Predator - A Stand Alone Suspense Romance(19)

“Stay with her,” he snaps at me. I watch as he goes to the reception area.

My eyes dart back to the girl. She’s covered in bruises and blood, and I wonder if that’s what I looked like when Damian came for me. But then I see her clothes. She’s only been beaten by the looks of it.

A car pulls into the parking lot and my heart stutters with fear. My eyes are glued to the driver when she gets out. As she walks to the reception area, Damian comes out. It looks like he got a room.

My eyes feel huge in my head when I watch him lift the girl out of the car. I have no spit to swallow.

Shit, I can’t believe he’s doing this with me right here.

He was right, he should’ve left me at home … but he didn’t, and now I see how her blood is staining his charcoal shirt black.

Then I hear him and my heart stutters. “Everything’s gonna be just fine, Sweetheart.” I turn my head sideways as I search my memory but I can’t find that tone or words anywhere. He never spoke so kindly to me. He’s almost cooing at her as if she’s a baby, something precious. “Let’s get you all cleaned up.”

I move because I’m a sucker for punishment. I want to hurt myself, just like I placed myself in Steven’s way so he could hurt me.

I follow Damian and the girl into the motel room, and I close the door behind us.

He doesn’t take her to the bathroom like he did with me. Instead he sets her gently down on one of the beds.

Maybe I’m just not remembering it all, I start to defend him, but then that little voice that likes to cause pain pops up and sneers at me, ‘You’re nothing, just another job. Nothing but a mess he has to clean up.’

“Get me the towels from the bathroom. Wet one for me,” he snaps and I stare at him for a second before I’m able to make my legs to move.

I walk into the bathroom and grab the bath towel, throwing it over my shoulder. I hold the hand towel under the water until it runs hot. I wring it out as best I can before I go back to Damian.

He’s sitting down and her head is resting on his thigh. There’s a stabbing sensation in my chest. I shove it away and hand him the wet towel first. I take four steps back when he starts to wipe at her face, removing the excess blood. She flinches away and he pauses. He leans over her as if to shield her with his body.

“Shhh … everything’s gonna be just fine, Sweetheart,” he repeats his words of earlier.

I stand as if entranced and watch as he cleans her and only when he’s done does he look up at me.

“Please hand me the towel.” He gives me a sharp look. “You can lie down; they’ll come get her in the morning.”

I give him the towel and move back until I feel the other bed hit the back of my legs. I slump down on it and scoot back until I feel the wall press against my back.

I watch him hold her and repeat the words over and over. Words I now know with a desperate certainty he never said to me.

I wake up with a start to loud knocking. I can’t believe I fell asleep. Although I slept in a sitting position, I still slept through the night. Damian is already halfway to the door by the time I realize that the knocking is coming from there. He peeks through the curtain and then opens the door. An older man almost falls into the room, and I scramble to get to the corner. I squash my knees to my chest and try to make myself as small as I can.

Damian comes to stand right in front of me. It looks like a casual move, but I can’t see the man now and that means he can’t see me.

“My sweetheart,” the man coos at the girl.

Tears burn in my eyes at the emotion weighing heavy in the room.

“Daddy?” Her voice sounds broken and I press my mouth against my knees to keep from crying.

“Everything’s going to be just fine, Sweetheart,” he repeats Damian’s words to her and she starts to cry, relieved, heartfelt sobs.

It feels like something just died in me. I’m not sure what it was, but I feel lost without it.



I don’t realize I’m rocking myself until Damian touches my shoulder. The man left with his daughter and it’s just the two of us again.

“Cara,” his voice is neutral again and I press my face into my arms. “We have to go right now,” he says as if it should matter to me.

“No one came for me,” I whisper to my legs. My breath is hot on my thighs.

“Cara, look at me.” I don’t, not until his hands clamp down hard on my shoulders and he pulls me up against him. His face is inches from mine and his breath is hot on my skin.

His eyes seize mine. “I came for you.” His voice is filled with emotions I have never heard before. “I came for you,” he says again and this time his voice is gravelly, filled with an emotion I can’t place.

He presses me hard to his chest and his arms are like steel bands, clamping me to him. I breathe him in and I get lungs full of sweat and blood. I breathe in the scent that’s Damian.

He doesn’t hold me for long but it’s still comforting. He steps away and starts to clean the room and bathroom. I start to strip the beds the same way he did back at the motel we stayed in. I can’t comprehend everything that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours.

Once we’re in the car, he looks at me. Okay, it’s more like a two minute stare. At first I used to look away but now I try to meet his eyes. “Bruises are almost gone,” he whispers.