Page 22 of Until Death Parts Us

KASPIAN

Once I’m finally up,Quin tosses me my clothes that he found in the corner of the tent. I slowly put on the pants but leave the shirt off because I don’t want the material sticking to the oozing brand marks on my torso.

I grab the branding iron and take it outside to the fire, limping past the other guy’s dead body. When I return, I find Quin with a knife in his hand, watching me come closer. We don’t bother asking this guy questions. We don’t need information from him. What he and his friend were up to means nothing to us. But when he decided to take me, he sealed his fate.

Quin lifts the man’s jacket and shirt, and I press the end to his stomach. His body jerks as he screams through the tape over his mouth. I keep it there until it’s cooled down, then I go back outside and stick it in the fire again before heading back inside.

After I push it onto his chest, reveling in his screams, I toss it aside and look at Quin. He takes his knife and mimics the stab wound in my side. After he pulls it out, his eyes scan my naked torso, taking in every injury on my body.

His jaw clenches and his nostrils flare with each exhale. He’s furious.

I’m on my knees near the man’s legs while Quin’s on the other side next to his head. He meets my gaze before he absolutely loses it.

His arm comes down in a vicious swing, the blade finding its home in the middle of this man’s stomach. He swings again and again and again. This isn’t calculated. It’s not careful. It’s not for his enjoyment.

Blood splatters us both and covers the inside of the tent. Quin roars with anger, the sound scaring birds out of trees.

He annihilates this man. There’s no other word for it.

Quin doesn’t show real emotion. He’s not romantic. He’s not loving and sweet. He doesn’t tell me he loves me. His anger is usually subdued and taken out in quiet ways. When he kills, that’s the closest I see him come to any sort of feelings. But this. This is unlike anything I’ve seen before.

I don’t know how much time passes, but he eventually slows down, his breathing heavy and sweat glistening on his face. He doesn’t look down at his victim. He doesn’t inspect the brutality or revel in the blood. He simply stares straight across at me, and that’s when I know.

He was terrified. He thought he lost me.

Quin loves me.

He won’t say it, but actions speak louder than words, and he just proved it to me.

“Let’s get out of here.”

I nod. “Okay.”

Quin gathers our clothes before we step outside, passing the other guy’s body on the way to a truck parked on the other side of a row of trees. As I’m settling into the seat, he gathers papers that are stuffed in the doors or littered on the floor and walks back toward the tent. I watch as he holds the trash to the dying fire before throwing it inside the tent.

When he climbs in, he starts up the truck and says, “I don’t want them finding any trace of your DNA in there.”

I suppose his methodical brain is helpful.

He tries to avoid as many bumps as he can, but the path is far from smooth, and both of us grimace and groan with each big dip.

After a while, Quin pulls up in front of the cabin I was taken from. When I look at him, he says, “I need to get my rope.” My brows dip slightly. “There was someone else in here.”

“Oh.”

“I’ll be back.”

He returns a few minutes later and tosses the rope on the floor before driving us back to our own cabin. It’s nearly four in the morning, so nobody is outside, which is good.

We hobble inside and find our way to the room we haven’t even slept in yet. Quin leaves me to gather a few things from the RV, but then he’s back, coming to sit next to me on the bed.

“It’s gonna hurt, but I have to sew you up and put cream on your burns.”

I sigh. “I know.”

He cuts the tape from my torso, peeling it off and removing the blood-soaked shirt that was covering the wound.

I watch his face as he takes the time to clean the area before opening up the suture kit he insisted we get as soon as we got to Alaska. He had to sew me up after Willow stabbed me in Vermont, and he’s been ready to have to do it again since then.

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