“I was maybe, I don’t know, sixteen when the Jack came for me. He was looking for a girl of his own. He liked how I looked and the test drives he took. He and the pimp reached an agreement and I came to live here.”
Bile surged in Ash’s throat. He’d come here to ask that man a favor. He was part of the system that had wounded this beautiful, strong woman. If the old Jack weren’t already dead, Ash would do the job himself.
Taryn sagged against him. “It was awful. He was awful. The only bright spot was the bar. I loved it. Bartending, waiting tables. It gave me the world.” She started to shake. “I lived and worked here for five years. Hell and heaven under the same roof.”
It took effort to unclench his fist. Ash wrapped his arm around her waist and smoothed his hand up and down her back. She dropped her legs off the desk to bracket his, then released his other hand and wrapped her arms around him.
“One night I dropped a tray of glasses. I cleaned up the best I could, but it was busy and it caused a major slowdown. At the end of the night, he broke my arm.”
Her trembling worsened and Ash wrapped his arms tight around her. To go from a broken arm to a replacement—that was a lot of damage. The old Jack had been a bastard, but damn. Cruelty for cruelty’s sake.
“It didn’t heal right, did it?” He didn’t know if he wanted her to continue her story. He was barely hanging on to his temper as it was.
She shook her head. “He broke it in more than one place. One of the breaks got infected.” She paused again. Ash was surprised she wasn’t crying. “By the time he believed me that something was wrong, they couldn’t save my arm.”
Fucking asshole. “I’m glad the bastard’s dead.”
She buried her head in his neck. The shaking got worse.Oh god, what had he done?
He ran his hand up and down her back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
The shaking continued. Ash continued to hold her and tried to soothe her. Every second that passed, he hated himself for making her relive her trauma. He was a selfish bastard.
Then she lifted her head. Her face wasn’t tearstained as he’d expected. She was laughing. “Me, too,” she said between laughs. “Oh god, me too.”
Her laughter got louder and a little out of control. Was she hysterical? Should he do something? “Are you okay?” A tentative question to match his tentative pats on her back.
“I’m fine,” she gasped out between laughs. “Better than I have been in a while.”
Since she said she was fine, he stayed where he was, enjoying the chance to hold her. Not in a creepy way. More of an I-can’t-remember-how-long-it’s-been-since-I-cuddled-anyone way.
His touch on her back became less tentative, until he was rubbing gentle circles. Her cheek was pressed against his shoulder, her cyberarm a cool firm presence against his back. Soft and hard, tough and tender—the perfect combination.
Her laughter slowly subsided and her breathing settled. “Thank you.” The words were a whisper against his skin.
“For what?” he whispered back.
“This. Being here. Not flipping out. Take your pick.”
Neither of them moved.
“The old Jack was a really shitty guy.”
She laughed again. “You could say that.”
This quiet conversation was the closest he’d come to a real human connection since he and Hope had been captured. It terrified and amazed him all at the same time. And now he was about to ruin it.
“Did you kill him?” he dared to ask. After the story she’d just told, Ash wouldn’t have blamed her if she had.
She took a breath, then shook her head. “No. But I didn’t save him either.”
“Is he—” Ash paused, seeking the words to address the elephant in the room. “Is he the reason you, um, pulled away last night?” That should be safe enough. Right?
A flutter of laughter against his neck. “You mean when I flipped out?” Taryn pulled away and looked him in the eye.
Cool air replaced where she’d been warm against him. He immediately missed the press of her against his chest.
Ash nodded, not sure that bringing up last night had been the right thing to do.
