AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stared at me, wordless.
“Sit, please.” I pointed my blade at the exam bed beside my chair.
“I can’t stay here if you’re not hurt. I’ll get in trouble for – fraternizing during work hours,” she said quietly.
“Fraternizing?” I cocked an eyebrow at her words, faintly touched with amusement. Christ, this woman was intriguingly unpredictable. I liked that about her.
I put the knife against my palm, flipping it and catching it by the blade. “Meaning?”
“Meaning you need to be a patient for me to stay here with you,” she said, gaining confidence in her ridiculous ploy.
The mistake law-abiding citizens like Charlotte always made was that they thought that there were rules that could keep them safe. They thought that some higher power, an authority over all, would enforce order.
She hadn’t understood thatIwas now the authority over everything in her life.
“Here, how about now?” I asked carelessly, catching my knife and then dragging it across my palm. The cut burned slightly as blood welled and dripped on the floor.
Charlotte gave me a horrified look. She needed to understand that I didn’t fear her superiors or the police. I didn’t fear pain or even torture.
“What have you done?” she muttered, the compassionate part of her that was such a fucking liability kicking in. She reached my side and took my hand in hers. Her skin was sinfully soft.
I shrugged nonchalantly, the cut forgotten now that she’d moved closer. I’d never really had a chance to study her in adequate lighting. She was even more lovely than in firelight. Her nut-brown hair was gathered into a low ponytail, as sleek as an otter’s hide. She had two beauty marks on her neck and one on the delicate shell of her ear. Someone should commission a portrait of this woman. Oil on canvas, maybe sitting in the orangery at Casa Nera, or the library.
She tutted over my hand, reaching for gauze in the small cabinet next to the exam table.
“You know why I’m here, don’t you?” I prompted.
A faint blush tinted her cheek.Yes, she knew.
She gathered herself, ignorant to the fact that her stunning face was as easy to read as my favorite book.
“You just really wanted to see what an ER was like on a random Saturday afternoon?”
Her brave attempt at dispelling the tension had me smiling. I shook my head. “Try again.”
She took a breath and pulled a small rolling table toward us, resting my hand on it. Truthfully, I didn’t give a fuck about getting my hand bandaged, but her willing touch felt good.
“Confess your sins, Charlotte. You’re the kind of person who will feel better once you do,” I advised her.
She swallowed hard, and her eyes flickered up to mine for a second before glancing away. “I don’t know what you mean.”
My injured hand tightened around hers in a flash. “Don’t lie to me. Don’t. Ever. Lie. To. Me.” My tone was lethal.
She paled. My fingers pressed against her pulse in her wrist, and it fluttered wildly beneath her fragile skin. “Was it you or Lucy?”
Her flush told me all I needed to know.
“Confess and repent,” I ordered her. “Promise me that you’ll make sure it never happens again, that you’ll lock her up if she tries to go there again, shackle her to the door to stop her. Make me believe it,” I urged.
Charlotte stared at our joined hands. “And?” she wondered.
“And I’ll give you one last chance…to save your own life.”
She was silent for a long moment. I loved the battle on her fine features. Her pride battling with her practicality. The good girl in her soul arguing with the one who’d do anything to survive. I saw the moment she lost against the devil on her shoulder.
When she opened her mouth, I interrupted. “On your knees, isn’t that how sinners ask for forgiveness?”
Her eyes flashed fire at me, far too furious to be the meek little lamb she was pretending to be, and yet, she followed my instructions. Her face ended up level with my knee. I stroked my hand through the fall of her ponytail, pushing it back from her neck, my eyes daring her to stop me.
