Chapter 38
elaine
Even like this, there was something so compelling about Vera—sitting on the care bed in the medical wing with that wild, intense look on her face, five separate injuries all wrapped in bandages, but her eyes still gleamed like it only fed her fire.
“Whoever is acting right now, they’re not holding anything back.”
Petra folded her arms. “Whoever is acting. You don’t know who attacked you?”
“Contracts, all of them. Not internal operatives. Meaning this was intended to be silent… someone hiding their identity.”
I swallowed. “The people paying off Glenn…?”
Vera shrugged, sliding off the bed and onto her feet. “Doesn’t matter. I won’t let them either way.”
She was so troubled, underneath that cold, callous exterior. “Vera,” I said softly, and she whipped her gaze to lock onto mine. “Are you okay?”
“Couple scratches.”
Jenna spoke with airy irritation. “Her injuries would have any normal person in intensive care for at least a week.”
Vera waved her off. “Couple scratches. I need some food.”
“Listen,” Petra said, stepping forward, but I put a hand up. The room stopped to look at me, and I laid my hand on Vera’s arm, bare skin between the bandaged shoulder and the bandaged forearm.
“There’s still plenty of dinner left,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Petra shook her head. “We’ve still gotta talk about this.”
“Later, Petra,” I said, and I got that same feeling as I stepped up next to Vera that I had before—like approaching a wounded tiger, a beast so powerful she could have killed me in an instant, trusting she would let me near to help her.
I put a hand on her back, feeling the tightly toned muscle there, and she relaxed, just a fraction.
“Vera and I will be in the kitchen together.”
Petra folded her arms. “What, you’re just going to fuck her better?”
“Petra!” Caitlyn tugged the back of Petra’s shirt. “Let them have their wife time!”
I blushed, laughing nervously. After a second of careful deliberation, those intense, wild eyes fixed on me, Vera nodded, just a slight incline of her head. “It’d better be good.”
“Pace yourself,” Jenna said, and of course, she may as well have been talking to a wall. Vera stomped out of the room, and I went with her, into the kitchen, where she once again snatched a cold piece of meat off a plate and went to take a bite, but I caught her hand.
“Sit down,” I said. “Your body will digest it better if it’s warm. Start with the salad.”
“I just killed three people and incapacitated four, and you want me to tuck into a nice fresh summer salad?”
I kissed her shoulder. “The rest will be just a minute.”
She flexed her hand on the side of the table, and finally, with a sharp, animalistic movement, she dropped into her seat, shoved her plate out of the way, and snatched up a bowl of salad, shoveling it into her mouth.
I took the rest of the food and warmed it up, swapping the meat out for ones kept in the oven and traying up new servings of the sides from the stove, and I boiled some water to reheat and rehydrate the sauce.
Vera almost snatched the plate out of my hand when I brought it over to her, and I almost jumped, but I couldn’t show fear in front of her. She didn’t need fear right now.
This was the buried side of her that killed people. What she needed to see right now was someone who would stand by her even then.
She devoured everything off the plate without a word, tearing in and shoving her mouth full, and I trayed up another plate while she did, swapping it out as soon as she’d finished hers.
I sat next to her and put my hand on her back, stroking her softly as she ate, and finally, she slowed down, her breathing going back to normal, the look in her eyes returning to something more human.
She clenched her fists hard on the table, and with a slow sigh, released them.
When she finally spoke, it was deathly quiet. “You’re not bad in the kitchen.”
“Gotta make myself useful for something,” I laughed.
“You’re useful for other things, too.” She was on me just like that—whipped around and ripped me up out of my seat, and my heart jumped as she pushed me up against the wall, pinning my wrists by my sides.
She shoved her body up against mine, and with a low grunt, she rocked her hips once.
I held eye contact with her, unshaking, and slowly, her expression changed into something incredulous.
“You’re not afraid,” she said.
I shook my head.
“You should be,” she growled. “I’m going to claim you. Use you.”
“But you wouldn’t hurt me,” I whispered. Something flashed in her eyes.
“You shouldn’t trust me like that. I’m a killer. My heart turned cold long ago.”
I slipped my hand out of her grip, because of course she wasn’t really holding hard enough to hurt me, and I laid it on her collar, feeling the fast thump-thump rhythm of her heart. “I can still feel it beating,” I whispered. “Warm. And alive. And still my wife.”
Something impossible passed over her features, and for a second, she looked like she might cry.
“One of them begged me not to do it. I’ve never seen a man look so scared.
And I paused. You know why?” She tightened her grip on my other wrist. “Because I knew it would make the others hesitate. Give me a better opening. That was it. The second the other one lowered his gun a millimeter, I stabbed the one who was begging right through the throat… and I pulled it. To the side. Like tearing a bag open. That’s who I am, Elaine.
People are objects to me. Objects I destroy like any other. ”
“You’re protecting yourself… and your family,” I whispered. “You’re protecting me. And you would never hurt me. You’ve tried. I’m not afraid of you, Vera. I never have been. And nothing you do will make me afraid.”
She stared at me like she couldn’t understand the words she was hearing, and she pursed her lips in a tight line before she leaned in and kissed me.
She was passionate and hungry still, but it was a different kind of hunger than had been in her eyes when she’d grabbed me and shoved me against the wall.
“Upstairs,” she whispered against my lips. “I need your body.”
This was different from the other times. But I couldn’t let her know that I knew that. I nodded, caressing my hand down her side. “Of course, Vera.”