“She isnotinsane,” River says fiercely, but he goes over to Stringer. He swears. “Take your fucking shirt off so I can try to stop the bleeding until a doctor gets here.”
I laugh, and I drag my bloody hand along Asch’s face. “Nobody ever did anything, boyfriend,” I say.
Asch grimaces. He starts to speak, but River interrupts him.
“What the hell is this?” he demands, staring at the computer screen.
“Oh, don’t be shocked.” I kiss Asch’s jaw. “It’s only the viral porn that’s been going around.”
“The viral porn?” Asch repeats, glancing at River. “What are you looking at?” He looks at the screen, then he hisses in a breath. “No wonder she stabbed you. What are you doing with this?”
“It’s…” Stringer cuts himself off. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”
“It’s proof!” I say. “Come on, Asch, you can read the subject line. Keegan was sharing proof that I’m a crazy slut. Who else would let people film her like this?”
Blaze’s face gets beautifully red, and in the next breath, he’s on Stringer, his hand around the man’s throat.
“You don’t get to see her like that,” Blaze growls, dark and deadly and so, so hot. “We’re going to delete all those videos, and you’re going to tell everyone there’s been a mistake about Pandora. She’s going to stay here, doing her own thing. Because right now, the only thing keeping you alive is the fact that killing you would be too messy.”
Stringer whimpers, uselessly clawing at Blaze’s arms.
The blood continues to flow from the teeny, tiny stab I gave him.
I move over to them and wrap my arms around Blaze from behind. I kiss his shoulders, sighing happily.
Perfect, amazing Blaze. I knew I’d picked him for a reason.
“Blaze, you’re so violent,” I say with a laugh. “I’d listen to him, Dean Stringer. Blaze is serious.”
Asch leans over the desk, and his expression is intent as he clicks and hits keys on the keyboard. “Deleted,” he says. His eyes narrow at Stringer. “If we find out you get copies of those again, this whole encounter will seem like child’s play.”
“Itischild’s play,” River mutters, still binding the wound on Stringer’s arm like Blaze isn’t choking him. “He’s lucky he’s going to survive this with only a scar.”
“Though if you want him to survive, Blaze might need to let up on him a little,” Asch notes, watching the two of them with an unreadable expression on his face.
Blaze’s hand stays steady on Stringer’s throat. Stringer’s face isalready an interesting hue. His struggling has gotten more sluggish, too.
“Do it,” I whisper to Blaze. “Kill him.”
Blaze breathes heavily. “Yeah. I’ll?—”
“Blaze,” Asch says, his voice quiet but holding an edge of warning. “We don’t have the resources to hide a body here. We can’t cover this up.”
That doesn’t sound like a good reason not to kill Stringer.
Blaze makes a frustrated noise and releases Stringer, shoving him away.
Ugh, how disappointing.
“Boo,” I jeer. I let go of Blaze, wondering if I can kill Stringer myself. I look for my knife, but before I can pick it up, River wraps his arms around me.
“Your… your father,” Stringer says, breathing heavily. “When he hears of this?—”
“Don’t even think about complaining to him,” Blaze says to Stringer. “He’s in NewVa. You’re not. We know where you live, and how easily your skin parts. I also know that your wife probably doesn’t want to know about how you were watching rape porn of college women.”
Rape porn?
What rape porn? There was no rape happening. Those vids are perfectly normal videos of a perfectly normal person who was not being forced to do anything!
