Swallowing down the possessiveness that threatened to choke him, he forced his head to nod. “I have a deal for you.”
Suspicion had her brows darting down to form a V. “A deal? Why does that sound suspiciously like yes, I'm going to let you go, but ha-ha I was only joking. I'm going to keep you here forever?”
The little ladybug had a pessimistic streak a mile wide, and he chuckled, surprised at how easy little snippets of laughter had snuck into his life these last several days. “Not forever,” he assured her.
“But …”
“But until we get your brother.” They’d gone about this all wrong. If they hadn't jumped all in to something without properly thinking through the consequences because they were so hellbent on getting their revenge, they would have started with this. Now they had to work hard to gain Rose’s trust, but if they’d gone to her in the beginning, he wouldn't have added more scars to her already battle-worn body and soul.
Those pretty eyes of hers widened again. “You want me to help you kill my brother?”
“If it’s too much for you, then we wouldn't ask you to be involved in the actual killing,” Voodoo rushed to add. The medic had taken a particular liking to Rose. He was almost as protective of her as Steel himself had become, which was probably why Dragon appeared to have given up on his let’s just kill Rose and be done with it plan. If he tried, he’d be going up against all five of them.
Protectiveness aside, Voodoo didn't really get what made Rose tick, though.
Steel might not understand it all either, but he knew one thing for certain. There was nothing and no one that this woman, straddling his thighs, would ever back down from, and she would slit her brother’s neck without a second thought or a moment of regret.
Rose laughed, loud and hard. He could tell by the small wince that the drugs Voodoo had dripping into her through her IV were doing a reasonable job of masking her pain levels without completely eliminating them. But she didn't seem to care, her laughter was so rich and free that he felt like an idiot just sitting there and staring at her in awe.
How many chances had life given her to laugh like that?
And why did he feel such a strong need to ensure that from now on, that was all life gave her?
“I think what my little ladybug is telling you is she’s all in for participating in killing her brother,” Steel drawled.
Shooting him a half-hearted scowl, Rose muttered, “I'm not yours.”
“If you say so.” The smirk he gave her was specifically designed to get her all riled up. The last thing he wanted was her slipping away from him again, into a pit of despair and hopelessness.
His little ladybug should never suffer again.
Not for a single second.
“You are impossible,” she snapped, but again she didn’t seem all that angry about it.
“Yep,” he agreed. He was also hers, but he doubted she would appreciate that declaration.
“You really want to help us kill your brother?” Thunder asked, a thread of doubt in his voice.
“How long have you hated Ridge?” she asked, twisting slightly so she could look over her shoulder at the rest of his team.
“A decade,” Thunder replied.
“I've hated him for double that. Even before our parents died, he used to hurt me. They did too. They’re psychos, my whole family. Every single one of them. Apparently, I am too.” she muttered that last part under her breath, but since she was perched on his lap, he caught the words.
For the last ten years, all Steel could focus on was finding Dr. Gardner and forcing the man to undo what had been done to them. Turn them from monsters back into human beings.
Maybe he’d been looking at things wrong this whole time.
Maybe he wasn't a monster, just a little bit psycho, too. After all, he had developed feelings for the little ladybug, so it was obvious that Ridge Gardner hadn't really been able to remove empathy from his brain. It still existed, it had just twisted into something else.
Maybe a little bit psycho wasn't all that bad after all.
“I'm sorry you went through that, Rose,” Steel told her, sweeping his palms down her arms and then back up again.
Surprise widened her eyes as she turned to look back at him, the sound of her real name coming from his lips instead of the nickname catching her by surprise, although he sensed there was more to it than that.
Ever since she’d escaped her brother’s hell, she’d isolated herself from the world, much the same way he and his team had. There had probably never been anyone to tell her they were sorry for her suffering. Likely never even been another person she’d shared that with.
