Chapter 19
LEIF
I caught a couple of hours sleep after Forrest, then Woody, went to work. Forrest, without having slept. Woody said he'd get a couple of hours in, then come back for some rest.
Once again, I was reminded of the joys of working for myself. I was able to keep watch over Sable and Savannah while they slept. Not literally. Okay, not literally in regards to Savannah.
I admit to spending some time leaning against the doorframe watching Sable.
Only a little while though. An hour or two.
I'm not some crazy stalker. I didn't touch her either.
I just watched. Listened when she'd murmured something in her sleep.
I couldn't make out what it was. She didn't seem to be scared or angry.
She had something to say, so she'd said it.
I would have given almost anything to find out what it was. Chances were she wouldn't know herself.
At least she didn't wake up screaming. I half-expected that to happen after what she'd been through. I probably would have. She was stronger than she thought she was. Stronger than any of us guys. Cuter too, I had to admit.
Not wanting to disturb her, I'd left her to it and went to make myself a snack.
She appeared as I was finished putting peanut butter and jelly on a slice of bread. Dressed in one of Forrest's old t-shirts, it fell almost to her knees, all but swallowing her. Her hair hung around her face, wild and messy. Her eyes were sleepy, like she'd only just woken up.
She was so stinking cute, I could have gobbled her up on the spot. If I was into eating other people, which I wasn't. Not in the culinary sense, anyway.
"Hey, do you want some?" I sliced the piece of bread into two and handed her half.
"Thanks," she said, barely glancing at it before taking a bite.
"How are you feeling?" I asked. "How are you really feeling?" I added before she could tell me she was fine and brush the whole thing off.
"You need to talk about what happened." I wasn't asking. She needed to get it off her chest. I needed to hear it, to understand what they did to her.
"I don't know what to say," she said between bites.
"I heard a rumor that if you start from the beginning, that can make it easier," I said. "Personally, I'm a fan of starting in the middle."
Sometimes our brains don't work in a straight line. Why try to force them? I was a big believer in working with our strengths and accepting that we were hardwired to be the way we were.
"I think the middle is right when you walked in the door," she said, offering me a smile that made my heart pound a little faster.
"Before that, then." Watching for her reaction, I placed a hand on her elbow and encouraged her to walk over to the couch with me before sitting down.
"You want to know if the senator forced himself on me?" she asked.
Okay, that was cutting right to the heart of the matter. She managed to ask that without even flinching. This woman, just when I thought she couldn't impress me more, she did.
What did I say to that? I decided to respond to her direct approach with a direct approach of my own. "Yes, did he?"
She sighed out her nose and looked down toward the expensive rug on the floor in front of the couch.
I knew exactly how much it cost because I ordered it for Forrest when I designed this place.
It was still one of my favorite projects.
I loved the way it turned out. Of course I did.
He'd let me take free reign with it. My favorite kind of client.
Also? Sable looked like she was going to say yes, he had, in which case I was going to find a way to resurrect him from the dead and kill him again.
More slowly and painfully this time. Woody set that bar pretty high.
Everything he'd done to the man looked like it hurt like a bitch. Whatever, I'd think of something.
"No, he didn't," she said finally.
I was relieved for about half a second.
"But?" There was more she wasn't saying.
Her lips moved. For a while nothing came out. Her brow was creased in a tiny frown, sorting out her thoughts and maybe summoning up the courage to continue.
"Woody and I…" she said slowly.
My eyebrows twitched. "Sometimes being in dangerous situations makes people feel things they otherwise wouldn't," I said carefully. They wouldn't be the first people to fuck while under pressure. Not even close if books and movies were to be believed.
The sides of her mouth drew back. "It's not that."
It was my turn to try to get my head around what she was saying. Had I completely misunderstood? I thought she was saying they fucked. If she wasn't, then what was she saying?
No, I was almost certain I was right, but if it wasn't in the heat of the moment, then…
"Oh shit," I whispered. "He was pretending to hate you. That asshole told him to fuck you, didn't he?"
"Yeah, he did," she whispered. "He thought Woody forced me. He watched while we…" She shook her head, her deep swallow audible.
"I can't decide if I should punch Woody or cut off his balls," I said. I could do one, then the other. Now, what order was I was going to do them in?
She put a hand on my forearm. "Don't blame him. I didn't hate it. I… We did what we could to protect ourselves and each other. And it was kinda, I don't know, hot. I mean, I would have preferred to do it under different circumstances, but…"
"Right, of course you would have," I said slowly. Punching Woody in the nuts might suffice.
She smiled and squeezed my arm. "Please don't punch or cut him anywhere. He killed five people for me."
I gave her a sidelong, teasing look. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were falling for him. Or at least hating him a bit less than you used to."
"It's a fine line," she said. "It's fair to say Woody and I are complicated. I don't know how I feel about him."
"Under the circumstances, I think that's perfectly rational," I told her. "Woody is a complicated dude. Most of the time we wouldn't have him any other way. Sometimes he can be a pain in the ass. Believe it or not, sometimes Forrest can be a pain in the ass too."
I know, shocking right?
"But not you?" She cocked her head at me.
"Absolutely not," I said with a laugh. "I'm the epitome of a perfect gentleman."
If you believe that, I have a nice bridge to sell you. Some real estate on the moon, perhaps? What about a return trip to Mars?
"Of course you are," she said sweetly. “So, that's it. That's what happened to me. To Woody too." Of course she'd think about him as well. He was probably hating on himself right now for taking part. I would be. I'd feel violated, used. I might have to cut him some slack for a while.
"I know that was hard on you," I said. She seemed to be treating it like it wasn't the big deal it really was. "You spent too long with the control taken from your hands. It's not okay you had to do it again. I wish I was there to stop it."
I could have let Forrest go back to the auction by himself, then… I don't know what. I would have thought of something.
"I don't think you could have," she said. "If you tried, they would have killed you."
"Not if I killed them first," I said without hesitation.
"You were outnumbered." She sucked on a smear of peanut butter on the side of her thumb.
My cock twitched in response.
"So was Woody," I pointed out. "Are you trying to suggest I couldn't have done what he did?" I gave her a playful side eye. I was more secure in my masculinity and ability to kill than to really be offend.
"Of course you could," she said quickly. "He had me too, though. And it was dark."
"I'll give Woody credit for doing good work, killing five men in the dark," I said with a grin.
If I'm honest, I was a little envious. It sounded like they had a lot more fun than Forrest and I. Killing assholes was a better time than being in the company of entitled pricks.
I loved my day job, but I also enjoyed a good sneak around in the dark, stabbing people. Sometimes a guy needed a thing like that in his life to feel a little more alive. If someone charged me to do it, like a big game hunt, I'd pay.
That was an under-serviced market, if there was one. Of course, if anyone started up a business like that, they'd get in the way of us having fun for free.
Still, whatever it took to rid the world of a few more predators, I'd support it.
"Did seeing all that killing get to you?" She was new to all of this. A bloodbath like Woody left behind was confronting at the best of times. When you hadn't seen anything like that before, it would be terrifying as fuck.
"I'd be lying if I said it didn't," she said. "Those thugs—"
I put a hand over hers before she could continue. "Don't say they were just doing their jobs. That's the catch cry of people who did the wrong thing and got caught. They knew exactly who they were working for. They were the ones that took you from the Halloran, weren't they?"
"Yes, they were." She obviously felt bad for them being killed for the crime of standing around making sure she didn't escape.
"They don't deserve your sympathy," I said firmly. "They were in it up to their eyeballs. Any one of them could have gotten a job as a mall cop if they wanted to. Or a bodyguard to someone reputable."
"Someone like you?" she suggested.
"Exactly," I said lightly.
Working for me, they'd be almost as complicit as if they were working for the senator. That was a good reason not to have a bodyguard. The more people who knew your secrets, the easier it was to fuck you over. That wasn't the kind of fucking I enjoyed.
"They made their choice. Men like them, they understand they're living on borrowed time when they work for someone like that. Sooner or later, someone was going to come after him. Not only are they complicit, they're collateral damage."
"But watching Woody strangle one of them," she closed her eyes and grimaced. "That was… I've never seen anything like it."
"Woody choked the living shit out of someone, and I didn't get to see it," I whined jokingly. "I wonder if he could reenact it some time. I could find him someone fun to work with."
She gave a short laugh. "You'll have to ask him. I got the impression he didn't enjoy it much."
"Even better." I gave her a wink. "Now, have you seen the rooftop terrace?" I pointed to the ceiling above me.
"I haven't," she said.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, enjoying the way the shirt rode up her thighs before she stood.
"Then you're in for a treat."