Kyler's Justice (Assassins of Gravas Book 3) - N.J. Walters Page 0,17
between all of you and death. I’ll be staying away from the bar for a while yet. Don’t do anything stupid and you might live. And don’t ever forget that I’m watching you.” On that threat, he popped another cookie into his mouth and left.
Her heavy breathing was the only sound for several long seconds. She wanted to fall to the floor, curl up in a ball, and cry. Ignoring the agony in her arm, she went to her sisters. “Everything is okay. I’m fine,” she assured them. At least he’d used his open hand and not his fist, so there were no broken bones.
“You’re not.” Sera went to the cold box and rummaged around, returning with a wrapped piece of meat. “It’s not a cold pack, but it will help.”
A ten-year-old shouldn’t know such things, but she’d likely seen her mother deal with similar injuries. “Thanks.” She took it and pressed it against her aching cheek. Nothing might be broken, but she was going to have one hell of a bruise.
Maggs was still curled up in the corner, her shoulders hunched.
“Maggs, honey, everything is okay now.”
The little girl shook her head, refusing to look up. The oven timer chimed, making Etta’s heart jump. She grabbed the protective gloves and drew out the pan. “We’ll let these cool and have them.” No way would he let that bastard steal all their joy, not to mention their cookies.
Her skin was blistering, so she grabbed the kitchen medipack and treated it. The medicated pad would ease the sting and start healing the burn. Fortunately, it wasn’t too serious an injury.
After piling the remaining cookies onto a plate and retrieving the hidden data pad, she ushered the girls upstairs to their room. While they ate the treats, Maggs began to draw, losing herself in another world. Sera pulled out her data pad and began to read.
It didn’t hurt her feelings. She understood the need to escape from their reality. Now she had to find a way for them to escape for real.
The intruder? Was he a Gravasian assassin?
It was a good thing she was sitting on the floor or she’d have fallen. She’d known that single action would come back to haunt her, hadn’t wanted anything to do with it. But Balthazar had threatened the girls’ lives, and she believed him. They were nothing to him, other than a lever to pull to get her to do his bidding.
Helldrick and Balthazar feared no one, yet they were both hiding from the Gravasians. That was why they were around so little and their visits were always clandestine and unplanned.
Her life might be forfeit, but maybe there was a way to free her sisters, to protect them. It would require audacity and more nerve than she might possess. But as both Helldrick and Balthazar had noted, there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for them.
Chapter Five
Someone is going to die.
The black and blue mark blooming on Etta’s cheek was an abomination. Rage bubbled up inside him like lava in a volcano just before it exploded. “What happened?”
“It doesn’t matter.” She kept her head down as she cleaned the kitchen. It had shut down a short time ago, but Etta hadn’t shown her face in the bar all evening, so he’d come looking for her. She was unloading the dish-cleaning unit, stacking the lightweight metal plates and cups onto a shelf.
He touched his fingers to her chin and lifted her face. “Who hit you?”
“That’s not your concern.” She jerked her head away and went back to her task. The sleeve of her shirt fell back when she set a platter on a high shelf.
He snagged her wrist and gently eased the sleeve farther up. “What about this?”
“Caught my arm on a hot pot. Occupational hazard.”
His keen hearing picked up the slightest quaver. The truth, but not the whole of it. He skated his fingers over the bandage. The muscles of her arm tensed, but she didn’t pull away.
He was more in the way than anything, so he released her and moved off to one side, a silent sentry. Head down, she went back to work until the kitchen was in pristine order. Everything in the space was worn and well-used, but it was scrupulously clean.
She was tired, and not just physically. It was more than the slight droop of her shoulders. There was an air of … desperation around her.
What the fuck had happened in the time he’d been away?