier if she just asked for help, but of course his stubborn little pretend wife wouldn’t do something as sensible as ask for help when she needed it.

With a muttered growl, he stalked across the room and dropped to his knees before her. Gently grasping her ankle, he lifted her booted foot and set it on his thigh, tying the lace for her. At his touch, she stiffened but didn’t pull away.

A win as far as he was concerned.

Once he’d tied her lace into a bow, he set that foot down and picked up her other boot. Loosening off the laces he reached for her other ankle and slid her foot into the boot, tying it up.

When she went to pull her foot away, he tightened his grip on her ankle, holding it in place, needing to maintain contact with her for a little longer. All day he had ached to comfort her, reassure her, give her whatever she needed, he just hated that what she needed was distance.

“When we go out there tonight, I want you to stay close to me,” he said, gentler this time, less like a command.

“I can take care of myself.” Lacey said the words, but there was no heat to them, and he saw she winced as she said them. If she was thinking it was because she hadn’t been able to protect herself from being grabbed by The Master he would do whatever it took to dissuade her of the notion.

“Lacey.” Reaching up, he took both of her hands between his. Again, she tried to tug them away, but he tightened his hold just enough to keep his grip on them. “It’s not that I don’t think you can take care of yourself, I know you can. If I thought you were incapable of doing your job, I wouldn’t have come with you, I would have insisted on someone else taking your place. I don’t want you to stay close to me tonight, I … need you to,” he admitted.

Her eyes met his, making direct contact for the first time since they’d been in that bathroom, and he saw that her gaze had softened slightly. Pain still haunted them, but there was a little spark of the woman he had been getting to know.

“I can’t have you hurt. I’ve already failed you once, and I promise you this here and now. I will not fail you again. Not. Ever.”

Ben prayed that was one vow he would be able to keep.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

August 8th

2:58 A.M.

A little of her humiliation faded away.

Ben might think she’d been ignoring him because she was angry with him or blamed him for what had happened to her, but the truth was, Lacey had been hiding because she was ashamed.

Ashamed, not just that Ben had seen her in such a vulnerable position, but that she had fallen back to her default which was using sex as a coping mechanism. No wonder he had turned her down, she must have reeked of desperation.

Lacey knew she needed to find a new and better way of dealing with her issues. Starting with actually talking about them. Maybe when she got home it was time for her and her sisters to finally have a talk about their past.

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