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“But... it’s insurance fraud.” Like such a thought should matter to him in the face of kidnapping.
“I’m paying cash.”
“Oh.”
She looked down at her hands while he finished filling out the forms, occasionally asking her questions such as allergies that could put her in harm’s way if incorrect. Wouldn’t they know Trish was dead? Even if she looked enough like her and even if most of the people here weren’t on a first name basis with Luke and Trish, wouldn’t it come out that he was giving a dead woman’s information?
They had to wait an hour before someone took her back. He held her and stroked her hair the whole time.
Alone in the hospital room, Veronica thought again about escape. She could leave now, easily. Anyone would believe her if she showed them the brand on her hip. Even if the cattle brand had been consensual, it would have been hard, if not impossible, to convince a normal person of that. She was home free if she wanted it.
But Luke was right, where would she go? She couldn’t go back to the city where she could barely see the sky for all the buildings and crowds of people. It was too stifling. There was no space there. Everyone was shoehorned in too tight. Human beings needed space. It was hard to breathe there for all the people, all the noise and stress. She needed to see the sky to feel right.
And her body had needs now that even with fantasies she couldn’t have foreseen. Sure, if she was free, her milk would dry up eventually, but did she want it to? The feeling of Luke drinking from her was exquisite. Beyond just basic survival, how would she go back to how she’d been? The answer was obvious. That door was closed. She couldn’t go back. She’d changed too much. He’d softened all her edges so much that the real world would just snag and cut her.
Before she’d always seen herself as strong and independent. But how independent could someone who couldn’t control their spending be? Had she spent out of loneliness? Unhappiness? She didn’t know, but since coming to the ranch she’d been free of it all. There had been no creditors calling, no bills or shopping urges. She’d been too busy with her list of chores to think about the mall.
Serving him and his men domestically and sexually should have broken her beyond repair, but in a weird way it had fixed what had already been broken a long time ago. Yet, sitting in the hospital room, surrounded by the normal people in the normal world, she was reminded of how wrong this all was. She’d been living in a haze, but in the hospital, the fog felt like it had lifted for a moment. Shouldn’t Luke pay for this?
On the balance sheet, he came out ahead with all he’d given her, but something inside her screamed that he must pay.
A nurse came in, then. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Ms. Walker. The man who brought you in, is that your husband? Boyfriend?”
Master. Owner. World.
“Boyfriend,” she lied. After all, she wore no ring. It was the most believable of the options presented. It was telling that brother or friend hadn’t been among the assumptions made.
The nurse wrote something down on a clipboard. “I’m sorry to have to ask this, but when a woman comes in with a man, injured like this, we have to. Has he hurt you?”
“No!” The word flew forcefully out of her mouth before she could stop to consider her answer. Luke was tall and strong. With the work he did he wassostrong. Once the immediate fears had died, he was a place of safety she could hide in. Giving him up suddenly felt like opening the door for the tiger to eat her.
Thoughts of ending up starving, giving blow jobs in alleys to barely scrape by, perhaps finding fetishists to sell her milk to, had her quickly defending her captor.
“Are you sure? Because, if he’s hurt you in any way, we can protect you. We can get you to a safe house, and you can press charges. I know it might feel like life is over, but it’s not. You can start again. People can help you.”
She’d already started again. Luke was her do-over. Anything else was just moving backward.
Did her face show her inner conflict? It must if the nurse was pushing on what was supposedly a routine question. Had someone observed them in the waiting room? Had they seen timidity or fear on Veronica’s face? Had they seen her pull back from him when she was afraid he might become unhinged over the question about the name he’d written down? What other clues might they have seen? How much had her face given away? How much was it giving away now?
“I’m sorry, but this seems more than routine.”
“I apologize ma’am. I usually have an instinct for these things. I could, of course, be wrong.”
Veronica became angry. “Hell yes, you’re wrong. Luke hasn’t hurt me. You don’t know what he saved me from. He takes care of me. We’re paying good money at this hospital to be insulted this way.”
The nurse looked flustered and ducked her head. “I-I apologize. The doctor will be in to have a look at you in a few minutes.”
“Thank you.”
The nurse excused herself, and Veronica tried to calm down, to stop the trembling that had started in her hands again. All the adrenaline and fear of the day was catching up to her.
Within a few hours she’d been X-rayed and poked and prodded. Her initial gut reaction had been right. She’d broken a couple of bones in her foot. Thankfully, the breaks were clean and they were able to put her in a boot and gave her some crutches with instructions to come back in six weeks so they could check how she was healing.
When Veronica returned to Luke, he didn’t appear relieved or uncertain. He hadn’t doubted her for a moment. He knew she was his. If anything, the look on his face was smug and a touch arrogant. She wished that look didn’t make her so wet.
He wrote a check at the billing desk and helped her back into the truck. She hadn’t taken the out she’d been given, but in six weeks she’d have another opportunity. Deep down she knew she wouldn’t take that opportunity, either.
They’d been in the truck for about ten minutes when she finally worked up the nerve to ask the question that had been on her mind since he’d first filled out the forms in the waiting room. “Why would you fill out those forms with the name of a dead woman? Why didn’t anyone notice?”
