Page 29 of Broken
“Yeah. Well, almost. Why don’t you sit down and take off your shirt so I can take a look at you? I can see blood. Then you can tell me what the hell happened to you out there.”
He leaned on the table and placed the gun down on it, his shoulder tense. “I’m fine. You don’t haveto...”
“I didn’t ask if you were fine. I’m going to be the judge of that. Now take off your shirt and sit down.”
He let out a little groan, then finally pulled his shirt over his head and sat down in the chair, giving me an annoyed look. I went to grab a first aid kit, and when I got back, I pulled up a chair and sat down across from him, my knee brushing his. Just one look at his messyhair, fiery dark eyes, and his toned chest awoke a desire in me so strong that I squirmed in my seat. And God help me, but his old scars and a few bruises and cuts made him even hotter.
I poured some antiseptic on a gauze pad and gently dabbed it over a cut on his chest, eyeing him carefully to make sure I wasn’t hurting him. His gaze was trained on me, and he didn’t even flinch.
“So?Will you tell me what happened?” I asked a few moments later as I went to work on another cut.
“I wasn’t careful enough. I should’ve left the bike a bit farther away, but I wanted to get to Jerome and Walter as soon as possible. I didn’t count on one of the Spiders recognizing me, and yeah, that was always a risk since I didn’t have a lot of info about their hiding places and their spies.”He rubbed his forehead. “I would’ve gotten myself out of there. It wasn’t the first time I’ve been captured.”
“What did they want with you? Did you see Jerome or Walter?”
“No. They weren’t there, but one of the men said they’d come later. If you hadn’t shown...”
“They would’ve killed you,” I said before he could finish.
“Or they would’ve asked me about you and I could’ve foundan opportunity to end them both.” He gave me a pointed look. “I’d already freed myself of the restraints and I was waiting for the right moment to attack.”
I took hold of his arm and saw red marks around his wrist that I hadn’t noticed before because he’d pulled his sleeve over the wounds. “Freed yourself. Right,” I muttered. “Nearly slit your wrists.”
“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.”He winced a little as I cleaned the wounds.
“Did anything else happen except me ruining your perfect opportunity to defeat the whole world?”
“Not really.” He glanced at his computer. “I suppose Jerome found the tracker. They must’ve realized I couldn’t have tracked them down otherwise.”
“I don’t care about Jerome or Walter or whoever the hell is our current enemy.” I lifted my eyesto his. “The only thing that matters is that you’re okay.”
“No. The only thing that matters is thatyouare okay.”
“We’re both okay. More or less.” I wrapped a bandage around his wrist. “Do you want me to get you a painkiller or something else? Ice, maybe?” It was a little bit too late for the latter, but maybe it would still help.
“No. Thank you.” He caught my hand, rubbing gently.“For everything.”
“You’re welcome.” A smile quirked my lips. “There’s one more thing I want to talk to you about.”
“Okay,” he said softly.
“It’s about Ingrid.” I expected him to pull away, but he didn’t. He just went perfectly still.
“What about her?”
“I don’t know if you think you’re betraying her if you allow yourself to... feel something for me. I know our situation is complicated,and that she meant a lot to you, but with the type of life she led and things she did... it was inevitable. I’m not asking you to forgive me, because I’m not sorry for what I did and I never will be. She would’ve killed me without a second thought, and I’m sure that deep down you know that as much as I do. But sometimes I feel like it’s not just about her. I feel like you’re denying yourselfa chance to be happy. You isolated yourself from everyone, even from the rest of the Rosa Nera, and you tried so hard to push me away and convince me that the only thing you wanted was to make me pay for what I did, so I need to ask this. Am I right? Is there something else?”
“You’re right about one thing. You shouldn’t be a part of any of this. My way of life... It’s not for you.”
“Ican’t seem to be able to escape all the gang stuff, so that’s not really a good reason. With or without you, someone managed to drag me into it, and I was already a part of it even before I met you.” I traced my finger over his skin. “I’m sure that even if you went far away and we never spoke to each other, I still might end up in some kind of a gang mess. Hell, most of my friends are members of anunderground fight club or the Cobras, so I’m not sure I’m ever going to be free of that, and maybe I don’t want to. It’s still possible to be happy.”
“Yes, it’s possible for you,” he said.
“Why only for me?”
“You haven’t lost your soul to a gang. You haven’t done the things that I’ve done. You deserve better.” He drew his hand back, averting his gaze. “I want you to be happy. Truly.I always wanted that for you. But that’s why you can’t be with someone like me.”
“I hear words come out of your mouth, but they’re not making any sense. We can be happy together or try to be. I mean, it doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment, but we can give it a try and see where we end up. If you want that to happen after our gang problem is solved, then I can wait. No problem with that.I don’t care what you did for the Rosa Nera. You can leave all that behind and start over.”