Insurmountable (Serpentine #1) Read Free Page B

right to say that or to lay a hand on you.”
    “No, he just has a right to fuck me.” The overwhelming hopelessness had turned off my filter. “Just like the hundreds of other men. Only difference is he managed to see through me before he had the chance to take off his pants.”
    “Do you want to die?”
    I dropped my head, shaking it subtly. “But I’m too tired to pretend.”
    He took my hand again and pulled away the bloodied rag. Most of the bleeding had stopped. And to be honest, the pain didn’t even register. I’d endured more on a daily basis in some cases.
    Miles took another alcohol pad and started at my fingers, wiping away all the dried blood, working closer and closer to the cut. “This will sting.” He reached for a new pad and dabbed it over the cut.
    “It doesn’t look like it needs stitches.” He pressed a gauze pad over it, then wrapped my hand with gauze, and secured it with tape.
    “Why are you fixing me?” I whispered. If my eyes closed for more than an instant, I feared I’d pass out. My body had surpassed exhausted and this time, it wasn’t letting me fight back, even if it meant life or death.
    “Because I want to,” Miles said. When he was done with my hand, he lifted my chin again. His hands were so large, enormous, and warm. “What if I keep you here?”
    I shrugged, not really sure what he meant.
    “What if I protect you?”
    Protect? Against my better judgment, I lifted my gaze and stared into his eyes. I had too many questions to know where to start, and too many fears to risk it anyway.
    “I’ll keep you here,” he continued, “In my apartment. You’ll be mine.”
    “Why?” New tears burned at my eyes. I couldn’t understand. I didn’t trust him. What if he was far worse than any of the others?
    If that was the case, why wasn’t he punishing me now?
    “Like I said, I want to.” He lifted my arms up over his shoulders, then wrapped his large muscular arms around me. We were complete juxtapositions. His skin and hair so dark, and mine so pale. His large muscular body and my tiny, skin and bones figure. His strength, my weakness. His confidence, my fear. “I like you, Little Dove. It’d be a pity to let you slip away and go to waste.”
    Empty promises and lies. “He won’t let you.”
    “I can make a damn good argument when I want to.”
    “He wants me to work tonight.”
    “I’ll take care of it.”
    Unable to fight it anymore, I dropped my cheek against his chest. So warm. Just like that bath I was currently missing.

Monster You Made
Miles
    I didn’t want to leave Alley alone again, but I had to make an appearance at dinner. I also had to figure out a way to explain her new injuries. Unless I could somehow manage to keep her hidden until she healed. Damn it.
    As I buttoned my shirt, memories flooded in that I left long buried. I had been ten years old when I found my own mother dead in the tub. This was too close. Much too close of a call and much too close to history repeating itself.
    Every day we saw the toll this place took on the girls. We had girls slip through the cracks or fall to pieces. I tried to make sure it didn’t happen—it was the main reason I stayed—but with everything we demanded of them, sometimes the psyche just doesn’t hold up. Too many others didn’t care. If they did, we wouldn’t stay in business.
    It was a shitty logic, but the only way I had to explain my existence.
    Alley’s eyes were closed by the time I finished dressing, but I couldn’t leave without one more thing.
    “Alley,” I traced my finger along her jawline.
    It took her a moment to wrestle with her heavy eyelids.
    “I need you to promise that if I let you stay here, you won’t try to hurt yourself again.”
    She nodded.
    “Say it.”
    “I promise,” she whispered. “I won’t hurt myself.”
    I kissed her delicate forehead, and when I stepped away, she looked on the verge of tears again.
    “I’ll be back soon,” I said, patting her foot through