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The first confrontation I’d gotten in was with a woman who came in after I did…and I can assure you there’s nothing dignified about fighting ass naked.
A sound from outside the door, much like a woman’s plea being cut short, had me pausing.
I shut the faucet off and strained my ears, concluding I was hearing things when it didn’t come again.
I dried my hands on the hem of my dress and exited the bathroom, stepping out into the hall at the same time that a now fully clothed Vitus did.
Our gazes met for merely a second before they were intercepted by two of his men.
My attention went straight to the woman sandwiched between them. She looked half-dead.
I tilted my head to the side and furrowed my brows, wondering who she was.
She had a head full of messy brown hair hiding her face from view.
The clothes she wore, if they could even be called that, had a distinct moldy smell and were practically hanging off her emaciated frame.
She moved painfully slow, her blackened feet barely lifting off the floor. The men on either side of her were holding onto her arms. I doubted she could stand without their assistance.
They stopped directly in front of Vitus, ignoring my presence as they usually did.
When they began to converse, it was in low whispers, well aware I’d be listening.
He made a few hand gestures and then reached out to lift a strand of the woman’s hair. He rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger before letting it fall back into a nest of tangles and frizz.
I didn’t miss the slight intimacy in his gesture, or the way his eyes lingered on her face. This gentleness was unlike him.
I’d seen how he behaved towards plenty of other women since I’d been here, and with the exception of me plus one or two others, he was always unnecessarily cruel.
It was this train of thought that had me stupidly stepping forward without thinking. I’d barely gone an inch closer than I already was, making no sound whatsoever, yet the miniscule motion was still enough to garner Vitus’ full, heavy-weighted attention.
I backtracked, blinking a few times to clear any warring curiosity from my face, slipping back into my usual persona of nothing more than a sweet, unassuming and naive young woman.
That’s what most people thought me to be, anyway. In a sense, they were right—I was pretty damn sweet. I was also the same girl who’d gutted a man while he was in the shower.
My inner savage was complicated.
I was a lamb, but even lambs have teeth.
Vitus scrutinized me for a second longer before telling his lackeys, “Get her some food and then take her to the showers.”
They heeded his directive without protest, continuing down the hall with the woman still secured between them.
For him to feed, clean, and house her meant she was definitely important in some way or another. I wondered if she had anything to do with him and the Savages’ plans to infiltrate Centriole, The Kingdom.
Judging by her appearance, that was a stretch.
I watched the three of them disappear down the hall and then looked back to Vitus.
He offered no explanation, simply staring right back at me with shuttered eyes before finally saying, “Come back to bed.”
“Who was that?” I asked, staying exactly where I was.
“Come back to bed,” he repeated. The tic in his jaw was the only indication that I’d just pissed him off.
Swallowing down the rebuttal that would raise un
necessary conflict between us, I set my pride aside and went to him with a mind full of intrigue and thoughts of a certain Savage once again bubbling back to the surface.
