Where men used their strength against women like her. Her hands started shaking, her stomach twisting with nausea, her eyes locked on the man walking down the steps toward them.
“Jesus, little bird,” Mark whispered, and she jolted at his voice, her panic easing slightly.
She had been so in her head that she hadn’t noticed that he had come around the truck and was standing at her door.
“Hey look at me.” He pulled her limp body around toward him, so she was sitting facing him, his hands on her face forcing her gaze to stay with him.
“Look at me.” Her shaking hands reached out grasping frantically at him, and he grabbed them with one hand, steadying them against his chest, while keeping her head turned toward him with the other.
“Mark?” she whispered out, her voice trembling, her eyes trying to slide to the side.
“Winter, just look at me.” Her eyes snapped back up to him, his voice taking a hard note to it.
“I would never put you in a place where you were not safe. Do you understand me? Never.”
She nodded, closing her eyes. Letting his words wash over her. Letting him take the lead, commanding her and her panic. He took a step closer, sliding between her legs, till when she opened her eyes, he was all she could see.
Her Mark.
“Keep looking at me. Where are you?”
“Here.”
“That’s good. Who are you with?”
She moaned, her throat threatening to close up on her.
“No, hey answer me. With words. Who are you with?”
“You,” she got out shakily.
“And who am I?”
Her Mark.
“Answer me. Who am I?” His voice took on that hard note again.
“Mark. My Mark,” she whispered.
“That’s right I’m your Mark. And any motherfucker that wants to mess with you has to go through me. And little bird, when it comes to you, nobody is getting through me.”
She nodded at him, and he felt her panic start to slide away, the glassy look in her eyes started to disappear and he knew she was coming back to him.
It had been a while since she’d had a panic attack this bad, but he couldn’t blame her.
