Quiver (Revenge Book 1) Read Online Free

nails across his face. His blood rolled down her hand and arm as she kicked away, digging her feet into the sand, her heels slamming against his strong thigh in her haste to escape.
    His head fell at the blow, and he brought the gentle touch he’d just laid on her cheek to his eyebrow. When he came away with his own blood staining his fingers, his eyes reclaimed hers. He held that bloody hand out.
    “I’m not going to hurt you, sweetheart.” His voice was deep. Just like theirs. Filled with authority she couldn’t match. Just like theirs. His arms were twice as big as theirs had been, bursting to be freed from his short-sleeve navy top. His chest and legs were broader too. She knew she wouldn’t stand a chance in overpowering him. Just like she hadn’t with them. “I found you floating in the water and gave you mouth-to-mouth.”
    When he reached for her again, Veda whimpered and he stopped halfway, holding both his hands out so she could see his palms.
    “Okay,” he said. “I won’t touch you. That’s okay.” He searched her eyes for a moment. “How old are you?” When she didn’t answer, he licked his lips, faltered, and then reached into the breast pocket of his police shirt. He came back up with a bronze medallion in his hand, holding it out between their big, wild eyes. “Do you know what this is?”
    Veda peered at the chip in his hand, cringing.
    He shook the chip. “This is my mother’s. It’s a one year sober chip she got from AA. Whenever I’m scared, I just hold it in my hand, real tight, like this.” He gripped the chip, hiding it in his big palm. “And it reminds me that… that everything’s going to be okay.”
    When he reached out again, she stiffened but didn’t retreat. He nodded, offering the chip to her. After another long hesitation, she snatched it, tightened her fingers around it, and then retreated again, pulling her knees to her chest, her entire body trembling.
    Her eyes traveled over him. The soaked police uniform, the long brown hair, those green eyes, so patient and kind, even as a string of blood—unleashed by her own hand—raced from his eyebrow and down his chiseled jaw.
    His own eyes took a voyage over her body, lingering at the bottom of her form-fitting white party dress.
    Her eyes followed his to the hem of her dress, landing on the large bloodstain that saturated the front. When she realized her panties were still off, she yanked the dress down around her thighs, but it was so short that it caused the low-cut neckline to race down too, exposing her pert breasts.
    His gaze seemed to rise to her chest before he could stop it, darkened, and, if it were possible, grew even more hooded.
    Veda slapped her forearm over her breasts, biting her bottom lip and fighting back a cry.
    The man looked away a moment later, a heavy lump moving down his throat. “We should….” He ran a hand over his mouth, avoiding her eyes. “We should get you to a hospital so they can do a rape kit. Whoever threw you in the water did it to wash away the evidence, but we should still…”
    Veda waited for his eyes to come back to hers. They did. She knew what she saw in them. The same shadows, the same wickedness, the same depravity she’d seen in the eyes of the monsters who’d bent her over the white stone rails, still glowing in the distance at the top of the cliff behind him.
    She looked down and saw the same tent in his navy pants as she’d seen in theirs.
    He showed her his palms again. “I’m a police officer. I would never hurt you. You can trust me.”
    Before he could say another word, Veda leapt to her feet and raced away. Her legs shook and made her stumble a few times, but when she imagined him coming after her, chasing her in the sand, how easy it would be for him to catch her, outrun her, hurt her the way they had, the race of adrenaline—of blind fear—forced her to find her footing.
    She didn’t stop running until she’d made it all the way home.
     
    —
     
    Veda