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Chapter Sixteen
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I looked down at the top of Vee’s dark, shiny hair as she used the knife I’d dropped to saw away at the thick black tape wrapped around my right ankle. Her hair shimmered with her movements, and the crouch she was in offered me a direct view right down the front of her t-shirt. The gentle curve of the tops of her breasts appeared soft and flawless, a beautiful shade of caramel to go with her black hair and dark brown eyes. My palms itched to slide my hands across her skin, to lace my fingers in that dark hair. I couldn’t pretend that every single cell of my body didn’t crave her in some way. She was completely unlike any woman I’d ever come across, and I wanted her. I wanted to taste her mouth, and run my tongue over every inch of her skin, and experience what it felt like when I pushed inside her.
Was the possibility of getting laid really making me put my life in danger? The moment she cut the other leg free, I should knee her in the face and run. That I actually gave a fuck about what happened to her and her sister was seriously starting to piss me off. No, actually, I didn’t give a fuck what happened to her sister, but I cared about how she felt about her sister, and how it would affect her. If something happened to Nickie, I had a feeling the fierce light I saw in Vee’s eyes would extinguish.
I wasn’t used to caring. I especially wasn’t used to caring about someone I was supposed to have shot in the head twenty-four hours ago.
I thought back to the fat, middle-aged guy who had come out of the bar and interrupted me. If that hadn’t happened, would Vee be dead right now? Would I have pulled the trigger? If I had, I’d have never known what a stunning, courageous, crazy woman she was.
The idea struck dread into my heart.
At my ankle, the tape popped open and Vee yanked the remaining material from around my leg. She shifted her weight over and started sawing the binds at my left leg. I didn’t take my eyes off her, and she glanced up and caught my gaze, her cheeks flushing, and then looked away again and finished cutting.
My legs were finally freed.
Getting to her feet, she started work on the tape holding my wrists together.
“You’d better not make me regret this,” she said, a warning tone to her voice.
“I’ll try not to.”
“’Cause I’m still capable of cutting off your dick if you try to screw me over.”
I pressed my lips together. “I’m fully aware of that, Vee.”
My hands popped free and I breathed a sigh of relief, clenching and unclenching my fists, and flexing my fingers. Vee moved away from me, though she had picked the gun back up and now had it pointed loosely in my direction.
My limbs were stiff from being in the same position for hours, not to mention from that shove down the cellar stairs, plus toppling the chair onto my back, and, of course, the two knife wounds currently strapped together with tape. I was lucky the stab wounds hadn’t been in my torso, or I doubted I would be in any condition to be offering help right now. I stretched and flexed my knotted muscles, noting how Vee flinched when I lifted my arms, understandably cautious that I might try to strike out at her instead. Spikes of pain pierced me as I moved my arm and put weight on my injured leg, and I hissed air in over my teeth and tested my weight out on the lower limb.
“Do you have any painkillers?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I’ll get you some when we go upstairs.” She jerked her chin toward the men I had killed. “What do we do about them?”
“Nothing.”
“What if the deputy comes back around and finds Nickie and me gone? He might come into the house and find the bodies.”
“So what if he does? Do you think you’re going to be coming back here again, ever?”
Her lips pressed together, her nostrils flaring in determination. “No. We won’t be coming back.”
I took a step, but my injured leg crumpled under me, sending me pitching forward. Vee stepped in and grabbed me, wedging her shoulder under my armpit, her arm around my waist. It was a good thing she was tall, and I wasn’t overly massive, or I would have crushed her.
“I thought I was the one supposed to be helping you,” I joked.
“Yeah, you’d better start making yourself useful or I’ll leave you here to rot.”
She might have threatened it, but she continued to support me, and we climbed the stairs together. I was thankful to be leaving the rank smelling confines of the cellar. On several occasions I had imagined that place would have become my tomb.
“Did Nicole take your car?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “No. It’s still parked out front.”
“Good. We’ll leave it there, so people won’t know you’re gone right away. My car is parked a couple of blocks from here.”
“You think you’re going to be able to walk a couple of blocks?”
