Page 18 of Laila Manning
Which was a mantra I repeated all day every day.
I only knew the ice cream was there because Gavin’s teeth had been bothering him before bed, and I remembered his frozen treats were in the kitchen. So, I risked encountering a security guard to get him some.
And now I was hooked, desperate to go back and get the ice cream I’d earned while simultaneously telling myself it wasn’t worth the risk and forgetting about it.
I had made so many big-girl steps already though; I didn’t want to lose the momentum to old fears. I forced my feet to move ahead, toward the kitchen and then to the freezer. Relieved, I found the kitchen empty and silent, I practically ran to the industrial-size freezer and grabbed the sweet treat, fearing I’d be caught.
The security door opened just as I reached for a spoon, and fear instantly froze me, my hand trapped in the drawer, my body screaming to react but utterly immobile.
Ryker had told his guards to stay out of the main house unless I summoned them, but I didn’t call anyone. A giant body moved through the doorway, into the brightly lit kitchen, and electricity zinged through my nervous system when I saw who it was.
Zeke.
But it wasn’t Zeke the way I knew Zeke. The man who walked into the kitchen and paused when he saw me was a version of Zeke I’d never seen before.
He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of black pants and matching black boots, with a scowl equally dark. Blood splattered his tattooed chest and neck, his face just as crimson stained. A nasty wound lay across the meat of his chest, directly over his heart, dripping blood down his torso and into the waistband of his pants.
“Laila?” He scowled deeper, staring at me. “What are you doing in here?” There was a slight slur to his words that instantly made me remember the way liquored-up men talked in the brothel.
Zeke was drunk.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered on autopilot, dropping my eyes and staring at the floor between us as my body took over for my short-circuiting brain. “I didn’t see anything. I’m sorry.”
“Shit.” The slow, quiet tread of his boots on the floor followed a sigh, and a muttered curse. “Hey, look at me.” I forced air into my lungs, trying to forget the way the blood looked smeared across his handsome face while simultaneously reminding myself he was always kind to me.
Friend.
Ally.
Good.
I repeated those three words in my head over and over until his boots stopped right at the tips of my bare toes, crowding my view of the tile floor where I’d been staring blindly before.
“Hey.” He said again, slowly reaching for my hand and taking the ice cream from it, before setting it on the counter. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“No one was supposed to come in,” I whispered, taking a deep breath. “Ryker said he told the guards to stay out. Then the door opened, and I—”
“You were scared.” He replied gently. “I’m sorry. I had no idea you were here, or I wouldn’t have come in like this. I just needed some first aid supplies, and I’m not exactly thinking straight right at the moment. I’m sorry.”
My eyes moved from the floor to his pants, slowly taking in the cuts in his pants and the wounds showing through them, then to his abs, splattered in blood I didn’t have to be a fool to realize wasn’t all his, up to his massive chest and shoulders and then to his perfect face.
“You’re hurt,” I stated the obvious as I relaxed out of my fight-or-flight mode. “Should I call Ryker? Or the doctor?”
The wound on his chest continuously dripped blood down his abs, and I ached to make it stop. There was only so much blood inside the human body, and even though Zeke was a giant, he was only human.
“I may need a doctor if I keep bleeding on Ellie’s kitchen floor,” he joked and gave me a one-sided grin. “But no, I’m okay.”
“Here.” I moved and grabbed a roll of paper towels off the counter, ripping a handful free and holding them out to him. “Put pressure on it.”
He raised an eyebrow at me but, thankfully, staunched the bleeding with the towels anyway. “You know first aid?”
I nodded. “I patched the girls up when they—,” I shrugged, leaving the rest of it open-ended. He knew what happened to the girls. “I picked up a few skills along the way.”
“It’s a good thing to know.” He replied. “What are you doing in the mansion?” he asked again, looking around for someone else.
“The four of them went to a concert. Gavin’s nanny was sick, so they asked me to watch him so they could go.” I shrugged, looking from the red stain seeping through the paper towels to his bright blue eyes. “You need to get that bleeding stopped.”
“I know.” He nodded, reached around me to a tall cabinet on the wall, and grabbed a large bin from it. “I just needed this.” He held it up and smirked. “I’ll get out of your hair now.”
