Page 8 of Blade

Elliot looked at me, smirked, and turned back to Eloise. “It’s my cutie-patootie discount. My Little one gets it all the time,” he said, winking at her and wrapping her leg back up with a new bandage.

A low growl filled the room and I didn’t realize it had been mine until Rogue giggled again.

Fuck.

“Where is your house?” Eloise asked, either ignoring my territorial growl or not hearing it.

“It’s about twenty minutes from here. I’ll give you a ride, yeah?”

“Uh…” She hesitated.

“No. We’ll take her. Rogue can help her get settled,” Leland said.

“Uh,” she said again, looking more panicked.

“No. I will take her. She doesn’t know y’all,” I said, annoyed they hadn’t considered that.

“She doesn’t know you either,” Rogue said, placing her hand on hip.

“Yeah, you kidnapped me,” Eloise said, as equally sassy as Rogue.

I had a glimpse of my future if the two of them teamed up together and it gave me a headache.

I shook my head, trying not to strangle them, and tried again. “I would like to take you if you’re comfortable riding with me.”

“I can take the bus.”

“Actually, the bus doesn’t go out that far. You could take it to the edge of town, but then it would still be a long walk,” Elliot explained, securing her bandage and pushing his chair back.

“I want to go ahead and get some bloodwork now to drop off on my way home and I definitely want to give you a fever reducer, okay?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Elliot drew her blood quickly, but I didn’t miss the way she flinched when he inserted the needle. Poor Little one. Blood draws were never fun and even worse when you felt as badly as she did.

“You did great, love.”

Elliot handed her the medicine and she quickly swallowed it before saying,“Thank you and thank you for your help.”

“Oh. I love a Little girl with good manners. Let me get you some stickers,” Elliot said, making me want to shove the stickers up his damn ass. Between his terms of endearments and stickers, I wanted to rip him limb from limb.“So, you’ll be coming to my house, right?”

“Would you take me, please, Rogue?” Eloise asked.

I wanted to argue, but it was easy to understand her need to be with a female. We didn’t know what her ex had put her through and I couldn’t blame her for wanting to be cautious.

“Sure. I’d be glad to,” Rogue said with a smile.

I swallowed my panic at Eloise being away from me.

What the fuck? Get it together, man.

“Do you need to go get anything?” Rogue asked her.

“No. I have everything.”

Rogue nodded, but I could see the hurt in her eyes. Eloise only had her small backpack. Leland stepped forward and rubbed Rogue’s shoulder. His gaze met mine and I nodded. I was going to do whatever I could to ensure she had a better life from here on out.

Chapter Three

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