Page 116 of Velvet Corruption

“I’ve had worse,” he said, voice low and even.

I scowled, not looking up. “That is absolutely not the flex you think it is.”

He didn’t flinch. I wanted him to. Just once. But the only thing that moved was the curve of his mouth, a half smile that didn’t reach his eyes. They stayed locked on me, intent and unblinking.

I pressed the towel harder than I needed to.

He winced, the movement slight. “Do you feel better now?”

“Getting there.” I felt my own lips twitch, a hint of sadistic satisfaction.

Russell’s blood was still sticky on my skin, but Kieran’s was warmer. And he was here, in my kitchen, bleeding, and it should have been more terrifying than it was. I should have been thinking about the corpse in the other room, about how my life had spun out of control, about anything but the man in front of me and the way his breathing hitched when I got too close.

“What?” Kieran asked, his voice low.

“Nothing,” I said too quickly. I could feel heat rising to my cheeks, anger and embarrassment at the way he was reading me so easily.

“Really?”

“Yes,” I said.

The edges of the world felt softer.

“Why did you follow me?” I asked, needing to break the quiet. Needing to break the pull of him.

“You’re in danger.”

“Because of you.”

“Not just me,” he said. He sounded too calm, too reasonable. Like we were having an everyday conversation instead of this. Like we weren’t surrounded by blood and chaos. “I mean, clearly not just because of me. Someone broke into your house to kill you tonight, and it wasn’t one of our guys.”

“I got the jury to give him an attempted murder charge,” I said as I kept pressing the towel against Kieran. “He was trying to get off with a misdemeanor. His lawyer wasn’t able to talk him into a reasonable plea, including a restraining order, and I pushed for his case to go to trial.”

“He tried to kill you?” Kieran said, his expression darkening.

“No. His wife. So many times,” I said. “She barely survived. Then he tried to tell the courts she was taking his kids, and that’s whenhe tried to kill her one last time. She was in a coma for two weeks. The judge would have probably been lenient, too. They always are with men like that, as long as they promise to go to rehab or therapy or whatever. And he was a doctor, a pillar of the community. But Russell wouldn’t even do that. He kept saying Melody was a crazy bitch. He was wrong. He made a big fucking mistake.”

“He made an even bigger mistake coming after you tonight,” Kieran said. His voice had dropped an octave, rough and threatening. I pulled the towel away, and his eyes fluttered closed for a second, jaw tight. “I should’ve been here sooner. I should’ve stopped him before he even fucking thought about trying this.”

“This isn’t your fault. But I think you might need stitches, so you might need to go to the hospital.”

“I’m not going to the hospital. You’re going to have to stitch me up.”

“I’m not doing that,” I said, looking at the now red, formerly white, towel. I tossed it in the sink.

“I can’t go to the hospital, Ruby. It’s a simple thing. Can you sew a button back into Rosie’s clothes?”

“Yes…”

“Then you can stitch me up.”

I exhaled through my nose, fingers tightening on the edge of the counter. He said it like it was nothing, like I wasn’t about toshove a needle through his skin and sew him together like a torn-up sweater.

He watched me, unblinking. Calm. Like this was just another thing I was expected to do. I thought back to when he’d treated my cut hand in the shed, and realized he must have done this a million times for his brothers, his father…

Fuck, he was so fucked up.

So much more than I wanted to admit.