Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
“How much longer are we planning on hiding out in here?”
“I'm not hiding out,” Indigo immediately protested, her cheeks flushed at the lie, and she was damn adorable looking all offended, pretending that she didn't know exactly what he was talking about.
“Okay,” Voodoo agreed, leaning back against the headboard. If she wasn't ready to leave his room and face the outside world yet, she didn't have to. Wasn't like he was complaining about keeping her all to himself.
“I'm not,” she insisted, jutting out her bottom lip, daring him to disagree.
He could, because she was hiding out in there, but he wouldn't, because he got it.
Indigo hadn't just been through a trauma lasting the several months she’d been held hostage by Dr. Gardner and experimented on, she had been through a lifelong trauma, and meeting new people right now seemed to be more than she could handle.
Even though in reality she had nothing to worry about. She’d already met his team, and Rose, Cassandra, and Whitney were all wonderful people who were all dying to meet the newest member of their unconventional little family.
“Really, I'm not.” Indigo huffed, and Voodoo couldn’t help but chuckle.
Reaching out, he tapped the tip of her nose. “You are, but it’s okay.”
“You're supposed to be on my side here,” she said with a pout.
“Always on your side,” he assured her. They’d spent most of the time these last three days since she’d woken up talking when she wasn't sleeping. There’d been some making out too, and as much as he loved touching and kissing Indigo, he’d enjoyed getting to know her better just as much.
“I'm just … it’s … I don’t …” Indigo didn't even seem to know what she was thinking or feeling, she just knew she was scared and was avoiding everything she thought was going to give her anxiety.
“It really is okay, honey.” Leaning over, he pressed his lips to hers, infusing his growing feelings for her into the soft touch.
What his girl needed was reassurance. He could tell her that everything was going to be okay, and she didn't have anything to worry about, but she wasn't going to believe it.
Instead, he had to try to show her. Which was what he had been doing, interspersing stories about himself and his childhood and adolescence, along with stories of his team and the three women who had recently become part of them.
For a second, she wouldn't meet his gaze, just picked at the edge of his sheets. “What if they don’t like me?” she finally whispered, chancing a quick glance at him. “What if they think I'm … you know … pathetic or something?”
“Why would they think that? Why wouldn't they like you? What is there not to like about you?”
“Not like I've had people lining up to like me, and my ex, he was always telling me I didn't deserve—”
“I think you’d better not finish that sentence if you don’t want me to track down your ex-husband and kill him,” he said mildly, even though the familiar burn of anger was spreading through him.
Indigo smiled. “It’s not just him, it’s everyone. I've never really had friends. The other kids never wanted to play with me, I was dirty and always covered in bruises, then both my exes isolated me. I'm not good at interacting with people.”
“Then this is the perfect family for you,” he assured her.
“Are you sure you're not worried about anything else?” While he didn't want to push her, and he wouldn't blame her if she had reservations about some of the people living there, he had to know if she was as afraid of Rose and Whitney as she was of what they would think of her.
“What else would I worry about?” she asked, brows knitting together.
“Rose is Dr. Gardner’s sister, and Whitney is the one who created the drug.” Just because he’d gotten to know both of them and knew they were good people didn't mean Indigo would agree. At least not yet. Not until she got to know them and saw for herself.
“But you said Dr. Gardner tortured Rose as he was raising her, and she’s nothing like him.
You also said Whitney didn't mean for the drug to do what it did, and she was just a kid. I don’t blame her if that’s what you're asking me, and I don’t think Rose is like her brother.
It’s just they’re important to you, they’re your family, your real family, even if they’re not technically related to you, and I don’t want them to not like me. ”
“They’re going to like you.”
For a long moment, she just stared into his eyes as though she was trying to see all the way down into his mind to ascertain if he was telling the truth.
Voodoo tried to keep his gaze open and honest, allowing her to see the truth of his words.
In reality, the longer she held off on meeting the others, hiding out in his room, the more she was going to build this up in her head, making it much bigger and scarier than it needed to be, and the harder it would be to walk out there and meet everyone.
They couldn’t stay there forever, but they could stay there as long as she needed.
“You're sure?” Indigo asked in a small voice.
“Positive.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“You're right, we can't stay in here forever.”
“I didn't say that,” he said, although he had been thinking it.
“I know, but you were thinking it.”
“And you were reading my mind.”
She chuckled, and he could tell she was doing her best to gather her reserves of strength and face her fears.
Resisting the urge to tell her once again that everything would be fine, that she was a brave, strong, lovable woman who his family would quickly fall in love with, and had already accepted as one of them, he waited, giving her the time and space to come to the same conclusion.
“We could maybe have lunch with your team,” she finally said, and he grinned, leaning in again to kiss her.
“Proud of you,” he told her as he climbed out of the bed and gathered her into his arms.
“It’s not much really,” she said, clearly embarrassed, although he caught a hint of pleasure in her eyes as well.
“It is for you.” Carrying her with him, he headed out into the hall.
Indigo was healing better than he could have hoped for, and he wasn't sure if it was his healing ability or just her own enhanced healing ability, nor did it matter.
The only thing that mattered was that she was getting better, stronger each day, and would soon be back to full health.
Even though she didn't say anything, he felt her tension growing as he moved through the house.
She was yet to see any of it outside of his bedroom and the attached bathroom, but he didn't think she was taking in much of the Gothic mansion. The place was stunning. He’d lived there for the last six years, and Voodoo still sometimes looked at it in awe.
He had no idea how Eagle had found this place, but he was glad their boss had.
This had been the perfect home to recover in, to rebuild their lives in, and now it was the perfect place to start building a future.
For so long now, all he and his team had done was remain locked in the past. They couldn’t let go of what had been done to them, and their focus had mostly been on revenge. Now he still wanted that revenge, but it wasn't all-consuming anymore.
Something else had taken over.
A desire to be normal, or at least as normal as a man whose DNA had been altered by experimental drugs could get.
He wanted to fall in love and build a life with Indigo.
Wanted to marry her one day, have kids, build a life that wasn't solely focused on destroying the people responsible for changing them.
Voodoo wanted to learn to find joy, to shrug off the responsibilities he’d placed on his own shoulders, and not think his only value was in saving others.
He wanted to laugh and talk, to do simple things just for pleasure.
He didn't just want that pleasure for himself, he wanted it for Indigo more than anything else.
She deserved happiness, deserved love and affection, deserved all the things that made her smile.
It started here.
With one small step for him and one huge step for her.
While he could give her everything she deserved, she had to be the one to reach out and take it. Was it possible for a woman who had been taught time and time again that life only wanted to kick you down, to learn to embrace the chance that this time things might be different?
February 4th
11:14 A.M.
It made her feel stupid, but Indigo was genuinely scared about meeting the rest of Voodoo’s family.
It would actually be easier to meet his parents, because she knew that while he’d spent most of his life trying to be good enough to earn their love and respect, he didn't really value them or think of them as family.
But these five men and three women?
They were the family he’d always longed for, even if he struggled to cut the final ties binding him to his old life. If they didn't like her, then Indigo wasn't sure what that meant for her budding romance with Voodoo.
Just because his teammates seemed to have accepted her, she wouldn't be there if they hadn't, and they wouldn't have postponed their revenge to try to save her, that didn't automatically mean that the three women would.
After all, things were different with the guys, they had all been altered, and that gave them a common ground, made her one of them.
She didn't have that same connection to fall back on when it came to Rose, Cassandra, and Whitney.
As Voodoo carried her through the house, she could hear chattering voices getting louder.
They all seemed so happy, so at ease with one another, like they truly were one big family.
She, on the other hand, had exactly zero experience with happy families.
She didn't even really have any experience with friends, although there had been a couple of people she’d been friendly with while she was at college and then working.