Page 57 of Savior
“Dean, I’m sorry… I don’t know if your brother even knows about any of that…”
“Fuck my brother!” he shouts, then suddenly looks as if he regrets his choice of words. He closes his eyes for a moment as he stills, attempting to calm himself down. “To Hell with Daniel, I mean.” He says, with a bit more restraint now. When he opens his eyes to look at me again, they still look tormented. That stupid cuck talk bothers him more than he lets on. I walk towards him and place my hands on his arms, feeling even more guilty now that I haven’t told him my little secret yet. Our, little secret... But now is definitely not the time.
“Dean, I would never do that to you.” She says to me, her hands touching my arms. “I’d never cheat on you with anybody, especially not your brother.”
It was a poor choice of words on my part. A fucking Freudian slip. My own insecurities stemming from my past experience with Lucinda’s infidelity, bubbling up to the surface and spilling over unintentionally. I won’t let my issues derail me from getting through to her. She needs to understand. And as much as I hate the words that need to be said, I have to say them.
“I’ve sheltered you from certain aspects of this life, because I love you. I’ve done the same with Axel, and it’s coming back to bite me… I can’t risk that with you.”
“Dean, I don’t think your brother even knows what Lucinda and Legion did.” She says. “Legion didn’t exactly admit he was involved with what happened, either. I really don’t think Daniel knew what he was getting into with them.”
“I don’t care what my brother got himself into. I care what you got yourself into. You are my priority. You need to understand how close you came to…” My words catch in my throat as flashes of what nearly happened in the cabin with Jack and his Demon lackey intrude upon my thoughts. I swear, living through being forced to witness her nearly raped five feet from me, has given me PTSD. I have to say these words. I have to force the issue to make her understand. “What was your big plan, Vanna? Did you think that you alone, could fight off a bunch of men? Ask them to stop? Beg them, even? Say please? Do you think that works? Did that ever work on Jack? Did it stop Arron Hopper, before Jack blew his fucking brains out all over you?”
She removes her hands from my arms and turns from me, walking towards the bedroom window to get away from me. “I told you… nobody touched me.” She insists, her voice quieter now.
“Vanna. Answer me.”
She skirts the issue, as I expect her to. “I knew you were coming to get me.” She says, as if that makes any of this okay. “I thought by texting Viking instead of you, that I could buy myself a few extra minutes to confront Legion directly. I was only there a few minutes with him.”
The motherfucker actually is around…I bank that information for later.
“It was fucking stupid, Vanna. Plain and simple. But that’s not what I asked you.”
“Nothing happened!” she persists to evade. “Legion told them to watch me. That you were coming for me. He didn’t try to keep me.”
“You’re not his to keep!”
“He didn’t want me hurt, either.”
“That fucking letter suggests otherwise.”
“A letter you should have told me about yourself, weeks ago!” she snaps as she spins back around to face me. “I made a mistake, and I’m sorry. But if you hadn’t kept that secret from me, I wouldn’t have tried to get answers for myself in the first place!”
“You’re right. I should have told you. There are reasons I didn’t, though. I wanted to avoid exactly what you fucking did tonight.”
She shakes her head at me. “Let’s just agree we both made mistakes. I won’t go back there again. I promise you. I just want to get out of this dress and take a shower. I can still smell that nasty place on me.”
“We’re not done.”
“Nothing happened to me, Dean!” she raises her voice at me again, arms out, but held low. Both of her hands are palms up in a pleading, yet insisting gesture. “You came and got me, nothing happened!”
“They’re known for what I said earlier, Vanna. You’re only here with me right now because Legion has other plans for you. For us. We’re both lucky they let us walk out of there… I would have done anything and everything I could to get you out, but I’m one fucking man… And the fact that my brother even told you not to fucking drink anything they gave you, goddamn proves he knows exactly what the fuck he got himself into. Don’t fucking defend him to me, either.”
Her arms drop back to her sides as she stares at me for a moment, hopefully letting my words sink in before she speaks. “I’m not defending anyone. Not even myself. I’m taking a shower. And I need to get this dress in the wash.” She says, reaching behind her back to unzip it as she walks towards the bathroom. I step into her path to block her.
“Throw that dress in the trash. I don’t ever want to see it on you again.” I don’t want to look at her in that dress and remember all the sick shit that could have happened tonight. That would have happened had they changed their minds, if they decided to disobey Legion. Apparently, I still have to prove that point to her.
She looks at me, bewildered for a moment before her expression turns into one of defiance. “No. I like this dress.”
I slip my balisong knife from my pocket, flipping it open with a flick of my wrist. “I’ll make it unwearable then.”
She looks surprised, taking a step back from me. “No!” she protests, her brows furrowing together as she jams her fists against her hips.
“You think you can stop me? I don’t even need this knife to get that dress off of you. I’m sure I’m strong enough to rip it off your body. Hell, I’m strong enough to do a fuck of a lot more with you, baby. Anything my twisted heart desires, I can take from you. And I don’t even have a room full of scumbags to help me do it.”
She looks shocked by my words, her left hand gravitating to the base of her throat. I watch her swallow, before she speaks again. “You’ve made your point.”
“Have I?” I step closer to her. “You could try to fight me off. Kick me. Scratch me. Bite me. That might even turn me on more. I might really get off on that shit… I might like it when a woman fights back… When sheacts like she doesn’t want it…” I almost want to vomit just saying these words. The same words the lackey said that night.
