bear out there could probably shoulder-ram his way in here if he really wanted to, but I’d never had even a chance of shutting the monsters out before.
I took in the wood-panelled bathroom and the giant cream tub that looked more like a jacuzzi than a bath. It was square and fitted into one corner of the room with a few steps that led into it. A couple of fluffy towels had been left beside it with a simple black wash bag.
I stripped out of my clothes and climbed up the steps, dipping my toe in the warm water and biting my lip in anticipation as I stepped in. Heat spread everywhere as I lowered into it, lost to the huge tub as I let myself sink right under the bubbles. My skin hummed with pleasure and a moan of utter happiness escaped me as I resurfaced. I’d never known water could feel so good. The forms I’d experienced it in were the brutal types, but this…this was its purest form. It was like a blanket wrapping around me and sinking deep into my tired body.
Blood and muck spread out around me and I set to work scrubbing the rest of it from my skin and hair, wincing as I occasionally split open new scabs. I opened the wash bag, finding shampoo, shower gel, a coarse brush, a small pair of scissors and a razor. I started with my hair, lathering the shampoo into it and sighing at how good it felt to get it clean at long last, even though my cuts stung. I scrubbed the dirt and blood out from under my nails then clipped them short. Next, I lathered up in Nicoli’s shower gel, the masculine, nutty scent of it clinging to me as I washed every inch of my body.
I eyed the razor last, some deeply feminine part of my being calling to me from another life. So I took it into my grip and set to work shaving my body until I felt like a new girl. One with a name, one with hope, one with shiny ass smooth legs.
I finally pulled the plug out of the drain and everything physical from my old life was washed away. Everything but the scars. But I was happy to keep those, because each one was now a promise to destroy the men who’d laid them there.
I stepped out of the bath, wrapping my hair in one towel and my body in the other. A soft strumming of guitar strings reached me beyond the door and I stilled as Nicoli started singing a song I didn’t know. It was mournful and beautiful and it sounded exactly like the way I felt.
I unlocked the door and pushed it open a crack, peeking at him on the couch where he played.
“In the belly of the raging storm, I’ll keep you warm, I’ll keep you warm,” he sang, his voice sending shivers right through to my core.
I crept back into the room, but Tyson raised his head, alerting Nicoli and the music halted.
Don’t stop. I wished I could speak in that moment more than I had in a long time.
“That better?” he asked and I nodded.
He headed to his closet across the room and pulled out a black and white check shirt for me to wear. I reached for it as he approached, dropping my towel to the floor and he stilled, his eyes falling down to my body and his throat bobbing.
I’d been naked in front of The Five so many times that I hadn’t even paused to think how Nicoli might react. But I was as skinny as a rake and covered in bruises and scars. I wasn’t exactly a sight to behold. Though maybe I should have been more careful around him all the same. I took the shirt from his outstretched hand and shrugged it on as he met my gaze, some dark and furious emotion pouring from his eyes. He looked like a creature of the night, but that wildness in him didn’t scare me for some reason. Instead, it made my heart pound like it knew him. Like it wanted me to rise to his wildness and show him my own.
“Who did that to you, baby doll?” he asked in a dangerous voice that set the hairs on the back of my neck tingling.
I raised my hand, showing him all five fingers. I counted them off, saying their names in my mind. Jax, Farley, Quentin,