to face me before sitting on it. He maneuvers my legs so they’re trapped between his, and before I can protest, he lifts my hand from the table and inspects it.
“Hmm... okay, this might sting a little,” he warns before ripping out an antiseptic wipe and cleaning the wound. He’s gentle, but it doesn’t stop the hiss from escaping between my gritted teeth.
“Motherfucker,” I grunt.
“Such a potty mouth. I hope you don’t kiss your mother with that—” I cut him off before he can go there.
“My mother is dead. I have no family. End of conversation. Unless, of course, you want to spill your guts about all the weird and wonderful things that made you the cunning sociopath I know and loathe today,” I snark.
He presses hard on my cut, this time on purpose.
“Asshole,” I spit, trying to pull my hand away, but he holds firm.
“What’s the matter, little girl? You can dish it out, but you can’t take it, huh?” he taunts.
“I can take whatever you throw at me, Reid,” I sass back, knowing I’m playing with fire. You don’t issue challenges like that to men like Reid. He’ll eat me for breakfast, and not in the way that leaves me spread out naked across the kitchen countertop.
“Is that so?” he purrs, grabbing the superglue and holding my hand up closer to the light. I watch as he deftly applies a thin strip of glue along the seam of the cut and pinches the edges together. I wince, but I know the shallow cut is so much better than what the alternative could have been.
“Now,” he leans forward so his face is mere inches from mine, “where were we?”
Before I can say or do anything, his phone rings, making him curse. He reaches into his back pocket, pulling his phone out and looking down at the screen. He glances up at me quickly before shifting my legs out of the way and moving over to the far side of the room. His voice is low so I can’t hear what he’s saying, but he seems agitated. I clean up the mess, toss the wipes in the trash and shove everything back into the first aid kit before heading back to the room he told me I could use earlier.
As I push the door open, a hand on my shoulder makes me jump. I spin and only just stop myself from throwing a punch because I know it can only be Reid. He has his phone pressed to his chest while he scans my face.
“This isn’t over, Cherry, but I have business to attend to. I’ll show you to your new place tomorrow. For tonight, just crash here. I likely won’t be back until the morning.”
He turns and walks away before I can answer him.
Sighing, I shove the door the rest of the way open and close it behind me, shoving the dresser in front of it like earlier. It won’t keep anyone out for long, but it will buy me time to wake up and arm myself.
Hearing the door to the apartment slam shut, I move over to the window and peer down onto the surprisingly quiet street below. When I see Reid’s fancy black car pull out and disappear downtown, I take a deep breath and feel my muscles start to relax.
I look over at the bathroom, not even trying to stop the grin from spreading over my face.
I have a date with a bubble bath and I’ve never been more excited in my life.
Chapter Thirteen
The rumble of my stomach rouses me from my sleep. My eyes spring open, my body wired and alert in a nanosecond when I notice how quiet it is, but then I see the suit jackets hanging above me and relax.
Sleeping on the streets makes you conscious of every noise. The sound of someone’s breath as they veer too close to you can buy you valuable seconds to escape pawing hands, but it’s more than just that. The scurry of clawed feet as the rats scavenge for food and the wail of police sirens became the soundtrack of my youth, and I had no idea how loud the sound of silence could truly be until I came here. Curled up under the thousand-dollar suits in Reid’s quiet closet gave me ample time to overthink things, and when I had finished that, I overthought some more.
Crawling to my knees, I stretch and work out the kinks before climbing to my feet and heading out