Page 16 of Scream (Duchess & Devils #1)

"And I'll still be there through it all," I grin maliciously.

"Taking care of her because you keep thinking there's something wrong with her, and all I see is someone that's fighting tooth and nail to stay above water.

She isn't like us, Maks, she wasn't raised like us, playing with guns before we learned to walk or talk.

But the woman I knew before the one you see now, would've clawed your eyes out for even breathing her way.

So she can't handle being touched, so what?

It means the wrong man touches her and the kitten you see turns into a feral street-cat.

You just haven't earned seeing that side of her. "

He lets go of me. "Put your hands on my woman when we're married, and I'll record it when I gut you like a pig, and show her the video of you squealing for your miserable fucking life."

He turns to leave and when his hand is on the doorknob I ask, "Then who will take care of her?"

He sniffs, and without looking back at me he says, "I will."

"And I fucking doubt that."

I dab the cotton ball into the calamine lotion and tap it on her back where she can't reach, then blow on it so it dries a little quicker, mesmerized by the goosebumps that rise on her skin.

She turns her head to the side, so I can only see her angelic profile. "He's right, you know."

"What's that?"

She faces forward again, probably to hide from me. "I'm weak."

I hate that she heard that asshat say that.

I hate that she tries to hide her emotions from me.

But I can read her more easily than I can read a book.

It’s in the way her shoulders curl inward and her spine bows forward.

In the way she tenses instead of relaxing while exhaling.

I know her. "You're not weak, Sabrina. You're... finding your way back from whatever it is you went through that you won't tell me, your mom, or your therapist about. "

"What do I have to complain about, Parker? Look at my life. It's perfect. Anyone would kill to take my place." Her voice quakes a bit, but she clears the emotion out of it quickly, like she’s ashamed I know she has a heart.

"Would they?"

" Poor little rich girl..." She hums and I let her oversized t-shirt roll down. The bath got her hives under control and hopefully, by the time she showers this shit off in the morning, they'll be gone.

"Money doesn't mean you're safe from the cruelty this world has to offer, Miss Winters. Look at Raven."

She turns to face me. "Look at Raven, indeed.

.." she trails off and I hate when she does that.

She slips away from me, and just when I think she's going to get up and walk away from me, she sits to face me, and her eyes find mine again. Green, like fields of tall grass in the spring after the perfect storm drenched them. There’s a sadness in her eyes that makes me sad, too.

"I have to do something about myself, Parker.

I'm not getting better, I'm getting worse. I'm so fucking fat-"

"Stop it, Sabrina. I don't mean to demean your way of thinking, but it doesn't do you any good to say things like that about yourself," and then, because I don't have a lick of sense when I'm staring into those eyes of hers, I say, "if you could only see what I see, and if I had the chance to fuck you in front of a mirror until you did, I would.

I'd show you just how beautiful you fucking are. "

She rolls her eyes.

I…am the equivalent of… a gay best friend .

She used to look at me with desire. Lust would fill her eyes, making them dilate every time she would look at me and now it's like I barely catch glimpses of it.

I need to get the fuck out of this zone and fast. I get up and away from her. "Tomorrow morning, let's go for a run."

She narrows her eyes at me until she's squinting. “You’re serious?”

I nod once, “I am.”

"Fine."

“Fine. ”

"Fine," she says with a childish tone like she wants to stick her tongue out at me. She could. I’d just suck it into my mouth.

I close the door to her room with a grin on my face.

I slip out of bed at five AM and do a few sets of push-ups and sit-ups, burpees, and squats to get my blood going after a few stretches. By the time I hear her door open, I open mine, glistening with sweat.

Her pupils dilate, and her nostrils flare when she sees me shirtless, her eyes roaming all over my sweat-slicked body, landing on the bullet scars on my chest, then down the valley of my abs, stopping just below my navel then back up to my face as her cheeks turn pink.

Fuck yeah, I still got it.

She's wearing a beanie and baby-pink sweats that hide her body, but I've already seen it. Before. After. She could gain another forty pounds and she’d still be the sexiest woman alive to me.

I'd still think her flawless as long as her health wasn't in jeopardy.

But that's what I'm here for, and she not so subtly asked for help.

I can do that.

"Ready?" I ask.

She nods, tearing her gaze from mine and looks around nervously. "I might be bad at it."

"We'll go your pace. I ain't in a rush. We leave in four hours anyway. We're just going around the block twice."

Green eyes turn into large, jade saucers. “Twice?”

“Mmhmm,” I reply while leading us down the grand marble staircase and out the front door. I make her stretch while I do, and then, “C’mon, hellcat. Let’s go. The faster we do this, the faster we can get some breakfast.”

“I do like breakfast.”

I grin, taking off in a slow jog. “I know.”

It takes us half an hour to get around the block twice.

"I'm proud of you," I say, handing her a bottle of water and pulling the hem of my sweatshirt to wipe off the non-existent sweat off my brow.

Sabrina gulps down the water as she stares at my abs, and I pretend not to notice. "C'mon, let's get you fed."

"Oh, darling! Are you running again? I knew I noticed you lost a kilo or two." Tildy says when we walk into the dining room. Maksim is already seated beside his future mother-in-law, eating and sipping on his coffee. I’m surprised the motherfucker doesn’t have a pinky out while holding his little coffee cup.

Sabrina watches what I pile onto my plate, mostly proteins, and copies me. "Er, yeah. Just... you know, getting wedding ready." She lies, sitting beside Maksim and I take my plate to the kitchen where the staff eats.

Because that's what I am - the fucking help .

We're back in Brooklyn Heights.

A week has gone by without us having to physically talk to Maksim or be around him, and we've been jogging every other morning.

She surprises me by saying we were going to visit Raven now that they've moved in just two doors down after our jog.

Her smile falters when she sees her therapist open the door. “D-Doctor Archer?”

“Sabrina,” his dark brows shoot up in surprise. “What are you doing here? I don't see patients at my residence.”

“I'm so sorry, I could have sworn Raven was moving in here.”

“You're here for Raven?”

“Oh my god, you're the third?”

Damon chuckles. “I am.”

“I thought you were at Sofia’s holiday party because Raven was a patient, and you know her parents! Not because you’re the -oh my god, I'm going to have to find a new therapist! I don’t want to find a new therapist.”

Damon shakes his head. He's a handsome fucker; I'll give Raven that.

Between Jonas, Maverick, and now Damon, I can see she has a type - tall, brooding brunettes.

“Nonsense, I don't talk about my patients. Well, I don't talk about who they are, anyway. That's a HIPAA violation. Besides, I wouldn’t want a setback from all the progress we’ve made.”

Sabrina breathes a sigh of relief. “Is she home?”

He nods and opens the door for us to come in. “She's downstairs in the gym. I'll go get her for you.”

We stand around for a few minutes, but Raven spots us. She's covered in sweat and her lips are bruised so I guess I know what took so long for them to come back. Her hands fly up but in Damon’s direction where he’s still standing close to her. Tell her I'd hug her but I'm disgusting.

Damon smiles then interprets.

“That’s… that’s why I’m here. I was wondering if you’d… like an extra workout partner? I’d probably be a terrible one but with the wedding coming…” She keeps using that excuse. “I just… I want to look good in my gown. The only wedding gown I’ll ever wear and… I… want to feel good about myself.”

Raven looks like she wants to cry, like she can read Sabrina like I can, but then grins and nods enthusiastically. She lifts her hands again, turning to Damon to ask if he’s busy so he can interpret for her every now and then.

But I speak up. “I can.”

She looks surprised to see I can read her hands.

I can only imagine Sabrina's wince since I’m still standing behind her before she says, “No, Parker. I… I’d like to be… alone with just Raven, please.” She lifts her gaze to Raven's. I know what she’s not saying – she doesn’t want to be seen shirtless or sweaty.She doesn’t want to be seen.

And I can't help but feel a little rejected, but I fix myself quickly. When Sabrina says, “I… I’ve been taking an ASL course online. I’m not… proficient yet, but I can… decipher most things.”

Raven's grin widens from ear to ear, and crooks her finger at my girl to follow her, asking Damon if he doesn’t mind bringing down a few more water bottles later.

He nods and leads me to the living area to wait for them.

But I follow him to the kitchen instead and take a seat at one of the barstools by the island.

“So, who do you know that's deaf or mute?”

“My baby sister.” It's the truth. Between the money I receive monthly from the army and my wages, it was enough to cover Rory's cochlear implant two years ago.

She's in her last year of college now, but Damon doesn't need to know all of that.

Let's just say my parents weren't only young when they had me, but my mother kept having children despite not being able to care for any of us. I was the oldest of six.

Going into the military was my ticket out of that small town and a meal ticket for them. The more dangerous the missions, the more my siblings ate good. I was just lucky some rich British lady was looking for a bodyguard for her daughter right as I was honorably discharged with a Purple Heart.

Now my little brother, Dayton, is a doctor due to the army paying for his education.

My two youngest twin brothers, Sean and Luke, are in the Air Force.

My little sister Crystal is a fighter pilot in the Navy, and my baby sister, Rory, is in school for her degree in Literature because she couldn't join the military due to her disability.

They all escaped Waco, so to speak, and that's all that fucking matters.

Damon doesn't press for more, and I'm grateful for it. But I meant what I said to Maksim. Sabrina isn't like us. Had I not been thrown in Juvie after getting caught red-handed during a burglary, so I could feed my siblings, I wouldn't have been set straight.

Dad did what he could till he realized he was a twenty-three-year-old man with six fucking kids.

He got a job out on the oil rigs in Galveston, and at first, the money was coming through.

Then it wasn't. I was fifteen when I learned I had three more half-siblings from his actual wife . My mother somehow became the mistress.

She bled for him, that man. Had his kids, loved him from the time she was sixteen to the day she died last year. But the way she handled her heartbreak wasn't the best. When dad was home, she was perfect. Lucid. Like she'd never touched a drug a day in her life. As soon as he’d leave…

I shake the memories away, fists clutching on my knees.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Damon asks.

I shake my head, “Don't really have any,” I lie.

Damon gives one curt nod, going back to whatever he's cooking that smells fucking delicious.

I sit there for a minute, not liking that I can't watch Sabrina. What if Raven touches her and she freaks out?

‘He's right you know… I'm weak.’

I get that she doesn't want to be improper around me in a sports bra and her leggings, or for me to watch her grunt and break out in a sweat like a man, but I'm proud of her.

Every step she's taken this past week, including limiting her food intake, eating healthier, and not snacking as much.

I will say I kinda miss her little hums of happiness when she bites into a cupcake every night after dinner, since now she only eats one on the days she runs in the mornings with me.

“She's doing great, you know. I can't tell you much but she's working through a lot.”

It soothes me a bit. I thank Damon, whose eyes go back to his hands that are busy chopping up vegetables.

After thirty minutes Jonas and Maverick show up. It's guy handshakes all around, and then Jonas greets Damon with a kiss before going down to the basement gym. Sabrina comes up not five minutes later, sweaty and a little pink. I stand from where I've been sitting, and we say our goodbyes.

Sabrina and I step out into the new flurry of snow falling, lightly landing on her as we make our way two doors down to our place.

When she looks at me, green eyes bright like healthy blades of grass down by the bayou, I swear my brain glitches.

Snow clings to her lashes and taps her cheekbones before melting from her overheated body.

I hope she doesn't get sick. Not even because she's a nightmare when she's sick, but because she doesn't tell anyone. Doesn’t complain.

Won't see a doctor until she absolutely has to.

Until I call one to do a home visit. It's like some days, she's just waiting for one really terrible bout of pneumonia to take her away so she doesn't have to…

I don’t want to think about that.

We find Maksim on her stoop, glaring at her. “Where have you been? I've been standing out here for an hour, and you haven't picked up your phone.”

“I…” I wait for that spitfire of hers to rise. For her to say something sassy. I pray for it, even. “I forgot my phone. We were at Raven's – they just moved in. Not that I owe you an explanation, but I was safe. I'm sure that's why you're growling. You were worried about my safety?”

There she is. I grin inwardly.

There’s my girl.