Page 20 of Jazz

Glancing at the woman on the floor, I watched her roll to her side, tucking her legs into her chest. The foetal position. Her very first sign of vulnerability and I reeled, a cocktail of emotions rolling over my skin, deep, intrusive, unfamiliar. Fuck.

Reaching for Skinny, I dragged his limp body through the warehouse, his boots scratching at the concrete, the sound echoing around the huge space. It felt like I was moving a dead body. And, fuck, I’d moved countless ones. But this was going to take some explaining to Dougal. I laid the thin man on the floor, locking the front door and the office door behind me when I stepped back into the warehouse space.

She still lay there. On her side. Not moving. Ribs moving slowly up and down, knees tucked tightly up to her chest, bound hands clutching at something I couldn’t see. She should have been on her feet. She should have been escaping. Or fighting. I liked it when she was fighting. When she was full of venom, scratching and cursing. I didn’t like her quiet. Scared. I wanted the fight. The tenaciousness. The wild cat.

Carefully, I crept closer, not sure what I was going to find.

“Jazz,” I called out softly as I crouched down beside her, reaching towards the big metal hook she pulled to her chest. “Jazz, I’m going to unhook your hands, ok?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t move or look up. Or to respond.

I peeled her fingers off the heavy, rusting metal, guiding the black cable ties over the hook. She winced. The movement hurting her. I pushed the strands of hair from her face, one sticking in the blood that had dried at her eyebrow. Her breathing quickened, but no sound. Her face was hot against my fingers, red blotches already formed and bruises following under the rawness. Fucking Skinny had done a number on her. When she had no way of defending herself against him. And, my fucking God, she must have taken some. As I guided her into a sitting position and the lights shone on her face, the damage was clearer.

The eye below the split was swelling, puffiness pushing out from under the blindfold. Her lip was burst open, complementing the cut Grim had already given her. And the jawbone on the opposite side was already filling with fluid, a shadow of a bruise underneath. Underneath it all, she was still stunning. Skinny hadn’t knocked the fight out of her yet. Not just yet.

“Chase?” she whispered, the sudden noise making me jolt.

“Yes, Tiger?”

“Thank you.”

My throat swelled. Invisible hands squeezing at my windpipe.

Thank you for being complicit in my kidnap. Thank you for letting them hit me and suspend me from the fucking ceiling. Thank you for stopping them from raping me.Thank you.

The words seemed to stab at my heart. My throat swelling more. Under my arm, she trembled. Cold or shock. I didn’t fucking know. She lifted her hands to her face, pushing the hair further back from her face.

“Can you stand?” I tried to ignore the words she had spoken. Tried to stop them coursing through my mind.

“Yeah,” her voice trailed off.

“Come on, then.”

I propped my arms under hers, hearing the gasp of air she took as I pulled her to her feet. And then I turned, glancing over my shoulder to the men watching me through the glass. To my president, standing with his arms crossed over his chest, and to the vice president, wobbling up to the window, a brother supporting his weight.

Fuck.

“Stay here,” I instructed, placing her gently back on her feet.

“Wait,” she called just as I moved away. “Let me do myself up. I don’t want them seeing this. Don’t want him seeing this.”

She motioned to the leather trousers that were still open. I nodded, standing in front of her, my back providing her with some privacy as she did herself up. Dougal shook his head at me through the glass window. Seven or eight Rats stood beside him, all watching me. I’d better come up with a fucking good excuse. And fucking quickly.

“Ok, done.” Her voice rang from behind me, intoxicating, and I shook my head, hoping to ignore it.

“Stay here,” I instructed.

“Like I can go anywhere else.” She muttered.

I walked to the door, pulling out my keys and unlocking it, the Rats inside swarming, watching me intently.

“Why the fuck have I found my Vice President locked in the office and you out there with that Kings’ whore?”

“He was trying to fucking rape her.”

“So what? You wanted first dip?”

“Nah, Grim did. Fucking Skinny’s fucked her face right up. Grim’ll go off it. You heard him. No one was to touch until after he got his go.”