Page 17 of Savage Sin

My brother’s old saying catches on the edges of my memories and I mentally grasp for them.

The sounds of heavy metal thudding to the carpeted floor draws me out of the past.

My eyes snap open just as Seth says, “Brother, you good?”

I angle my head without turning. Seth stands behind me, his hand on my shoulder, a heavy reminder I can’t let my bloodthirst do the talking for me.

“The demons won’t win today. I’m fine.”

“Good to hear. Those metal bands on her ankles and wrists left some nasty marks. They’ll need dressing, too.”

I nod. “Yeah, got it.”

“I gotta go, but you know how to reach me.” With that, Seth is gone. No judgment, just a reminder to not let my past rule me.

I take almost half an hour before I properly clean the wound and stitch the jagged edges back together. It’s not any prettier, but at least it’s clean. I take care of her wrists and ankles with more bandages before washing her body with the warm water. She’ll be sore, but I don’t think she will have any scarring from the shackles.

Whoever put her in that hole brought the fighter in her out. He’s probably sporting a few bruises of his own. When she comes to, she won’t be happy she has traded one prison for another, but any jerky movements she makes will tear at the delicate flesh along those stitches.

I play the scene out in my head and from every angle, there’s no other way. She’s going to be mad as a viper when she wakes up.

I grab a smoke and tip my head back. Why can’t shit ever be easy for once? I take another hit before I reach out and move the hair from her face. She’s gorgeous. Almost too damn perfect. She’s got that pretty heart-shaped bow at the top of her full lips. The gentle slope of her cheeks and refined shape of her chin are soft under the tips of my fingers. I can picture her in a field of wildflowers with her skin drinking in the sunlight and looking every bit the angel God intended her to be.

“I hate to do this to you, baby.”

I pull contents out of drawers and a closet until I find something that will work. Happy with my work for the moment, I lean my weight against the frame of the bedroom door and wait.

Five

Rage

What I thought would be a couple of hours has turned into three days of fighting off her fever. Dinner time has gone on the fourth evening and the full moon bathes the valley below before I see a sliver of hazel flicker beneath those dark lashes.

I sit up, dropping my elbows onto my knees. I’m not a praying man by nature. But the stakes have never been so high as they are right now and I’m guilty of showing up in God’s DM’s and asking for a little help.

Another flicker of lashes has me moving to the edge of my chair.

And it looks like He’s heard all my prayers and pleading.

I take a deep breath and hold myself to the spot in the chair. Patience is the only way to get what I need. But what I really want to do is shake her awake and demand answers.

Where is your father hiding?

Did you see him kill my brother? Or was it one of his other men?

Do you know where his body is buried?

How did you come to find yourself in the bottom of a cargo ship meant for trafficking sex slaves when you are the princess of the corrupt Castel drug empire?

All that and more filter through my brain in auto-play. But so do facts. Women in her position usually don’t know much. Daughters are pawns. And to be thrown away like trash means she did something to get there.

I scrap my fingernails through the rough beard sprouting along my jawline. I haven’t moved from this chair much except to shower, eat and then go right back to fever duty.

What did this girl do to earn herself a spot at the bottom of that ship?

I watch her sleep. Her chest lifts and falls gently. A couple of lamps on side tables are on, but I killed the overheads around sundown. Shadows play in the corners and a few sprawls over the lower half of the bed, reaching for the door. The rest of her is covered in warm lighting. Like this, stretched out and tied up, she’s the picture of my dream woman.

Feisty even when she’s down, resilient. Her beauty is just an added bonus.

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