AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I watch as she drinks down the whole glass before refilling it. She strides past me, flicking out a hand to grab the pillow as she goes, but I throw out my own hand, clutching hold of her arm and stopping her.
She sucks in a sharp breath at my touch, and the glass falls from her hand, shattering in a spray of cold water and glass, and her fingers grip mine, which are wrapped around her arm, trying to pry them away.
“Shit!” she curses, as I release her. My fingers come away wet, and when I look down, they are covered in blood.
“What the fuck, Roxanne!” I snatch the pillow from her other hand, tossing it aside.
“Hey, I need that!”
Before she can say anything more, I reach forward and pick her up, placing her on the counter as Zak drops the first aid kit beside her.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were hurt?”
“Aww, are we going to play doctors and nurses now, Maddox?” Her words are laced with sarcasm, and she even tilts her head, offering me an exaggerated grin. I ignore her, and instead I tug at her jumper while Zak begins clearing up the glass and water on the floor.
Easing it over her head, which she allows, surprisingly, I get a look at the cause of her bleeding.
“Ooh, that’s pretty,” she says, her eyes raking over the gash to her bicep as I reach for the first aid kit.
“Do you think this is funny?” I snap, pinning her with narrowed eyes and a deep frown.
“Not particularly.” She shrugs nonchalantly. “But it’s okay. Dr. Mad is here to fix me. Isn’t that right? Oh, but I must be confused.” She brings a finger to her mouth, pouting her lips, and looks to the ceiling as though thinking. Bringing her eyes back to me, her nostrils flare as she says, “Because you’re only good at breaking things.” Her tone is challenging and full of venom.
I’m not entirely sure how or when, but I find my hand wrapped around her throat, holding her an inch from my face. I see a sliver of fear as I stare into her baby blues.
“Breaking things is what I do best, Roxanne. There’s only one thing in this world that I’ve regretted breaking, and I always intended to fix her again.” My fingers flex against her neck, and I feel the rapid thrum of her pulse beneath them.
“I do—”
I cut her off, slamming my lips to hers. The move is two-fold. Shutting her up, but also stopping words I’m not ready to say yet spilling from my mouth. I allow myself a minute to take from her, and the slight shift of her body tells me she might be mad as hell but can’t help herself any more than I can.
A growl from behind has me pulling back, my hand still gripped tightly around her neck. Her eyes are closed, and she looks at peace and free from pain.
The moment shatters the second her eyes open and all the hurt, pain and confusion floods back into her. No matter how much I want to take it all away again, I can’t yet.
I let her go, taking a small step back so we aren’t touching. Now is not the time. She’s injured. I might not be able to fix everything else right now, but I can fix this.
I drop my eyes from hers and drag the first aid kit across the top towards me. Zak places a bottle of whiskey beside it. I snatch it up, opening the lid and handing it to Roxanne. She takes it, looking up at me from downcast eyes and swollen lips that are just begging for me to take again.
“Drink,” I tell her. She glugs mouthfuls of the whiskey between hisses as I clean her wound. Thankfully, it’s not too deep, and after a couple of Steri-Strips and a dressing, she’s all good.
“What happened, Rox,” Zak asks, while I pack away, taking the bottle of whiskey back from her.
She lets out a heavy sigh and rests her hands on the edge of the counter. “I made a call to my friend, but it got me thinking about whether anyone had checked on Eva. I got a feeling as soon as she opened the door that she wasn’t alone and not through choice. It seems that your little friend from Oxford Street got there before us,” she says, looking directly to Zak.
“Tommy?”
“Yeah, Tommy Evans.”
“Hold on a second, you know who he is?” I ask.
“I didn’t get a proper look at him before, but I did last night. I know him and his brother, Sammy, and have arrested them a couple of times. But Tommy and Sammy have never been aligned with one single organisation before, so why the hell was Tommy wearing Bonner’s colours the other day but clearly doing Rogers’ dirty work last night?”
“Yeah, well, it looks like they finally made their choice. Tommy’s been a dead man walking since he tipped Rogers off a couple of weeks ago, and as for Sammy…well, he’s already pushing up daisies,” I confess.
Roxanne eyes me, and I can see the burning question behind her eyes.
“No, Roxanne, I didn’t fucking kill him. Not directly, anyway.”
