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“Damn it, Bailey.” I rub the pad of my thumb over the pebbled blood. “You drew my blood. There’s a price for that.”
“You try to reach for me again and you’ll get worse.”
The way she holds the knife in her hand loosely, her fingers allowing enough slack in their grip to allow a swivel of the blade tells me she knows something about weapons.
I press my thumb to my mouth and clean the blood off, making a silent promise to make her pay for taking blood. In our world, there’s a price on everything and I enjoy making others pay their dues.
“I’ll ask again, where is my father?”
Seeing the hints of betrayal and hurt color her cheeks and shine back at me through those fake contacts causes the acid in my stomach to gurgle with anger. No matter how much I want to fall to my knees in the snow and beg her to believe we mean her no harm, her past dictates her thoughts. Right now it says there is no way in hell she will believe a word we say.
Darius is in her face despite the blade coming within an inch of his throat when she swings.
“And the answer will be the same,” he says, those black eyes of his hard with the truth.
I step into her space and latch my eyes onto hers. I silently dare her to use the knife on me and stop this ridiculous dance already. It’s cold, she’s under dressed and if she continues, we’ll be forced to carry her inside. It will be easier on all of us if she goes willingly.
“You want to run, have fun. There’s nothing for miles and you look dressed for a cocktail party rather than a snowstorm.” I point to the clouds rolling in to smother out the incoming sunrise. In another hour we will have a total whiteout.
Darius steps in on the other side and Victor takes up the back. She’s not going anywhere.
“You brought me to a cabin in the woods. Does that not scream slasher horror flick to you three?” Her words cut to the core after what we did for her.
“We saved your ass from being slashed all over the morning news. Our cabin isn’t some damn horror flick feature. You're welcome.”
“Yeah right.” Her lips peel back with a snarl.
Who the fuck hurt her so deeply she rather turn into a popsicle than sit by a warm fire?
Whoever it is will get a fucking bullet between their eyes. Starting with her father. I raise my eyes from her to look at my blood brothers and their thinking the same thing I am. We have a few graves to dig and fill after we get this shit settled.
She tries to back out of our circle but no matter which direction she chooses, she’s brought up short. In the small confinement she can’t raise her weapon, either. I reach for it and snag it out of her hand, tossing it aside.
“Out here you can try to run but you won’t get far.” We had plans on a pleasant stay at our penthouse, but our girl is a runner and out here she can’t get far. Besides, no one can hear her scream when that part of our time together comes around.
We back away and head toward the cabin. I’m done bickering and freezing my balls off.
“You can come inside or see how far you get barefoot in the snow.” Victor gives her his back and comes to stand beside me. It’s Darius having a hard time leaving her side. He isn’t one for patching his heart to the side of his shoulder for everyone to see but right now it’s dripping with blood from the fresh stitches. He’s got it bad for the little hellcat and I can’t blame him. He’s gotten to touch her and talk with her. Victor had the privilege of holding her all the way here.
I’ve gotten slashed and yelled at.
“Did you already dig my grave? Or does that come later?”
“Do you really think that low of us?”
“I don’t know shit about either of you. Not really.” She considers the frozen pond to her left and the tree line to her left. There’s also a cabin and a pile of wood with an ax sticking out of a stump off to the side. I step in that direction and cut her thoughts off before they can get rolling. I do not want to lose limbs tonight.
Her saccharine smile tells me she will do it in a heartbeat and love it. I love her already.
“Give me a head start. Let me leave and if you can catch me, you can do whatever it is you do to women up here where no one can see you.”
I step in her direction and take her face in my hands. She’s cold. Freezing, in fact. But she’s not backing down. “Whoever put this fear in you will die by my hands. I swear it to you right now. But if we let you run, sweetheart, the wolves will eat you before we can.”
“We all have teeth to bite you so it’s your choice.” Darius throws the cabin door open and steps inside. Lights kick on and I already know he’s set to building a fire.
I step away. “We should have some food, we have a warm shower and you are in a miniskirt. Think you can outrun that storm?”
* * *
