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“Just get it over with,” I commanded. “Don’t worry about the anesthetic.”
Her brow furrowed as her gaze went back and forth between me and the syringe. She nodded after a moment, then picked up the suture needle, her hands steady—which surprised me.
I turned back around and let her get to work.
She dug the needle into my flesh and threaded the first stitch through. Then again and again. I kept silent the whole time, but goddamn it, had the woman really needed to stab me in the first place? I mean, what good had it done her?
Sweat had broken out across my brow, but fortunately for me, she was finished faster than I’d expected. Maybe she stabbed a lot of people and stitched them back up afterward.
“Grazie,” I said as she finished applying a bandage and sat back.
I stood up and shrugged back into my bloodstained shirt, leaving it open for the time being.
Heidi remained seated on the sofa, staring at the med kit now. The scalpels and scissors, the tweezers, the unused syringe. All potential weapons.
I couldn’t blame her. I would have been looking for a weapon had the roles been reversed.
But I slammed the kit closed and stepped closer.
Now, for the next order of business.
Chapter Five
Heidi
“Food,” he said. At least, that’s what it looked like he said. What on earth was he talking about? Was he really thinking about food at a time like this?
His lips kept moving as he turned away and motioned beyond the grand stone wall with the hearth in the center of the interior floor space. Presumably, there was a kitchen on the other side. He started walking in its direction, but I couldn’t hear him, couldn’t read his lips to follow what he was saying.
I considered following him to find out, but there was no way in hell I wanted to get any closer to him.
I glanced toward the front door, calculating the distance—fourteen steps, maybe. And then what? I’d refrained from asking him where he’d taken me, as disorienting as it was to have no bearings. But I hadn’t wanted to put any thoughts in his head about me escaping.
He stopped at the open archway next to the hearth wall and turned back to me.
“Well?” he said, one eyebrow cocked, arms crossed over his chest.
I decided to glare at him in silence, since I had no idea how to respond.
He dropped his arms to his sides. “This doesn’t have to be difficult, Heidi,” he said.It could be easy,his eyes said in tandem.
Could I use that? I wondered. He was attracted to me. Men could get very stupid when hormones were involved. But I’d have to be sly about it. Anything obvious, and he’d figure out what I was doing fast.
“Come here,” he said. There was no expression on his face. What did he want? What was he going to do?
I stood up slowly but stayed where I was. At least until his lips started to move and he turned around again.
Bloody hell.
I stomped across the sitting room and followed him around the stone wall into a long galley kitchen fitted with every appliance under the sun.
He paused halfway down the galley, just before I’d caught up to him, and he swung around.
“Aren’t you a little old for the silent treatment?” he asked with an expression that hovered somewhere between amusement and aggravation.
I contemplated telling him about my hearing—or the lack thereof—but decided against it.
“What is it you want?” I asked, striking a haughty pose with my arms crossed over my chest and my chin tilted up.
