He sat down opposite her, spearing a waffle with his fork. He left it untouched on his plate, though, his gaze intent on Nikki. Heat flushed up her neck at the stare, and she felt her heart clench for the briefest of moments. She took a sip of coffee, using the heat and the bite of slight bitterness to drag her away from whatever this moment was.
Jasper took a sip of his own coffee, still looking at her. “Do you mind if I ask you some more questions about last night?”
Nikki paused, holding half a strip of bacon up to her mouth. She hesitated for a moment, then lowered her hand.
“What is it that you want to know exactly?” she asked.
“Anything you can tell me,” Jasper said. “We didn’t interact much with Lucas. I don’t know much about him, and the more information we have, the better we can prepare for him.”
“Right.” She gnawed the inside of her cheek. “Um, I don’t know how useful I’ll be.”
“I think you’re probably more useful than you realize,” Jasper said. He used his fork to cut into his waffle. Syrupdribbled out from the indentations and onto the plate. He kept his attention focused on her. “Why don’t you start with why he targeted you?” His expression darkened, looking dangerous. “Because, based on the fact that he came prepared, I doubt it was a random attack.”
She thought back to the rope and had to suppress a shiver. She swallowed, still feeling pinned by his gaze.
“What do you know about him already?” she asked.
Jasper tapped a piece of bacon against his plate while he considered. “I know he was Sier’s second-in-command. Seemed like a real piece of work. I know that he had a big hand in rounding up the women for slaves. He seems like he’s a similar flavor to Sier.”
“Sometimes I thought Lucas was worse, in a way,” she said. “He was ambitious and power-hungry. I always thought that if Sier hadn’t died, he would have tried to take over at some point. He never had the sort of power that he wanted—that much was clear. He tried to take that out on us by giving us stupid, petty orders and things like that.”
Jasper stared at her intently, and she tried not to glance away even as heat began to prickle over her skin. What was it about him that made her so flustered? Was it the way he watched her, like he was hyper-focused on every little detail and every tiny movement she made? Or simply because the intensity of that stare made her feel like she was under a microscope?
“What happened last night, exactly?” he asked.
She swallowed. The half-eaten piece of bacon she’d been twirling in her hand dropped onto the plate.
“I was walking down the road, and he grabbed me from behind,” she said. “I tried to fight him off, and I almost got away.But then I realized who it was and …” She trailed off. Her eyes narrowed, and frustration rippled through her. “I froze. You saw the rest.”
“I’m just sorry I didn’t get there sooner,” he snarled. Then, before she could figure out how to respond to that, he added, “Why did you freeze?” His voice was curious instead of accusatory.
“Does it matter?” she asked, unable to look at him, too angry with herself, and too embarrassed to look at him.
“I think it does,” he said. “Because if we know, it’s easier to work around. It’s something to work on.”
She swallowed, staring down at the half-eaten waffle, trying to scrounge up the words. “It’s hard to explain,” she finally confessed. “But I was always more afraid of him than I ever was with Sier. Sier might have been a creep and a terrible person, but he didn’t take a special interest in me over the other girls.”
“And Lucas did?” he asked.
She gnawed the inside of her cheek, poking at the waffle, watching the syrup in the divots shift sluggishly with the motion.
“He always seemed sort of fixated on me,” she said. Embarrassed, as if it were somehow her fault, she glanced away.
“Fixated, how?”
“He paid more attention to me than the others. He would find excuses to touch me. He liked insulting me, too. Calling me names and telling me how pathetic I am. He didn’t do it with the other slaves.” She swallowed. “One time, he started pulling me away from the other slaves to take me somewhere private. The only reason he stopped was that Alpha Sier came by before he got the chance.”
Jasper hadn’t taken his eyes from her, but she didn’t miss the way he was white-knuckling his fork. Her skin crawled at the almost murderous expression on his face. She nearly recoiled, but she managed to stay in her seat.
He’s upset because he had to come to my rescue, she thought.I couldn’t protect myself even with his training, and he had to save me because I was too weak and incapable of doing it on my own.
“I should have killed him when I had the chance,” he growled.
She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but it hadn’t been that. This time, she did rock back in her seat a little, taken aback by the conviction and sincerity in his words. There wasn’t a hint of bravado or empty threats in those words.
“You sound like this is personal for you,” she said.
He blinked, almost surprised, then glanced away. At first, she thought he wouldn’t respond, but then she saw that he was mulling over what he wanted to say.
