“Always loved the Quiet Game,” Kai murmurs as he sinks into a squat in front of me.
He glances down, stares at my bleeding foot. When he reaches out, I flinch, wanting to draw away, but I force my leg straight again.
Kai strokes his knuckle down the center of my bare sole. I can barely feel it compared to the pulsing pain radiating from the cut.
It’s only when he grabs the piece of glass that I realize it’s still embedded in my foot.
Not as if there was time to attend to my wound.
Kai always looks after me, though.
I yell when he tugs out the glass, slumping back against the cabinet, my breath haggard.
Fuck, that hurt.
He strokes my foot again, staring at the wicked shard of red glass before tossing it into the nearby basin with impressive accuracy.
“Remember how you’d bite your lip until it bled so you wouldn’t make a sound?”
The way his voice drops low, lethal, should have been a sign.
But Miss H never backs down from a challenge, does she?
She embraces it.
When Kai grabs my ankle, holding my foot still, she grins at him, daring him. And, like always, the smile he gives back is just as wicked.
“Remember how I’d lick the blood from your mouth, and eventhen,you wouldn’t make a sound?”
But it’s Haven who screams when he presses his thumb on that deep cut, and Haven that kicks his hand off her, and Haven that scrambles up, shoving him so he falls onto his back.
“That’s one, Miss H!”
But it’s Haven who hobbles toward the window, because she’s finally come to her senses and realized this isn’t just a game anywhere. That Kai’s not just going to tickle her until she cries Uncle, or pinch her until she’s purple and blue.
Kai’s all grown up, and he’s going to wanna do grown-up things to her.
So Haven runs.
But Kai catches her before she can escape.
Chapter 54
Kai
Haven’s wet hair wraps easily around my fist, the perfect grip for me to jerk her away from the broken window with. There’s glass scattered all over the floor here, and I feel at least two pieces slice into my feet, but that’s a problem for later.
She yells when I shove her away, and again when her legs tangle and send her sprawling to the wooden floor.
“That’s two,” I chuckle darkly.
There’s a clatter as something hits the floorboards and spins away. She rolls onto her back, reaching desperately for it, but I’m already towering over her, grabbing her throat, dragging her to her feet.
Not a lot of furniture in the cabin. Two end tables, a three-seater sofa, and the bed on the other side of the room.
The bed would have been nice, but the sofa’s closer. The wall beside the window, even closer still.
Haven’s fighting back.
