Page 108 of Ballistic

“All of them. I want all those fuckers destroyed.”

“These girls agreed to do this, Mister Wolfe. They gave their consent.”

“Except Eden. Why is that?”

Jaw shifting, he sniffed. “She was a girl from the trailer park. Been abused her whole life. Probably wouldn’t—”

I pushed up from the chair, and before he could finish his sentence, I hammered my fist in his face, knocking his glasses onto the floor.

Raising his hands to shield himself from the next punch, he pulled the videos from the safe and slammed them, one at a time, onto the floor.

I stomped on them for added measure, smiling as each one cracked under my boot.

With a huff, he slid his slightly bent glasses back onto his face and stared down toward the mess. “How will I know when you’ve kept your end of the bargain?”

“You won’t. You’ll wake up alive and breathing each day that you manage to keep your dick in your pants. Until the day you don’t. That’ll be the day you have the entire city of Detroit hunting you down.” I stepped aside and swung out my hand for him to pass. “Shall we? I believe you have some papers to sign, Doc.”

Not bothering to hide the smug ass smile on my face, I followed him down to the lobby, my body humming with excitement.

In front of the entrance, Eden sat in a wheelchair, wearing a gown, with a white blanket draped over lap. With her head slumped to the side, she stared off with a blank expression.

“She’s still quite sedated.” The nurse handed off the papers to the doctor. “All she had on at admission was a nightgown. She should be alert within a couple of hours.”

I knelt down in front of her and lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles, drawing her eyes to mine.

“Dax?” A hoarse weakness carried on the tone of her voice, and tears filled her spacey-looking eyes.

“I’m taking you home, baby.” I pushed to a stand, accepting her bag of clothes from the nurse, while the doc signed off on all the papers.

“She’s all yours, Mister Wolfe.” The smile on the doc’s face looked fake, and I had to bite back the urge to knock those perfect white teeth out of his mouth.

I didn’t waste any time wheeling her out of there.

Coming to a stop alongside the ‘Cuda, I threw back the passenger door and lifted her inside. An orderly wheeled the chair back in for me, and I rounded the vehicle, smiling as I caught sight of that prick doctor standing in the window.

I flipped him off and fell into the driver seat. After firing up the ‘Cuda, I threaded my fingers between Eden’s and lifted our clasped hands for another kiss.

Like the life had been pumped back inside of me, I sped off, getting as far away from the hellhole, as fast as I could.

42

Nicoleta

My throat felt as if it’d been stuffed with socks, as I swallowed past the dryness. Sterile scents of bleach and disinfectant gave way to something woodsy and delicious. Familiar.

I opened my eyes to a dim lit room, instead of the too-bright blue walls. Turning my head brought me staring at Dax, slumped over in a chair beside the bed, his head propped against his fist. The slow and steady rise and fall of his chest told me he’d fallen deep into sleep.

I couldn’t hold back the tears brimming in my eyes. With an intense craving to touch him, I pushed off the bed, a slight tingling in my legs as I came to a stand. Two tumbling steps forward, and I caught myself on the arm of his chair, startling him awake.

He reached out to grab me, and I crawled onto his lap.

Massive arms enveloped me, when he pulled me into his chest, where I rested my head and broke down, letting every hope-crushing moment of being trapped inside that tomb trample over my heart. Skin wet with my tears, he sat holding me, not saying a single word until it was out of me. Until the icy surface thawed with his heat and everything poured out of me like a broken dam.

Guilt. Shame. Fear.

All of it escaped me, leaching into his skin with the drying of my tears.

I lifted my head, rising up to my knees atop his thighs, and stared down at him, a frantic need beating through me with such recklessness, it frightened me.