In The Darkness (Project Artemis #1)(21)

“Don’t worry. I know how handle women like her,” Nick said with as much anger as he could muster.

He quickly put the bowl of soup down on a nightstand next to the bed and turned around to make sure that crazy bastard hadn’t drawn his gun on Persephone already. He hadn’t, but the sneer on his face didn’t make Nick feel any better about the situation.

“She’s nothing. It’s time she learned that lesson,” Drist said, practically spitting each word out of his mouth.

Stepping forward to defuse what he knew could quickly become a very bad situation, Nick nodded like he agreed with what the crazy asshole said. “Don’t worry. She’ll know once I’m done with her.”

And then he raised his hand as if he planned to hit her across the face. Persephone recoiled in horror, turning her head to avoid the sting of a slap against her cheek.

“See? I’ve already got her trained pretty good. Give me another day or two and she’ll be eating out of my hand.”

Drist seemed pleased by the threat, like holding her hostage wasn’t enough to make her feel like nothing. “Good. Make her see who’s boss.”

He laughed like some evil hyena and turned around to head back out. Happy to see him gone, Nick picked up the bowl and approached Persephone again. She refused to look at him, though, instead staring off toward the other side of the room, even when he removed the gag from her mouth.

Crouching down in front of her, he took his usual place to feed her and whispered, “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t think he’d leave if I didn’t show him that I hated you too. I wouldn’t have hit you. You know that, right?”

She didn’t respond, but he saw her frown deepen as her face remained turned away from him. As much as he knew he had to put on that act for that asshole, he couldn’t help but feel guilty for frightening her. Hoping to show her she could trust him, he untied her ankles to give her some relief, at least for a few minutes.

But still she refused to look at him.

Touching her on her arm, he said, “I need you to eat some of this soup. Come on. It’s not that grey crap anymore.”

Persephone turned her head and looked down wide-eyed into the bowl he held in his hands. “Soup? Is that really something other than that terrible grey stuff? They let you give me soup?” she asked, looking up at him.

He smiled, happy to see her dark eyes filled with something other than fear. “I told them it wouldn’t be a good thing for you to starve to death. I guess they bought it.”

A look of worry came over her face, and she quietly said, “I thought you were going to hit me.”

Her words felt like a punch to his gut. Shaking his head, he lifted the spoonful of vegetable soup to her lips. “I wouldn’t do that. Well, I don’t want to. But if it meant the difference between me doing it and someone like Drist there doing it, I would just to make sure he didn’t touch you.”

She swallowed the soup and nodded. “That tastes so good. I don’t think I’ve ever loved vegetable soup as much as I do right now.”

“Even the lima beans?” he asked with a chuckle as he fed her another spoonful of soup.

Nodding, she smiled as she let the soup go down her throat. “Yeah. Even the carrots too.”

Nick knew Drist might return at any minute, so he needed to make sure Persephone understood whatever he did in front of those men was what he had to do to protect her in the long run. As he continued to feed her, he tried to explain what might happen.

“I need you to remember that I’m trying to make sure we get away from here, hopefully tonight. Drist and those guys seem on edge this afternoon, so something might be about to happen.”

Persephone swallowed hard and frowned again. “Something? Like what?”

He didn’t know what could happen, but a restless group of malcontents holed up in a house never meant anything good. He hoped they’d get lost in another night of zombie hunting and even Drist might find another few hours of amusement in that damn gun of his.

“I don’t know. Most of them out there are bored, so that could spell trouble. I just need you to trust me. No matter what happens, no matter what I have to do, I just need you to trust me, okay?”

She nodded and took the spoon into her mouth before swallowing more soup. “Okay. Like you might hit me?”

Jesus, he hated this. The last thing he wanted to do was hit her, but if that meant none of them did, then he’d do it or whatever else to keep their hands off her.

He stared into her eyes and hoped she understood what he meant. “Whatever I have to do, I’m doing it to protect you. Just remember that.”

Persephone stretched her legs and ankles. “Did you really never lose anyone while you were at the FBI?” she asked in a voice full of fear.

Lying to her would be the best thing, but he didn’t want to. Whatever they were there in that horrible situation, at least she should know that he was truthful with her, even when it hurt him to be.

Nick shook his head. “No. I lost one person, and the next day, I left the FBI.”

Her eyes wide, she asked, “Someone you were helping when you went undercover?”

He swallowed hard and took a deep breath before admitting the truth to her. “No. An informant who died because of me. After that, I couldn’t do my job without regretting all that happened.”