Page 114 of Broken by my Bully
Again, I don’t fight him.
“We all have secrets, Haven. Things we’d rather keep hidden. I respected your privacy and risked my career. So while I’ll accept that you don’t trust me enough to talk to me, don’t think for a second I’ve forgotten about our agreement.”
Somehow, despite the panic screaming through my skull like a fucking hurricane, I whisper, “Quid pro quo.”
He told me a secret. Now he expects one in return.
And if I don’t give him one…then that discrepancy on my paperwork might get flagged, after all.
“Smart girl.” His eyes flicker to the marks on my throat, and then he disappears into the bathroom. Light pools into the bedroom when he turns on the light, and I hear the cabinet doors opening, closing.
Pressure keeps building behind my eyes the longer I sit there, my mind marinating in everything he’s told me. I want nothing morethan to bolt out his front door, but my knees are too weak to carry me. The weight of his words is too heavy, keeping me pinned where I sit.
…we all have secrets…
He returns with a first-aid kit that he handles with reverential care as he lays it on the bed beside me.
Bastian takes out a salve, leaning aside so his shadow doesn’t block out the light from the bathroom as he gently applies it to the sides of my neck.
“Kai wasn’t responsible for this,” I whisper.
He screws the lid back on the tube and tosses it into the kit, staring narrow-eyed at me like he doesn’t believe a word of it.
“Neither were you, Haven.”
Heat flushes up my neck at the intensity of his gaze. I don’t want to break eye contact, don’t want to give him the victory, but my insides are shivering with nerves.
It feels like defeat when I look down at my hands twisting in my lap.
Bastian rifles through the first-aid kit again and takes out a bottle of pills. Shakes one out. Then two. Three.
“For the pain.”
I blink at him. “I’m not in pain.”
“You will be once the endorphins wear off. And judging from the severity of the injuries you’ve shown me, you’ve got a lot more to look forward to than a headache.”
His emphasis on ‘the injuries you’ve shown me’ makes it clear he knows there are more. Guess he’s had many, many years learning how to read people. If he really had a private practice, then he’s had ample opportunity to build a library of tells. No wonder it’s so easy for him to know when I’m lying…or keeping something hidden.
I could tell him everything. Fuck him up so royally with his condescendingquid pro quothat even his children would owe me their fucking secrets.
Tears brim in my eyes. I blink them back without allowing a single one to fall.
Fuck him. Fuck Kai. Fuck everyone. I refuse to die on this hill tonight.
“That’s too many?—”
“Let me take care of you, Haven.”
Something is setting my teeth on edge. It’s not him. Every inch of Bastian radiates frustrated concern. It’s like there’s someone else in the room with us, but no matter how fast I turn my head, they disappear before I can spot them.
I should leave. Make him call me an Uber. Fuck, get him to drive me back to Lookout Point, if I must.
“What are they?”
“Does it matter?” He strokes my cheek, voice gentle. Soothing. “Be a good girl and take your medicine.”
My lips part, stars glittering in my eyes as I peer up at him through tear-studded lashes. He puts the pills on my tongue and hands me a bottle of water to wash them down.
