“Why? Jealous?”
“Of that? No.”
I move for my bedroom door, no intention of discussing Alice. “I’m going to sleep for a while,” I murmur, turning to face her. “I’m fucking exhausted without pills to keep me going.” She grins and heads towards the door, probably aiming directly for my little Alice. “Faith?” Her face turns back. “Don’t touch my new pet. She’s serving punishment time. She’ll sit like a good girl until I go back to her.”
“You know me so well.”
Of course I do. “You can have her when I’m finished with her.” She giggles and turns to the right out of the doorway. It’s the right direction, at least. One that will lead her to the riot of excitement beneath us. With any luck she’ll find Gray, amuse herself with him for a while. I don’t care other than the fact that she’s giving me enough time to get both Alice and me covered from her. We’ll have to search a little differently now, use ourselves in a different way.Hide.
Chapter 11
Ally
I’ve knelt here for the last fuck knows how long. Why, I’m not sure. I think it was the way he draped this robe across me. He didn’t need to do that. In fact, I was surprised he did given all the crap that goes on downstairs. I didn’t even understand what was going on until I heard the sound of heels on the stone floor outside, and by then he was already behind me, as if guarding me from something. And he called Whit, left a message telling him that his team would be there to defend against any problem my brothers might run into.
And then gave me my knife back, said I could decide his fate for a while.
I should have cut these ties and run by now – ran like the wind until there was a car and a plane and a way home. But I haven’t – don’t want to.
I don’t understand that either.
What I do understand, what I’m beginning to feel in this lag that’s building again, is that he’s trying to protect me and anything to do with me. Seems freaky as fuck considering the knife he’s slashed across my skin, but here I am still thinking thoughts that mean something other than the fucking oddball he is. He’s closing in around me, offering me a way to quiet my mind of anything but him. The shower, he said. That he was searching for what we were in the shower. For the moments in there, that’s what we were, or what I was, quiet. Not thinking. Just being.
And it felt so good.
But now it’s becoming a mess of quiet verses confused.
“What is your name?” I look up slowly, listening to the woman – his wife - Faith. She comes closer, leans her ass on a table near me. “He must like you for this kind of attention.”
“Ally.”
“You’re pretty, Ally.” My blood is languid inside me, as heat runs through my veins. I can sense it pulsing slowly, like that song he was playing, but the rush of that pill is exhilarating. It consumes rational behaviour, makes sense intangible somehow. “Are you falling in love, little girl?”
What?
She leans down to me and picks up my chin, tilting my head so she can stare into my eyes. “Don’t be silly about him, Ally. He’ll never leave me. He couldn’t even if he wanted to. It’s just a game we play. You’re part of it.”
“Game?”
“Yes. He’ll make you think you’re special. You’re not. Just another plaything.”
Ragged thoughts mull over the cuts he gave me, my brow creasing at the feel of dried blood grating around the slice on my pussy. It’s not big. Not really more than a scratch. But it is there. He put it there and told me he wanted to mark me, cover the wounds of my past. “No games. We’re searching.”
“Pathetic.” My head shakes. “Both you and him.”
“Searching. Trying.” Words won’t come out properly now. They’re muddled in my mind, and she’s making it worse with her harsh tone. “Not pathetic.”
She giggles. “Well, I warned you.” She lets go of my face, throwing it away softly. “Like it or not, he knows who he belongs to. Me. And I’m still here, so you’re nothing and he will always be mine. Perhaps under duress, but that’s the bargain we made.” She crouches, elegantly making her presence felt in my eye line. “Tread carefully, little Ally. Until I’m dead, I’ll never let him go.” She laughs lightly again and slips the robe off my shoulder, looking over my exposed skin. “Certainly not for your kind of disgusting breed. Do you understand? We’ll always be worth more than you.”
I’m about to find some fortitude, to try shrugging off this languid relaxation, when she leaves without a backward glance. My kind of breed? I don’t … I’m not. I don’t know what that means. What breed? I’m not a breed. I’m a woman. A woman with skills and power and my little knife.
It’s just me and this room then. No sound. No thoughts other than Malachi and his wife and how terrible she seemed. Maybe we could be something if he wasn’t married – we could find it together. Search like he said. Find harmony and peace.
“Get up.”
I turn slowly, eyes trained on his form as he strides across to me. The bound shirt on my wrist is undone, my body pulled upright and then shoved in a whirlwind of movement. We’re walking out of the room before I know it, corridors blurring as we speed through them.
“What’s happening?” I ask.
