Page 23 of Kingston
“I’ve called the police.”She didn’t know who was speaking, but they said that they were recording it too.Daniel didn’t seem to mind what they were saying, since she was in the building again, he was leaving.He told her she’d better be there when he returned, too, or he was going to give her worse than he had already.“They’re on their way, Raven.I’ve told them that he’s hurting you.”
Daniel was going toward the door when he suddenly turned and came back to her.With a punch to her face, she fell backwards and hit the lobby floor.While there, he drew back his leg and kicked her in the ribs.Everything blacked out from that point on.
Waking up, she knew that she was in the emergency room.Moving her body around so that she could see if someone was with her, she cried out in pain.Every part of her body hurt, and she was sure that when she sat up, she was going to be sick too.What had been wrong with him?
“I’m here.”She looked in the direction of the voice.“My name is Cassian Savage.I was in the restaurant when you were dragged in.”
“He hurt me because he wanted me to stay while he left for a couple of hours.”Thinking hurt as well as her jaw, and she asked for something to drink.When she was given a sip of water, she tried to focus on the man in front of her.“I can’t make you out.It’s like you’re a blurry blob.”
“Gee, thanks.”He laughed, and she decided that he had a good laugh.“Anyway, Daniel was arrested, and your friends turned over the recording of him following you out of the building and to your car.I’m afraid that I arrived too late to stop him from kicking you—you have two broken ribs inaddition to other injuries.But he’s claiming that since you’re his employee, you should have just done what he said, and that wouldn’t have had him hurting you.He blamed it all on you.”
“Of course he did.He leaves like that every day and is gone for a few hours.No one ever said anything because he usually leaves someone in charge, and it’s good to get away from him.Today he decided that I was going to watch things while he was gone.It’s my last day, and I’d already clocked out for good.”She wondered why she was telling this man what had happened when all she wanted to do was beg someone for something for the pain.“Who are you again?”
“Cassian Savage.You have a concussion as well.This is the third time we’ve talked.They said you might have a raging headache, too.Did you want me to call someone for something for pain?”
“Yes, please.I’m sure you have better things to do than to wait around here for me to get meds.”He said that he was enjoying himself.“Good for you.I don’t know if you know this or not, but it’s not terribly romantic to enjoy a woman who is in pain right now.”
He laughed again.While she was getting something in her IV, the meds just floated over her.He sat down in the chair again and picked up what she thought was a newspaper.Well, if he wanted to just sit around while she napped, good for him.
The police came to see her a few minutes after she got her pain medication.They asked her to tell them what had happened, and she couldn’t believe that Cassian or whoever he was didn’t leave.They didn’t even make him go.After telling them everything she could remember, Cassian told them that he had knocked Daniel out with his fist, and that was where he was when they had arrived.Flat out on the floor was a good place for her former boss.
“Did he ever hit you before?”She said no, but so far as she knew, no one had ever challenged him before.“And what made you do it this time?Was there something that you said to him or he said to you that set him off?”
“Today was my last day, and because I was leaving, he said something about not getting a bonus that was being offered if someone could get me to stay.I didn’t know anything about that until my lunch break, where he insisted that my going to college wasn’t as important as him getting the bonus that was there for the taking.”The officer asked her if she wanted to press charges.“Yes.There wasn’t any reason for him to knock me around like he did so that he could go on break for a couple of hours.”
“Does he usually take a two-hour break in the afternoon?”She told them that he did on her days working, but she didn’t know if he did it on her days off.“Has he ever left you in charge before.Or in this case, wanted you to be in charge before?”
“No.I don’t want to be in charge.I was head cashier, but I didn’t have to do anything but take over the register when someone had a break.”The officers asked her again if he’d left her in charge before.“No.Like I said, I don’t want to be in charge.”
The hospital was going to keep her overnight because of the head injury.By the time she was settled in her room, her manager and the district manager came into her room.She didn’t want to keep going over the same questions all the time, but she knew in order for Daniel to get what he deserved, she was the one with the power to put him there.She never liked him anyway.
All the time she was being questioned, Cassian was right there with her.He even, at one point, said that she’d had enough questions for one day and that they’d have to come back tomorrow.She didn’t understand why her bosses left when they did, but was kind of glad for it.She really had had enough of the same questions over and over.
“What happens now, do you know?”Cassian told her that Daniel would stay in jail until such time as the police charged him with something.“I think they have a lot to choose from.Did you hear that he’s not supposed to leave the building with one of us in charge?I wonder how they didn’t know that.”
“It sounded to me like he was doing a lot of things that they didn’t know about.Hopefully, they fire him.But probably they’ll send him to anger management school and be done with it.Worse things have happened.”She thought he might be right about the anger management classes.She’d read that someplace how people who worked for the place that she had were sending their ‘family members’to classes rather than waste all the time that they paid for training for them.Yes, she thought, worse things have happened.
“Why are you here?”She still thought that he was somewhat blurry, but didn’t say that to him.The nurses had asked if she wanted anything for pain, and when she got it, she realized that the man had been there with her all day.And now it was nearly nine o’clock, and he was still hanging around.“You have to have better things to do than to just sit around a hospital bed all evening.”
“What do you know about shifters?”She said that she knows that she works with a couple, but other than that, she didn’t know anything.“They mate for life, did you know that much?”
“No.And why would I care?I’m just a plain human who has been hurt.You didn’t answer my question.”He said that he was her mate and that he belonged to her.“Belong to me?What does that even mean?And I don’t want a mate.I have my things and my life just the way I want them to be.”
“I’m afraid that it doesn’t work that way.I’ve found you or you’ve found me, I’m not sure how you want to say that, and you’re stuck with me.”She rolled to her side and didn’t look at him.“We don’t have to talk about this now.I know you must be hurting.”
“As I said, I have things the way that I like them, and I’m not going to be bossed around by you.You can take your mate business someplace else.I don’t want you.”He laughed again, and she was beginning to think there was something wrong with him.“Go away.I’ve had a really shitty day today, and I don’t need you and your laughing ass here with me.”
“That’s very hurtful.And I have no intentions of bossing you around.I know you have a life.While you were out on the floor, one of your coworkers said you were going to college to become a lawyer.I was one of those at one time.I don’t remember how long ago—what’s the matter?”She turned in the bed to look at him.
“I just realized who you are.You’re one of the Savage guys.The cousins or something along those lines.You’re supposed to have more money than Midas, as my grannie says.”He didn’t bother denying it.“I don’t need some rich guy trying to make me into his plaything either.I have a life that I like just fine.”He laughed.This time, it was as if he’d gotten a really good kick out of her woes.“You’re certifiable.Has anyone ever told you that before?”
“My brother, Brenin, said that I do laugh when things around me aren’t that funny.But sometimes I get a kick out of what people are saying, so I laugh.”She rolled back to her side, careful of her ribs this time.“I think you’re beautiful and will fit right in with my family, Raven.”
“We’ll see.”She had to roll to her back; her ribs were hurting her too badly to sleep on her side.“We’re not having sex.I draw the line at being your plaything.”When he laughed again, she willed herself to sleep.The man was insane if he thought that she’d just come along nicely with him.
~*~
Standing up, he stretched when he knew she was asleep.Cassian thought that having a mate was fun so far.Of course, she was going to be tough to make her believe that he wasn’t going to boss her around.Also, she wasn’t going to be a plaything either.He thought that was funny that she was so dead set against having him in her life that he caught himself smiling every once in a while just thinking about her.
