Page 8 of Forsaken Dream
“For the hundredth time, Josh, the answer is no.” Pushing the words through clenched teeth, I tightened my hold on the doorknob. “Go away.”
“Still playing hard to get, I see.” Eyes narrowed, he straightened in an attempt to intimidate me. Too bad for him we were the same height, so I just glared at his face. “How long do you think you’ll keep up with the land, huh? I would hate to have to kick you out on the street when I buy it. You should learn to be nicer to me.”
It was the same tactic he used every time he showed up at my door. The same bullshit spilled from his arrogant mouth in his hopes to get to me. Just like always, I gathered my wits about me and gave him a saccharine smile that turned his eyes into slits.
“No.”
I slammed the door in his face, snorting when he yelped and started cursing up a storm. Hopefully this time I broke his nose and it’d take him longer than a few days before he tried the same thing again. Grinning like a fool, I turned the lock, adding the couple of chains I left out earlier. Still snickering under my breath, I went back to finish my calming tea. It’d be lukewarm by now, but it’d do.
Wiggling in the armchair, I strained my ears until I heard the faraway hum of his large truck. Only then did I fully relax. I had no idea how I missed it when he arrived on my property. I must’ve been lost in my daydream about the dark-haired male. It’d serve me right for drooling over some guy like a hormonal teenager again. Finishing the tea, I nuzzled deeper into the chair, and sleep pulled me into its soothing embrace. Drifting between dreams and wakefulness, I almost missed the scraping coming from the door. When it happened again, I bolted upright in the chair. When the pawing continued, fury made me see red.
Jumping up, I stormed to the front door, my feet slapping like applause over the wooden floors. Magic swirled around my fingertips, prickling my skin in my rush to open it and teach that entitled, arrogant jerk a lesson. Josh would learn once and for all that no meant no. There were enough single human women in this town that he could bother instead of me.
“Get the hell off my property, you asshole!” Jerking the chains off and yanking the door open, I snarled like a feral beast.
With a yelp, I jumped back.
The body of a man fell forward, his blood-covered arms wrapping around my knees so he didn’t drop face-first inside my home. It wasn’t only his arms that were covered in blood, either. His dress shirt was in shreds, cuts visible through the openings that were oozing the red liquid. Bits and pieces of golden hair poked through the matted hair around his head as he panted. Frozen in shock, it took me a moment to realize this wasn’t Josh. The stranger was shaking, tremors raking his powerful frame while he kneeled at my feet and bled all over my floor, all the while holding onto me like I was a lifeline. My magic fizzled out and I leaned over him, sticking my head out to see if whoever had done this to him was coming to kill us both. Only silence and darkness stretched outside of the open door.
“Please.” The raspy plea pulled at my heartstrings and snapped me out of my shock.
“I got you.” Maneuvering around his large form, I managed to lift him up, throwing his arm over my shoulder and leading him inside. “Let’s get you inside.”
Huffing under the heavy weight, I closed the door and locked it behind me before taking him to the living room. After placing him on the sofa, which was not big enough for him—his legs actually hung over the side—I rushed to the bathroom and filled a bowl with water, grabbing face towels. My mind whirled with all the reasons he was barely alive or how he had managed to end up at my door. He could be a criminal, and if he survived, he might end up killing me, but I didn’t have it in me to turn my back and pretend I didn’t see him.
There was so much blood everywhere.
He might die.
Criminal or not, I couldn’t leave him to bleed out. If he was a bad person, I’d deal with him later. As he was at the moment, he couldn’t hurt me if he tried. With that thought, I ran back to him, dropping on my knees next to the sofa where he was sprawled. Why couldn’t I stay away from trouble? Why?
“I’m here,” I whispered as I started mopping the blood from him. “Everything will be okay.”
Something inside me told me that nothing would be okay ever again.
