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With a hip pressed against the counter’s edge, Avery smiles up at Ares like he’s a freaking god or something and a hushed voice in my head agrees. Stupid voice. We both look like we passed through hell on the way home. Gun powder clings to us and there’s more than soot and dirt mixed with blood down the front of my shirt. But Avery doesn’t seem to notice. He’s got something smeared along the underside of his jaw and his vest took a nasty blade. In the light of the kitchen, I can see the razor-fine cut that would have left something brutal over his right pec and down his abdomen if not for the thick leather. I trace the pad of my finger over it. Had he died because of me…I can’t really follow that line of thinking. Not because of where it leads, but more so of not knowing where it would leave me. Ares has done a lot to me and I’m beginning to think it’s not all bad.
He brushes my hair over my shoulder and I once again fail to realize it hangs over my shoulders and down my back. Normally it’d have it tied back but the agonizing panic attacks I get from having it hang around me don’t come.
I turn back to Avery. Her shiny blond hair is pulled back in an over-the-shoulder braid that makes her look younger than her twenty years. Her shirt is a little too snug and her jeans a little too low on her hips. The look fits her sweet innocent demeanor perfectly. Like a naughty librarian with sex appeal.
Innocent and fuckable. The same weakness my sister has. I consider Avery. She’ll be a perfect lover to a lucky bastard one day. I can’t help but think her submissive demeanor is what brought the attention of the Russian twins in the first place. Breaking someone like her must appeal to people like them and a trait they can sell like ice water on a hot day. My stomach churns. That she is still smiling proves the girl is stronger than she looks.
“No one has reported in yet, sir,” Avery answers shyly. “I’ve made some coffee for everyone. They called Bear when they couldn’t get a hold of you. Said they wouldn’t be long. Can I get you a cup?”
“Lost my phone at some point this evening.” Ares pats his pockets to double-check.
She turns bright eyes on me and bless her sweet innocent soul; this woman is going to learn the hard way being nice gets you kicked in the teeth the second she pushes to her feet. How has she not learned this yet with all she’s been through? My heart falls back to someone else as sweet and innocent as Avery. My sister.
What feels like razor blades slice at my insides. The pain of Polaris still stuck in that horror show of a place leeches any sense of calm from me. I throw on a fake smile for Avery’s sake. She doesn’t need burdening with my problems when she has her own to deal with. “I’d love some coffee. Thank you. Can I get it in the biggest mug you have, please?”
The more I tool over the thought, I think I can see how this woman can still smile. The same way my sister has maintained a wall between her and all the nasty shit that has happened to her. If she didn’t, there would be nothing left to salvage. A new respect for sweet Avery blooms as I watch her pour two fresh mugs of hot brew and pass them to us.
Ares takes his mug and raises it in salute. “Thank you, Avery. You’ve been a big help.”
“Welcome, sir.” She tongues the simple gold band of a lip piercing, the one small detail that tells me she has a little wild behind all that sweetness.
He turns the full weight of his attention on me and thoughts of sweet and innocent drop away. Shimmering silver mesmerizes me. “When you finish breakfast, come find me downstairs. I’ll be waiting. Don’t be long,malyshka.”
I wonder if everyone jumps when he gives an order. I shake my head. This Russian. One minute he’d look good on a morgue slab from my doing and the next I can’t see him any other way than lording over me with those bedroom eyes. I hold zero fantasies that this man does anything he doesn’t want to do, so the idea he wants me, a complete nobody, leaves me wondering what I have that interests him.
For a second I almost ask him, but I don’t think I want to know the answer. Besides, would it matter? Not really. I’m here until my sister is back at my side or until I find another way to get her out of that hell hole. I’m not cut out for midnight shootouts, bike rides, wild riverside sex and dominating Russians. I can only kid myself for so long. I am not as strong as I look.
Chills I should not be feeling tingle their way down my spine and hit home when he leans in and presses a kiss to the shell of my ear.
His firm lips part and the cool gaze of his turns smoky. “What is churning behind those pretty eyes?” When I don’t answer and decide it is a better idea to bite my lower lip instead, he brushes the back of his knuckles down the side of my face and considers me. “You need to work on your trust. If I ever take you anywhere it’s never to lock you up again. That is a promise.”
That is not where my thoughts are but now that he mentions it, the same question of what he wants with me comes back to perch on the tip of my tongue. But I swallow it down. I don’t know how much of his truth I can handle in one evening. Bodies, cleaning crews. Mansions, expensive cars. The little bit I know of him tells me he’ll answer with actions instead of words and right now I can’t sit without feeling his lastactionon my ass and between my legs.
I watch his retreating back and wait until he’s gone before I turn to Avery who has her coffee balanced at her lips and her eyes drinking in everything.
I clear my throat. “Sorry ’bout that.”
“Watching him with you is fascinating. Men like him don’t normally take a moment to reassure their women. They take what they want, leave the empty, used husk for someone else to clean up.” Haunting words to match the distant look in her eyes. “I begged him to buy me. To save me. I didn’t think he would but he did. I’ll never have a harsh word for a man who was willing to buy my freedom and then give me a home. Treat me like another human being.”
I understand her fierce loyalty now and know the admiration in her eyes for Ares is not attraction but undying loyalty.
I reach across and take her hand, giving it a light squeeze. Color floods her face. “I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way.” She worries her lips for a few seconds and then blurts something out that has me reevaluating every second of the last week of my life.
“If you hadn’t been kidnapped and put up for auction I would still be their prisoner. Their whore put up as a piece of meat. I’m grateful you were there and even more grateful someone like Ares was there that night.”
My whole world grinds to a halt. How do I respond to that? Yeah me too? Not really. Those words would be a lie. I swallow a thick ball of confusion, doubt, worry, and fear.
I nod slowly and squeeze her hand. A knowing look passes between us and I focus on more neutral territory. “Have you watched the news?”
She grabs a plate and pushes fresh eggs, bacon, and toast in front of me with a soft knowing smile. “No, why?”
I shake my head not really wanting to go over the events. A headache settles right behind my eyes. Thinking about all the death and blood is bad enough; talking about it seems impossible.
We sit in silence for the time it takes me to drink two mugs of coffee. I focus on regaining my strength for whatever Ares has planned down in the basement.
I’m almost done when I see Avery prepare a second plate and pour another mug of coffee. From under the counter, she pulls a serving tray and loads it up, adding on a glass of orange juice and a few extra strips of bacon.
