Page 8 of His Witness

His eyes come down and the anger and fear in them makes me dizzy. “You’re alright, baby. I’ve got you. Don’t you worry. I’m gonna keep you safe.” And then softly, almost as an afterthought, I hear, “And I don’t care what it takes. I’m keeping you.”

My eyes close and I drift off, the darkness this time soothing and welcoming.

CHAPTER5

Victor

Isettle Petal in my bed and pack up quickly. I’m not keeping her here. I don’t trust my own men now. Don’t trust the killer that I’m sure is already looking for her. The only people I trust are Xavier and myself. Everyone else is just a threat to be eliminated.

She moans and curls in on herself, like she’s in pain. Rage like nothing I’ve ever felt flashes through me and it takes everything in me not to run back downstairs and slit that dickhead’s throat.

I reach over and gently caress her tangled chocolate locks. I push it aside and wince when I see the bruising around her throat. My jaw clenches and I growl, standing to pace like a wild animal. The urge to kill that motherfucker is so damn strong that it’s rising up to choke me.

Pushing down the anger and regret, I get my bag packed and figure I’ll stop somewhere to get some clothes for Petal if I need to. There’s no way I can go back to her place. Too easy for someone to find us there.

Then I open the door and ask one of the men in the hall to take the bags down to my car. He takes them and I close the door again. I sit down in a chair and send a text to Xavier. I know he’s not going to be mad at me. He’d have done the same thing. Hell, he might have killed the guy. I consider that I used a great deal of control just crushing his damn leg and beating the shit out of him.

As soon as I send the message, I move over to Petal’s side. She’s still sleeping or passed out. I’m really not sure which. But her bountiful chest is rising and falling and that means that she’s alive.

I reach over and slide my arms under her, hefting her up easily, settling her against my chest like the fragile treasure that she is.

She sighs and turns into me, her light breaths filling me with relief. If I hadn’t seen that light on and gone down those fucking stairs? If I’d been even one minute later, I could have lost her.

I’ve never been so terrified and enraged all at the same time. I just wanted to hold her and take care of her. And I also wanted to slice that idiot into pieces.

It’s up to Xavier now what he does to him. I told him what happened and there’s one thing that he is and that’s loyal. That guy hurt someone that was under our protection and on our property.

As far as I’m concerned…he’s dead.

Hours later and I’m staring at the road, exhaustion cutting through me like a razor blade. I’m driving carefully because, although she’s buckled in, I have her laid out on the back seat, a pillow under her head, a blanket over her.

I finally see the road that I’m looking for, turning to the left and slowing down on the beat-up, rutted track that barely qualifies as a road.

I hear a sigh from the back seat and look in the rearview mirror, smiling when I see that Petal’s eyes are open and on me.

“Victor?” She says hoarsely, coughing when she rasps out the one word.

“Don’t talk yet. We’re almost there.”

“Almost where?”

“To my cabin.”

“Where is it?”

I glare at her in the rearview mirror. “Which part of don’t talk is confusing you, princess.”

She smiles. “I don’t know.” Her eyes close and then open. “Where am I?”

Huffing out an annoyed breath, I respond. “We’re almost to my cabin and that’s all the talking I want you to do.’

“Where’s Tally?”

I pull over and get out of the car, opening the door and reaching in to pluck her out of the seat. She stiffens in my arms but I just walk to the front of the car and put her in the front seat and buckle her in again.

“If I’m going to be hounded by you when I told you to save your voice because I know your throat must be killing you, then you can sit up here so I can at least look at you instead of trying to look in the mirror,” I growl.

I sit back down in the seat and put the car back in motion. It’s blessedly silent for a minute and I hope she’s finally going to behave.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com