Page 34 of Red Zone Awakened

CHAPTER15

“Beingthe rescuer is so much better than being the one rescued,” Keiko said as they made their way into the empty penthouse apartment.

She was giddy with her success and high on adrenaline.It was a good look on her.Her eyes sparkled, her cheeks were flushed pink, and her smile was dazzling.She threw herself into the corner of one of the vast white sofas that dominated the living area of the apartment.An apartment decorated in muted shades of cream; even the art was black and white.She stood out in the sterile space like a rose in the desert.

A bruised rose.

The marks around her ankle from where he’d grabbed her when she fell were abhorrent to him.Despite knowing they were there for a good reason, he still couldn’t bear to see bruises on her skin—especially ones he’d caused.

“Is it possible,” she said, still hyper from the fight, “for someone my size to take down men bigger than me?”

“Sure.”Mace crouched in front of her and gently lifted her foot to examine the red finger marks.

He needed to get some of that magic cream for it.The medical advances made in the past century was one of the few things Mace liked about his new life, and a cream that healed bruises at record speed topped his list.

“Really?”she said with wide-eyed wonder.

He nodded.“With the right skills, you could be deadly.Men always underestimate an opponent smaller than them.”

“Even you?”

As she studied him, he found himself smiling.“You planning on taking me down, princess?”

“No.I’m over my anger with you.”She smiled mischievously.“Plus, now that I know you wouldn’t hit back, it just isn’t a challenge.”

“Smart-ass,” he grumbled.

“Seriously, Mace, you can’t do that again.There are plenty of female Freedom fighters who’d be more than happy to take the advantage you gave that one.”

He shook his head.“I don’t hit women.”Not.Ever.He’d rather die first.

“Not even if you had to?To protect someone else?”Her unspoken words hung in the air between them.She was talking about herself, and they both knew it.

For the first time in his life, Mace honestly didn’t know the answer, and it tore him apart.

Suddenly, he needed to put some space between them.“I’ll find some cream for that bruise.”

He strode from the room and went in search of a first aid kit, which he found in the bathroom.The cream was unused, like everything else in the apartment, making him wonder if Miriam Shepherd actually spent any time there.

While grabbing the tube, he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror over the washbasin.Nothing had changed since the last time he saw it.He was still the overgrown bruiser he’d always been.No matter how much Keiko wanted to paint him as one, he was nobody’s hero, and it was only a matter of time before she came to the same conclusion.He was just a guy who’d spent his life fighting his heritage, desperate that his family history would end with him—no matter what it took.

Because evil ran in his veins, and he always had to be on guard against it.It was a message branded into his soul with each violent stroke of his grandfather’s belt.

Memories flooded his mind, and he closed his eyes against them.It made no difference.He saw them anyway.Heard them.Felt them…

“Your momma was a whore, and your daddy a murderer.You’re evil, boy.A monster.”His grandfather raised the leather belt over his head.The strap wrapped around his hand.The buckle hanging loose.

Mace tried to make himself as small as possible, pressing his body into the floor, his front to the wall.It wouldn’t make any difference.It never did.There was no protecting himself from his grandfather.

“If’n you’da been good, like the lord intended, you woulda saved your momma from that man.But you let him kill her.You were born with the evil in you, just like your daddy.He took my girl and made her into his whore, an’ then he killed her.Look at me, boy!”

Mace didn’t want to, but he turned his head anyway.The old man’s eyes seemed to glow red as spittle escaped from the corner of his mouth.

“Sixteen, that’s his number.It was the age your mother was when he turned her into a whore and stole her from the good path.And it was the age she was when she birthed you.A spawn of Satan, just like your daddy.He had a demon living in him, and now it’s living in you.I can see it in your eyes, boy.”

He lifted his arm, and Mace quickly turned back to the wall.“Don’ matter how long it takes, I’m gonna beat the demon outta you.”He heard the whoosh of the leather coming for him.

Thwack!