Role Play (24 page)

Dick stood over
me, rifling through my bag. He pulled out my phone and threw my bag to one side.

I
tried to reach out for it, but when I moved my leg, my ankle screamed in pain. My hands clutched at my ankle, but it didn’t help. I didn’t know what to do.

He was frozen, staring down at
my phone. “Last text eight days ago. You’ve barely texted her this month! Are you calling her?”

“She
won’t talk to me! Don’t you get it?”
Dick grabbed me by the arm and hauled me up. My ankle gave out with a hard stab of pain, but he was holding me up.

“You’re hurting me, Dick,”
I panted.

He got right into
my face. Suddenly I was afraid of him, really afraid. He didn’t look like the man who had dated my sister for over a year. He smelled of alcohol and his eyes were reddened and watery. If he wasn’t holding me up, I would have sunk to the ground in fear.

“Tell me what her address is,” he demanded.

“I don’t know!”

“You
do know! Don’t lie to me.” He gave me another hard shake.

“I don’t know!
I thought she was living in Bed-Sty,” I cried.

Dick was in
my face again, leering at me. Fear spiked through me as he raised his hand.  “You’re just like your sister. A lying little cheat!”

I
cringed back, knowing he was going to hit me.

Suddenly an arm caught Dick’s upraised hand, and jerked him back.

The three of us stumbled together. Dick wouldn’t let go of me, and I cried out in the pain as I put my foot down.

But
Victor had control of Dick’s other arm, and was slowly wrestling him away from me. Dick was a big guy, but there was nothing he could do against Victor except huff and puff. “Get off me!” Dick demanded. “I’m a police officer.”

But
Victor took him down, right down to the ground, until Dick’s face was pressed against the asphalt. “Cops aren’t supposed rough up women. That’s stuff the Post eats up!” Victor said through his teeth.

I
shakily sat back down on the ground. My face was wet with tears. I didn’t realize I was crying until that moment.

“
Call 911,” Victor told me.

Dick started thrashing harder under
Victor. “I know this girl! I’m dating her sister. She’s withholding important information for my investigation. Let me go! You don’t know who you’re messing with, buddy!”

Victor
ignored him, looking only at me. “I can hold onto him until the cops get here. Look at your knees! You’re bleeding.”

“I just want him to go away,”
I managed to say. My lips felt numb, and I could hardly speak.

I
needed Victor to help me, and there he was, helping me.

Thankfully
I sagged against my outstretched arms. I was breathing fast like I had just sprinted for my life, and was dizzy with relief. Dick mugged me!

But
Victor had saved me.

Chapter 21

Victor

I wanted to pound Dick slowly into the ground, but the security cameras watching over the parking lot would be merciless on me. Calling 911 was a distant second choice, but still much better than letting the jerk walk away.

“He hurt you,”
I told Sierra. “I can’t let him get away with that.”

Even Dick heard the
barely-contained rage in my words. Smashed into the asphalt, completely at my mercy with his arm twisted up painfully, Dick’s tone finally started to change. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Sierra. I’m going out of my mind with worry. You know that.”

“Get him away from me
,” Sierra pleaded.

“Are you sure?”
I said through clenched teeth.

“Yes…”

I hauled Dick off the ground, not caring how rough I was on his shoulders. Dick yelped in pain.

I
walked him back to the sidewalk and thrust him away from me hard. Dick nearly fell to the cement, but he managed to keep his feet. His hand went to his shoulder, and he winced, bending over.

“Try it,”
I ordered through my teeth. “Just
try
it.”

I
hoped Dick was stupid enough to take a crack at me. I would enjoy beating the shit out of him in “self-defense.”

Dick didn’t look like he was ready to try anything. He hobbl
ed off, still holding his shoulder like he couldn’t move it.

“Don’t you go near Sierra again,”
I called after him.

I
waited to make sure Dick was walking away before I went back for Sierra.

She was struggl
ing to get up. She favored her right leg, limping forward to get her balance.

I
stopped her by picking her up in my arms. “Do you have your purse?”

“Yes
. Not my phone. He threw it away.”

I
turned and walked around still carrying her, until we found her phone which thankfully wasn’t broken. Tears were shining on her cheeks.

I
held her close, her face nestled against my shoulder and her arm clutching me around my back. I carried her back to Avenue B and started down the block before she faintly said, “I can try to walk.”

“That’s t
he worst thing you can do on an injury. If I see an empty cab, I’ll grab it. But that’s not likely this time of night.”

I
carried her six blocks down to my apartment, keeping a sharp eye out for Dick. Sierra held onto me tightly, her eyes closed. Her breathing was ragged. I wished I could do something more for her, and I didn’t even notice the ache in my own arms as I neared my place. I would have carried her to Brooklyn if I had to.

In the elevator, she said into
my chest, “You can let me down.”

“Not a chance.”
I adjusted her in my arms. I didn’t want to let her go.

I
carried her inside my place and sat down with her on my couch, holding her in my lap. I needed a moment to feel like it was finally safe. Dick wasn’t going to jump out from behind a car and attack her again.

“Thank you,” she murmured into
my chest. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

My
heart twisted. What would have happened if I hadn’t kept searching for her after she ran out of the Sanctuary?

My
blood boiled at the thought of that piece of shit hurting Sierra. I wished I could go back in time and punch him good. Dick was already facing enough trouble, a cop roughing up a civilian, and a pretty girl at that. I could have gotten away with punching him in the eye.

But Sierra had already seen enough of
what I was capable of. Somehow her frantic eyes had reminded me of when I had threatened her, silently begging me to stop. I couldn’t do that to her again, even to satisfy my powerful urge to fuck Dick up.

Rocking slightly w
ith my face pressed against her hair, I took in the fact that she was okay. I had reached her in time. Now it was over.

She shifted a little, looking up at
me. Her eyes looked even bigger shining with tears.

Was it sick that
I loved her like that? When she was so vulnerable and open to me? I knew I could reach into her heart and rip it out right now. She was completely in my power. I had saved her, so I owned her now.

She’s mine.

But I couldn’t say that to her. I didn’t have the right.

I
stroked her cheek. “I’ll take care of you.”

I
slid her off my lap onto the couch. She winced a bit when she moved her leg. “My ankle. It twisted when he pushed me down.”

Once again
I regretted not pounding Dick into the ground. She drew back slightly at the intensity in my eyes.

I
turned to her ankle, unstrapping her high heel to look at her pretty slender foot with toenails painted bright red. There was something very arousing about the red tips. Just touching her foot, feeling her soft skin, made my hands linger and soothe her even as my cock stirred.

I
forced myself to focus on her ankle. Two blue streaks were deepening on the outside. I moved her foot gently. She hissed but didn’t cry out, so it wasn’t broken.

I
had dealt with enough injuries from my job so I knew exactly what to do. I got her foot elevated with an ice gel pack draped over her ankle. With a hot wet towel, I washed the blood from the scrapes on her palms and then her knees.

“Ouch,” she said, trying to pull her knee away.

I held onto her. “You don’t want it to get infected.”

I washed methodically until slowly m
y hand with the towel stilled, as I remembered when I was a kid and the school nurse had cleaned a cut on my knee. Nobody ever touched me as a kid. Nobody ever gave me hugs or lay on the couch with me like I saw other families do. So I vividly remembered the nurse’s touch, and the kind look in her brown eyes as she smiled down at me and took care of me.

It had
filled my heart then, though I had forgotten it until now. Remembering it, I felt that same sense of crushing emptiness suddenly filled with a golden light—a simple touch and kind brown eyes. For a moment, everything was good.

“Are you okay, Vic
tor?” she asked.

I
realized I was looking into her brown eyes, feeling safe and happy like I did in that rare moment when I was a kid.

Instantly
I pulled back, looking down to gather up the bloody towel and bowl of soapy water. I was revealing too much, feeling too much. I had to get control of myself—

“Don’t…” She reached out and put her hand to
my cheek, pulling me towards her. “Don’t leave me.”

That
decided it. I couldn’t deny her. I held onto her tightly, not wanting to let go either. It wasn’t a sexual thing, which was unbelievable considering how I reacted in the Sanctuary, when I was all over her.

This was more. I needed her comfort, and she needed mine. And for some reason, it was okay for her to need something from me.
Because she was giving back to me wholeheartedly.

We lay together on the couch for a long time,
and I got up only to remove the ice pack for twenty minutes, then put it back on again. Neither of us said much. It felt as if she was drifting out of reach even as I held onto her tightly. I knew it was only a strange illusion that made it feel as if she was sliding out of my grasp. But it made my body tense as she moved against me, molding herself to me. As if I was resisting a hurricane wind that threatened to tear us apart.

Even when
it was late, I didn’t want to let her go. “Do you want to stay the night?”

She glanced over at the bed, biting her lip.

“No sex.” I couldn’t tell her that was impossible now. The only way I could make love to her was if I was honest with her. And I couldn’t be honest right now, not when I felt torn open already. Not when I was realizing what kind of words I would have to say to admit the sham of a life I’d been leading. To admit that I wasn’t worthy of her.

But I couldn’t let her go.

She put on one of my old T-shirts to sleep in, and I carefully climbed into bed next to her, taking her in my arms.

And then nothing else mattered.

Then everything felt real and solid. Then
I knew this was right. I was exactly where I was supposed to be, holding her close and protecting her. I realized then how much I had hated going to bed every night these past two weeks, when I didn’t know where she was or what she was doing. That I had walled in my own feelings so I couldn’t hear my own longing for her.

But now I couldn’t deny it.

Chapter 22

Sierra

It was heaven cuddling with Victor on his bed, looking out at the lights of the city. Even though everything else in my life was seriously messed up—with Dick’s mauling smack on top of the awfulness—I wanted just one night off. One night of peace, lying in Victor’s arms. One night when I didn’t have to care about anything else. When I didn’t have to care about what this meant or where it might be going.

I could just
feel happy.

Every time
I opened my eyes I saw Victor and beyond him the open windows with lights of the city, like we were at the bottom of a bowl of buildings that rose up gradually on either side of us.

It was the first thing
I saw when I woke up in the morning.

Victor
was still holding me, moving sleepily as I woke him by shifting. His hands tightened on me for a moment before he was fully awake.