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Sasha rolled her eyes. She hadn’t liked pink in a long time. Rubbing at her temples, she ignored the two chatting and concentrated on the plan for the future. All she could see for herself was getting her sister to safety. That was all she wanted. Now Malachi wanted her.
She’d never been wanted by anyone, at least not a man. Her parents didn’t count, because, well, they were her parents.
Thinking about her parents, about the men she’d killed, she suddenly felt completely overcome.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said.
“Can I come?” Lucy asked.
“No, please, just give me a minute.”
Leaving the two to finish setting up their camp without a camp, she passed several trees and found a fallen log. Perching on it, she pressed her elbows to her knees, sinking her fingers inside her hair as the tears began to fall.
The stress of everything had finally caught up to her, and she just couldn’t process it all. She’d lost everything and now there was a big strong man offering to take care of the two of them, for his own price.
Nothing in this world was free and he’d just proven that by throwing down his … demands.
“Lucy’s worried about you,” he said, startling her.
“Jesus, can’t I just have a couple of minutes alone?”
“Yeah, if you tell me why you’re crying.”
“It’s none of your business,” she said.
“You don’t like me very much, do you?”
“I don’t know you and so far, in order to get your help, I’ve got to have sex with you. Forgive me for not being so thrilled by that idea.”
He chuckled. “When we fuck, you’re going to love it. I’ve got a nice big cock and regardless of what you think, I’ve got a lot of patience. It could be worse.”
She shook her head, moving away from him as he sat on the fallen tree beside her. He didn’t allow her to go far before his arm was around her, keeping her in place.
“Stop fussing. I’m not going to rape you.”
“You will one day.”
“No, one day I’m going to fuck you as you’re screaming and begging for me to keep on going. There’s a difference.”
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Fine.”
“I hate you.”
“You don’t even know me.”
She pressed her lips together and decided against even speaking to him. It would just be better if she ignored him. Flat-out pretended he didn’t exist.
“Why were you crying?”
“Please, leave me alone,” she said.
“Is it true you killed someone?”
She took a deep breath. “Yes, I killed someone. I killed a couple of people, maybe even more now. I don’t know. I’ve stopped counting.”
“It’s never easy to kill someone.”
“Yeah, well, I love my sister and I’ll hurt anyone who thinks they can hurt her or take her away from me.”
“You’re a good sister.”
She closed her eyes, wanting silence.
“I hate this world.” She was the one to break it.
“I know.”
“I wish we could go back to how it was, where people weren’t raping and killing each other.”
“I hate to break it to you, sweetheart. There’s always been raping and killing.”
“Not like this. I can’t … no, it wasn’t like this. I could walk down the street with my sister. I’d still have my parents. I wouldn’t have to be so afraid.”
Malachi cupped her cheek. The action was so gentle that at first, she couldn’t help but tense up. “You don’t have to be afraid.”
“You want something from me, Malachi. You don’t just want to help us for free.”
He laughed. “Nothing in this world is free. I promise you, I won’t take what you’re not willing to give. I’m happy to wait. You’re mine though. I’ll wait for everything else, but you’re mine. No one else can have you. I’ll take care of you and Lucy. Keep you both safe and alive. We’re a family now.”
“You’re not my family.”
“Not yet, but I’m offering you a great deal here. I could take what I wanted from you without a care in the world. Think about that. You expect me to be the bad guy and I can be, but I haven’t. Lucy and I, we’re going to eat something. You coming to join us or sulk? I can tell you, sulking is not going to help you out here.”
Malachi got to his feet and left. She watched him go, hating how close he already was to Lucy.
Her sister was … adorable.
No doubt about it. She had a way of drawing people in and making them care. Malachi had to be different from those men.
He was willing to wait for her.
For how long?
Running fingers through her hair, she released a breath and headed back toward the camp they’d set up. Malachi had already started a fire, the crackling sounds and the scent of smoke reminding her of when their father had taken them to the mountains one summer.
