Page 98 of In the Dark

He shrugged and nodded toward my clothing. “My ultimatum still stands. Shirt off yourself, or I do it.”

Shaking my head at him, I tried one last-ditch effort. “What do you think you’re going to find? Archer already told you where I hide my weapons.”

“I’m not concerned about your weapons. I’m concerned about why you flinched in pain.”

“Maybe I just don’t like being touched by you.”

He chuckled. “Such a good little liar you are. You take your shirt off, and I’ll forget you’re lying to your future husband.”

“I don’t care if you think I’m lying or not.”

He hummed. “Stop stalling, Jas.”

I knew this wasn’t going to end well. And so I slowly pulled the sweater over my head and then started to unzip the tennis tank top as he watched. I felt exposed, uncomfortable, and like I was revealing a vulnerability that I didn’t have space to deal with.

I was raised with my aunt and uncles telling me that weakness would be used against me, and maybe that’s all I knew, maybe that’s all I believed.

I didn’t want Callahan to see any of my flaws, only my strengths. Not because he was supposed to be an enemy, but because he’d become something more in my heart and my mind. I wanted to stand beside him as the equal he was treating me as, not a wreckage.

So, I started to babble, trying to take away from what he was about to see. “Honestly, what you’re going to see isn’t as bad as it looks.”

His gaze hardened as I stopped mid-zip over my belly.

“What isn’t as bad? You said it was nothing before.”

“It is nothing.” I bit my lower lip. “But … well, to us it’s nothing. You’ve been hurt a time or two before.”

“I have,” he said cautiously, like he wanted me to continue. “You’ve inflicted some of those wounds.”

“Right. So you know most are minor and heal completely.”

“Okay.” He nodded toward my fingers. “Unzip the rest of the shirt.”

I took one breath and then another before I let the fabric go so it could fall loosely at my sides.

To Cal’s credit, he didn’t gasp, and his jaw didn’t drop or anything like that. Yet, I saw his skin tighten over the muscles tensing in his face and his neck. His shirt seemed to become smaller.

He took a cautious step forward like he wanted permission to come inspect me himself, and I nodded but looked away. For some reason, the hard bravado I carried with me felt shaken under his scrutiny.

Or maybe it was the soft touch he used as he brushed his fingers under the collar of my open shirt and pushed the fabric over my shoulders so the sleeves could fall, leaving me completely exposed except for my sports bra.

His fingertips traced the first slash on my stomach. It was a bit higher than the other two.

Only a deep breath was released as he cataloged the injuries. When his fingers got to my abdomen, he glanced at me and then back at the stab wounds.

“It’s almost all healed.” I tried to wave off his concern.

“Who the fuck dared to do this to you, Viper?” His voice shook with rage.

I couldn’t tell him we’d been robbed, that I’d been overpowered and almost completely at their mercy. I was trained to have that never happen. I was supposed to be the best at fighting, and instead I’d been held down and outnumbered by stupid men. I tried to laugh, but it came off canned and fake. “It doesn’t really hurt that bad.”

“That’s not what I asked you.” He bent to catch my gaze again and used one hand to lift my chin so I’d look at him. “Who did this?”

I shrugged. “Does it matter?” I didn’t think he’d care so much about who. I thought he’d care about the repercussions, about the fact that I was damaged, and so my mind just scrambled to make a believable story. “All in good fun, right?”

“Fun?” He blinked twice as his hands went to my hips to either steady me or himself. “What the fuck is fun about this?”

“I just … you know, like it rough sometimes.”