Page 9 of Deal with the Devil

“You’re scaring her, for fuck sakes.Get out.”

“Sunshine.” The word is as gentle as a feather’s touch, echoed by the sound of his footfalls coming closer.I’m so ashamed, I want to hide.“Did he do this to you? Your ex?”

More footsteps enter the room and I drop my hands in time to see the officers appearing, as well as the doctor. Dr. Palmer, I think. The beeping on my monitor is letting the entire ER department know I’m nearing a cardiac state.

“Sir, come with us,” the first officer says coolly, clipped.

Kane shrugs him off easily, but I can see he’s going to get into trouble if this continues, escalates. I don’t want the poor man getting a charge because of me.

“It’s okay,” I croak, even though my throat is killing me, and I haven’t spoken apart from the single sentence I used to tell them someone broke in and hurt me.

Really, it’s no wonder it’s raw after the violence of being choked so many times. I hadn’t known being choked—hands wrapped around the outside of my neck—could make me feel like I’ve burned the inside raw.

“Let him stay,” I choke out again when it seems like the officers are going to force him out. “He’s—my—friend.”

Hells bells, it hurts to talk.

Still, I don’t miss,can’t miss, the way pretty nurse Candy looks at Kane in confusion and a little bit of worry. Or is that fear?

Is he the boyfriend I heard her talking about to one of the other nurses? Oh no. What if I thrust myself into the arms of a taken man?

Please, no.

I’ve touched myself to thoughts of him. I’ve come undone over the image of this man in my mind. Thememory of what it felt like to have his hands on my hips, the heat of his big body at my back.

Heat flushes my face, but no one seems to notice. It’s possible there’s too much bruising to see the blush. The quickening of the heart monitor is another matter entirely, but the only ones who look that way are Dr. Palmer and Nurse Candy.

Kane moves away from the officer to stand close at the side of my bed. His hands are fisting and un-fisting, as though he’s trying to release waves of violence through the motion alone. There’s also a dangerous light to his blue eyes. A promise of ruthless pain. Vengeance.

I shudder, knowing inherently somehow that he’ll never unleash that pain on me.

The pain in my body uncoils just a little as a feeling of complete safety—the first time I’ve felt even a semblance of it since the attack—moves through my body. It’s as though my bones whisper,‘You’re safe with him, with Kane. He’s yours.’

I startle at the last bit of my thought, because—what?

My attacker must have hit me one too many times in the face. He knocked a screw loose and now the marbles have been spilled. They’re rolling amuck, causing all kinds of mayhem.

Kane is careful not to touch me or the bed as heinches closer, his voice impossibly low, “Did he do this to you?”

My eyes hold his for a solid three seconds, before I let them flit over the group that stands behind Kane. Still, I say nothing. Not even a whispered word.

He sucks in a sharp breath, and without even looking over his shoulder commands, “Out. Everyone out.”

No one moves.

His fists keep working. Open, close. Open, close. Open… “Now.”

At the brook-no-argument tone of his bark, Dr. Palmer and Nurse Candy shift. No one else moves.

It’s the officer that asks me, “Do you want to be alone with this man?”

Slowly, but firmly, I nod.

The occupants of the room slowly begin to exit until it’s just Nurse Candy left. She touches a cautious hand to Kane’s arm, and whispers softly, “I’ll call Tav and Cash.”

Kane says nothing. Nurse Candy’s confused eyes come to me, and there’s something there in the depths. Something unsettling. Like she’s askingmeto be gentle withhim.

This man doesn’t need gentle. He’s built like a tank. Impenetrable.

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