Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
Steel liked the idea of the little ladybug forced to stay there, his sweet, strong, crazy little captive, far too much to be considered normal.
Of its own accord, his thumb drifted to the crease of her lips, then dragged along her bottom lip hard enough that desire flared in the forest green eyes staring back at him. His little ladybug didn't even seem to know how to process touch that didn't cause her at least a bite of pain.
It made him want to rediscover a part of his old self that would have worshipped her body with gentle caresses and featherlight touches. Now he wasn't sure that part of him still existed.
Maybe it was a good thing his little ladybug responded more to pain.
“Not indefinitely,” he told her.
Those words had her gaze widening. “You're going to let me go?”
He really had become a monster because Steel wanted so badly to tell her no. That he was going to keep her forever. That she was his now, and he was never going to let her go.
Swallowing down the possessiveness that threatened to choke him, he forced his head to nod. “I have a deal for you.”
Suspicion had her brows darting down to form a V. “A deal? Why does that sound suspiciously like yes, I'm going to let you go, but ha-ha I was only joking. I'm going to keep you here forever?”
The little ladybug had a pessimistic streak a mile wide, and he chuckled, surprised at how easy little snippets of laughter had snuck into his life these last several days. “Not forever,” he assured her.
“But …”
“But until we get your brother.” They’d gone about this all wrong.
If they hadn't jumped all in to something without properly thinking through the consequences because they were so hellbent on getting their revenge, they would have started with this. Now they had to work hard to gain Rose’s trust, but if they’d gone to her in the beginning, he wouldn't have added more scars to her already battle-worn body and soul.
Those pretty eyes of hers widened again. “You want me to help you kill my brother?”
“If it’s too much for you, then we wouldn't ask you to be involved in the actual killing,” Voodoo rushed to add.
The medic had taken a particular liking to Rose.
He was almost as protective of her as Steel himself had become, which was probably why Dragon appeared to have given up on his let’s just kill Rose and be done with it plan.
If he tried, he’d be going up against all five of them.
Protectiveness aside, Voodoo didn't really get what made Rose tick, though.
Steel might not understand it all either, but he knew one thing for certain. There was nothing and no one that this woman, straddling his thighs, would ever back down from, and she would slit her brother’s neck without a second thought or a moment of regret.
Rose laughed, loud and hard. He could tell by the small wince that the drugs Voodoo had dripping into her through her IV were doing a reasonable job of masking her pain levels without completely eliminating them.
But she didn't seem to care, her laughter was so rich and free that he felt like an idiot just sitting there and staring at her in awe.
How many chances had life given her to laugh like that?
And why did he feel such a strong need to ensure that from now on, that was all life gave her?
“I think what my little ladybug is telling you is she’s all in for participating in killing her brother,” Steel drawled.
Shooting him a half-hearted scowl, Rose muttered, “I'm not yours.”
“If you say so.” The smirk he gave her was specifically designed to get her all riled up. The last thing he wanted was her slipping away from him again, into a pit of despair and hopelessness.
His little ladybug should never suffer again.
Not for a single second.
“You are impossible,” she snapped, but again she didn’t seem all that angry about it.
“Yep,” he agreed. He was also hers, but he doubted she would appreciate that declaration.
“You really want to help us kill your brother?” Thunder asked, a thread of doubt in his voice.
“How long have you hated Ridge?” she asked, twisting slightly so she could look over her shoulder at the rest of his team.
“A decade,” Thunder replied.
“I've hated him for double that. Even before our parents died, he used to hurt me. They did too. They’re psychos, my whole family. Every single one of them. Apparently, I am too.” she muttered that last part under her breath, but since she was perched on his lap, he caught the words.
For the last ten years, all Steel could focus on was finding Dr. Gardner and forcing the man to undo what had been done to them. Turn them from monsters back into human beings.
Maybe he’d been looking at things wrong this whole time.
Maybe he wasn't a monster, just a little bit psycho, too. After all, he had developed feelings for the little ladybug, so it was obvious that Ridge Gardner hadn't really been able to remove empathy from his brain. It still existed, it had just twisted into something else.
Maybe a little bit psycho wasn't all that bad after all.
“I'm sorry you went through that, Rose,” Steel told her, sweeping his palms down her arms and then back up again.
Surprise widened her eyes as she turned to look back at him, the sound of her real name coming from his lips instead of the nickname catching her by surprise, although he sensed there was more to it than that.
Ever since she’d escaped her brother’s hell, she’d isolated herself from the world, much the same way he and his team had. There had probably never been anyone to tell her they were sorry for her suffering. Likely never even been another person she’d shared that with.
Why would she?
Life had shown her nobody cared.
But he cared, and it was just now that he realized how lucky he and his team had been to go to Eagle Oswald and be accepted without question into the Prey family.
The betrayal of their boss sat heavily inside him, and Steel knew he needed to tell Eagle what they’d done, assure him that they would make it right, and hope that the man didn't kick them all to the curb.
For now, though, he kept his focus on Rose, who shifted uncomfortably. Her shrug was too forced, and he wasn't fooled by her act of nonchalance. “It was all I knew,” she said, like it didn't bother her, but he knew it did. How could it not?
“You’ll get your vengeance, little ladybug,” he vowed, praying she agreed to help him, because if she didn't, he wasn't sure what his next move would be. Calling Prey, possibly, and having Rose put in protective custody with them. She’d probably fight it, definitely hate it, but as long as she lived, he was okay with that.
“If I help you,” she said.
“If you help us,” he agreed.
As he watched, he could practically see the calculations running through her mind as she tried to decide if this was her best move. In reality, it was her only move, and she knew it. She just had to come to terms with it.
“I accept,” she finally said, and Steel let out a breath of relief. “Nothing would make me happier than making Ridge pay for everything he ever did to me. But …” she drew the word out and shot him a sweet smile. “I have a condition of my own.”
Huffing a chuckle, his hands shifted on her shoulders until his fingers stroked the back of her neck, and his thumbs lightly pressed against the pulse points in the hollow of her throat. “What's your condition, little ladybug?”
“I won't go back to the basement. If I'm helping you, I deserve better accommodations than a concrete cell with no furniture and a hole in the floor for a toilet.”
He heard every word she didn't speak as clearly as the ones she did. If they put her back in the basement, she’d never trust them and only keep looking for a way to escape.
They’d cleared away the rest of the rubble, and some of the cells furthest from the stairs were technically usable, but Steel had no intention of putting his little ladybug back in a cell.
“You get the room you were in while you were unconscious,” he assured her.
“Okay,” she agreed, and from her tone it was clear she thought he’d been going to fight her on her condition. Little ladybug had no clue what she did to him. The way she’d shifted something vital inside him with her brazen strength and determination.
“But.”
“Of course, there’s a but,” she cut him off.
“For now, I have to keep you locked in the room,” he told her.
Steel didn't feel good about it, but he also knew Rose didn't trust him yet, and she certainly didn't trust his team. The chances of her taking an opportunity to run were still high, and he couldn’t let her escape and run right back home into danger.
“Of course,” she said with a sigh. “Still a prisoner. Always a prisoner.”
The weariness to her words ate away at him, and he knew whatever tiny bit of trust they’d built had just shattered.
Warring with his need to protect Rose and his desire to gain the precious gift of her trust was going to make working with the little ladybug one hell of a ride.
December 29th
1:24 P.M.
With a yawn, Rose stretched and blinked open her eyes.
The first thing to register was the sunlight streaming through the window, the second was the pain in her body.
It felt worse today, blanketing her with a heaviness that weighed her down and made her want to curl up under the covers and play pretend all day long.
Pretend she hadn't been kidnapped, wasn't being held hostage, didn't feel like every bone in her body, along with every inch of skin, had been bruised.
But hiding never helped.
Certainly didn't fix anything.
Truth was, she was not only lucky to be alive, but lucky that Steel and his team were willing to let her go after they got what they wanted.