Page 3 of Orion Ruined

“Sure. I’ll try to examine her.”

I reach out and slowly move her arm, checking for a knife wound, but there’s none. I examine her neck and down her body. Her tank top is bursting at the seams, so I undo three buttons and the tops of her breasts spill out. Her chest rises sharply. She takes a deep breath, and moans on the exhale.

Sweet Jesus mama! The sound is heavenly. Her breathing must’ve been restrained, that’s probably why she fainted. I continue my examination. The torn material she wears as a skirt has many slits in it, and I check her legs. She moans again, and her eyelids flutter open.

“Hey, welcome back.” I try to sound comforting, like I always do with the girls I check over in my club. But in reality, I want answers. Why is she here? Why was she banging so desperately on Orion’s door? And why is she so unbelievably sexy?

She sees her top’s undone and lifts her hands to cover her breasts which, by my reckoning, are not exposed at all. I’d have to see her nipples for that to be the case.

Panic visibly takes her over and fills her dark eyes, now wide open. She lifts her head and seems to scrutinize every detail of my face, like I’m the one being examined, then moves on to surveying the bedroom we’re in.

“Do you mind if I check you over?” I ask.

She sits up. “I-I’m fine.”

“Whose blood are you wearing, then?”

She stares at me, looking taken aback by my words. Her chin wobbles and tears bubble from beneath her eyelashes. As if she knows that I cannot stand a woman crying, she does exactly that. My Achilles’ heel.

“Hey, it’s okay. You can tell me.” I speak softly; it’s what always works. I reach out and gently touch her arm, but she jerks out from under my palm. I grit my teeth. Clearly she’s been manhandled and can’t stand anyone touching her.

“It’s from… It’s from a rat,” she eventually says.

“From what?” Shit. This is bad. Really bad.

“A rat. He was aiming at me and killed a rat instead.”

“Who’s ‘he’?”

Immediate withdrawal. “I… I don’t know.”

Sometimes I wish I couldn’t read people this easy. She doesn’t want to tell me who it was. No matter. I won’t press. Eventually, she’ll spill. “Why did he want to kill you?”

She shrugs, her deep, dark eyes fixed on mine.

“Well, you have nothing to worry about anymore. You’re safe here.”

I don’t even know why I said that when I know how we operate. You see us together, we kill you. End of.

She smiles at me in a sad, broken way. She trusts me, and yet she’s known me one full minute. “Is there any place I can clean myself up?”

“Sure. Over there.” I point to the door leading to the ensuite bathroom.

She stands up slowly, her body barely covered by the rags she wears, and disappears behind the door.

I’m so immersed in her that I don’t sense the person walking into the room is Kai. On impulse, I pull my blade and nearly spin it at him. After the shootout with Camila, my gun’s safely tucked in my ankle holster, but my blades will do. They’re deadly and silent. What could be better in this world?

“Is she okay?” Kai asks.

“Fuck, man, you should knock, or walk louder. I could’ve killed you.” I tuck my blade back into the special pocket of my pants. All my pants have custom-made leather holsters inside the pockets for my blades. “And yes, she’s up.” I raise my eyebrows at him and smirk. “Something else is up too.”

Kai ignores my joke. “Where is she?”

“Getting cleaned up.” He’s no fun at all these days. This past year, actually.

“She’s hurt?”

“No. That’s a rat’s blood on her.”

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