Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
There was no fear in Rose’s eyes as she looked up at him. Just curiosity and pain he wished he could eradicate as easily as he had picked up that concrete and tossed it aside.
Answering her question wasn't possible, though.
Rose was alive and relatively in one piece, thanks to Voodoo and his almost magical ability to heal, but that didn't mean she was safe. Not only did Dragon want to kill her so she couldn’t go back and tell anyone about them, but they’d planted cameras in Rose’s home in case her brother went there, and someone had broken in last night and trashed the place.
What they were looking for, he didn't know and didn't care, but their pulling Rose into their game of revenge had placed a target on her back from her brother as well.
No one was laying a hand on his little ladybug. Dragon knew what would happen if he went rogue, and if Steel truly believed the man was a threat to Rose, then Dragon would already be dead.
But for now, the man was banned from Rose’s room. Dragon needed to find another way to work through his anger at losing Cassandra, taking it out on the little ladybug was not an option.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said evenly, keeping his expression neutral.
Rose rolled her eyes at him and then winced as it obviously caused her pain, making him want to break something.
Knowing she was hurting and being unable to fix it left him feeling like a nest of wasps had made their home under his skin. The fiery burn wasn't something he was used to. Worrying about someone who wasn't a member of his team wasn't anything he’d thought he would ever do again.
But there he was.
Worrying about the little ladybug.
“Liar,” she muttered, shifting and wincing again.
“Stop doing that,” he snarled.
“Doing what?” she asked, genuinely confused.
“Moving.”
Her look conveyed more than any words could. It was clear she thought he was being weird, which he was, no arguments there.
“I’m uncomfortable,” she said slowly as though she were talking to an idiot. And the thing was, when he was around her, that was exactly what Steel felt like he was.
“What are you doing to me?” he murmured, more to himself than the woman looking at him like he’d grown two heads.
“Umm … nothing?”
“Stay still,” he ordered, when she continued to shift in the bed.
“Ugh, I wish I’d stayed unconscious,” she grumbled, but thankfully, she stilled so he didn't have to watch her cause herself more pain.
Steel was glad she’d woken up, even if Rose wasn't.
It had been a hellish thirty-two hours with her hovering in and out of consciousness, not having the tools they needed to treat her, relying only on Voodoo, who had somehow managed to do what he always did and deal with the worst of Rose’s wounds.
There were cracked ribs, the broken arm, a concussion, but thankfully no internal bleeding.
How the hell she’d survived with relatively minor injuries, Steel had no idea, but he did know that without Voodoo, there would have been no way to tell if she had internal bleeding or not, and if she did no way to treat it.
“Is our little patient awake?” Voodoo asked as he came strolling into the room.
“Why do you have a black eye?” Rose asked, her brow scrunching adorably before she lifted a hand and rubbed at her temple.
“What did I say about staying still?” he growled, reaching out a hand and banding it around her wrist. Beneath his fingers, her bones were so delicate, so easily snapped, it had been a long time since he’d been so very aware of his enhanced strength and how different it made him from everybody else.
“Relax,” she told him, like she had no awareness of how easily he could break her. Maybe she didn't. She’d seen what he could do, but she was weak and woozy from her injuries, and he doubted it had fully sunk in yet.
“I would if you would stop causing yourself undue pain. Do I need to tie you to the bed, little ladybug?”
Although he’d meant the words as a threat, arousal flared in Rose’s forest green eyes, and she squirmed on the bed. Huh. Seemed the little ladybug had a kinky side, although by the confusion warring with desire in her gaze, he assumed it might be one she was unaware of.
“No tying up my patient,” Voodoo said, watching their exchange with amusement.
“Thank you, Doctor Man,” Rose said, her gaze locked on where his hand still circled her wrist.
“Doctor Man?” Voodoo repeated.
Rose shrugged. “Don’t know your real name.”
“Stop moving, little ladybug, or I will absolutely tie you to this bed and not feel an ounce of remorse for it,” he warned.
“Idiot,” she mumbled, but turned her attention to Voodoo. “How did you get the black eye?” Concern overtook her features. “Were you in the basement when the ceiling fell down?”
How the hell could the little ladybug care whether her actions had hurt one of the people who were holding her captive? She was all sorts of surprising, and Steel found he almost enjoyed unraveling another of her layers.
“Mr. Bedroom Man here didn't like me touching you,” Voodoo explained with a smirk.
“Touching me? I’m so confused. Why am I even here?
You want to hurt me, that’s why you kidnapped me.
My brother won't play your games, so you're going to have to kill me anyway. Why didn't you just leave me to die? Why am I in a bed? Why do I have an IV? Why is there a cast on my arm? I remember someone saying you should kill me, but then I remember you saying I have to live. I don’t get it,” she finished, an almost helpless look on her face that he wanted to wipe away, but she moved again and winced, and he was growling before he even realized what he was doing.
“Ropes!” he yelled so Blade would hear him.
“You're not really going to tie me to the bed, are you?” Rose asked uncertainly.
“No, he’s not, he’s just being a little caveman because he hates seeing you in pain.
I have you on pain meds and antibiotics along with the fluids.
You have several cuts from the concrete, and while they look okay now, and we cleaned you up as best as we could, I didn't want to risk infection,” Voodoo explained.
Glancing at the bag hanging from the post of the bed, Rose shook her head, then immediately shot him a worried glance, like she still wasn't sure if she was going to find herself bound to the bed. “You're putting fluids in me, but I don’t have to pee. I'm so confused,” she wailed.
“Catheter,” Voodoo told her, then pointed to the black eye. “Your caveman didn't like me putting it in, but since I was the only one who knew how to do it, he didn't have a choice.”
“But he gave you a black eye for doing it?” Rose asked, her gaze bouncing between the two of them.
Voodoo grinned at him, but Steel just grunted. Thankfully, he was saved from having to think up a reply when he wasn't sure how to explain the extent to which he hated anyone touching her for any reason, because Thunder appeared in the doorway with rope in his hands.
“Do we still need this?” Thunder asked, obviously having caught the end of the conversation.
“No,” Voodoo and Rose said in unison.
“Yes,” Steel replied at the same time.
“Okay. How about I just set these down here?” Thunder said slowly as he put the ropes on the nightstand, his amusement evident, and Steel couldn’t think of a time he’d seen any of his men in such good moods as they’d been watching him tie himself in knots over the little ladybug.
“How about someone tell me what's going on?” Rose said.
“You were lifting concrete,” she said, looking to him.
“You came up here with rope really quickly,” she added, looking to Thunder.
“And you were supposed to save my life, but I get the feeling that has nothing to do with you being a doctor,” she said to Voodoo.
“Actually, I'm not a doctor,” he told her with a cheerfulness that reminded Steel of the old Voodoo, the one before the experiments.
“Well then, what am I supposed to call you?” Rose snapped.
“Sorry, little ladybug, no names,” Steel informed her. Since they would have to return her to her home at some point, once she was healed enough, it was better that she stick to her silly made-up names for them.
“What does it matter if you're going to kill me anyway?” she demanded.
Uncurling his fingers one at a time, which were still wrapped around her wrist, he lowered his hand until it circled her neck, squeezing just tight enough to get her attention but not to cause her any pain. “Thought I already told you that you have to live.”
“But I don’t understand.” She huffed in annoyance.
Giving her a one-sided smile, Steel nodded. “I know. Don’t make me regret not putting these on,” he said with a nod at the ropes, then indicated to Voodoo and Thunder that they should follow him from the room.
As he closed the door behind them, he could hear Rose muttering and grumbling to herself, and the other side of his lips curled up into a real smile. The little ladybug was wild, but she was certainly breathing fresh air into their stale lives.
December 28th
9:10 P.M.
How dare he just walk out of there without telling her anything.
Rose was fuming, and a childish part of her wanted to scream after him, to rant and rave, to make sure he knew how much she hated him for shattering her illusion of freedom.
However, a bigger part of her cared more about self-preservation.
For however long they’d been keeping her there she’d been in that basement, no access to the outside world, but now she was sitting in a bed, in a real room, with a window and a regular door. The last thing she needed was to get his attention and make him come back in and tie her to the bed.
Mr. Bedroom Man would do it too. He’d seemed genuinely concerned about her being in pain. That made zero sense to her. That was exactly why he’d brought her here, to hurt her, so why was it driving him crazy if she shifted slightly on the bed and aggravated her wounds?
The man was crazy, no doubt about it.
Although she was one to talk.