I Became Her

Chapter 28 -The Attraction-

“Kane!” The third scream is directly at him because I feel like I froze the moment I saw her. I don’t know what to do. My mind is blank, but she needs help, and she needs it now.

“KANE!” The fourth scream is full of panic and desperation. I need him.

“KA-.” The fifth one is cut short by him.

“I’m here! s**t! What happened?” he kneels right across from me and lifts her body from the floor. “Wet some towels, we need to clean her to see where the blood is coming from.” His orders force me to act, and I forget the fear and panic that are still here but pushed to the curb until I finish what I was ordered to do.

I run to the bathroom and soak two towels with cool water. Kane followed me with Talia’s limp body hanging from his arms. He places her gently on the carpet and after our movements are on repeat for some time, him cleaning her skin and handing me back the towel, me handing him a clean one and cleaning the one he gave me. Time started to become irrelevant, and our movements seem to take hours. Everything was in slow motion. The blood, the cleaning, her whimpers.

“You’re alright. You’ll be fine.” Kane keeps repeating over and over again while gently brushing over her bruised skin.

And then I notice it. He is wearing shorts and nothing else. I can feel my cheeks run hot, and I turn my back on them to breathe. I need to calm down. I have seen him shirtless numerous times and I haven’t cared one bit. I need to go back to that Lex, the one that didn’t care about his tanned skin and display of perfectly toned muscles. Okay, that is not helping.

“It’s her brow that has the deepest cut, but she won’t need stitches,” he speaks behind me while I make sure the dark red embarrassment has left my face.

“I’ll get the kit,” I say, rushing out of the bathroom with two quick steps and as soon as I am out of his view, I want to curse myself off from this planet. Damn. The first aid kit is in the bathroom. I am really losing my wits when I am around him.

Okay, whatever, I shouldn’t read too much into my girly feelings, because what woman wouldn’t like what she is seeing while looking at him? It’s just a normal instinct to feel attracted to a perfectly good male specimen. It’s what mother nature intended, and I can’t fight it, so I just need to accept it.

“It’s actually in here,” I walk back into the bathroom and take the kit without looking at him, so I don’t have to fog my brain with deciphering whatever I see in his face. If he even noticed my mishap just now.

I hand him two butterfly closures and he places them with such care and precision, so there is no doubt in my mind that this is not his first time to batch someone up like that. The movements come too naturally to be performed for the first time. Who is he? Some kind of guardian angel for fallen women.

“How is she?” I ask to direct my thoughts to where they should be, with Talia and her well-being.

“Busted brow and a few bruises, but we should take her to the hospital. Just to be sure.” He looks up at me and says in a more serious voice. “This is what you get when you stay involved with these people.”

I divert my eyes from his. He is right, I am putting myself in harms way trying to right some wrongs and perhaps even erase some souls from the list of the living. But running is not an option, no, actually it is, it’s an option resulting in a dead end where the bad guys live large and the rest of us keep jumping at every shadow that lurks near us. That’s why I am staying put and burning all my irons in the same fire.

“I’ll get some clean clothes for her,” I dismiss his comment and walk into my bedroom to find something for her to wear. Something easy to put on and comfortable so she won’t be freaked out when she becomes conscious long enough to understand what is going on.

“NOOO…” Her scream makes me drop the clothes on the floor and I run back to the bathroom. She has crawled to the far corner and is looking at Kane with frightened eyes while he is calmly stepping back and motioning that he is not going to harm her.

“Talia, it’s okay. It’s Kane, you know him. I asked him to come. Talia, it’s okay,” I start repeating myself because I run out of reassuring things to say. I don’t know how to handle these kinds of things. I’ve never been a good caretaker; I’ve always been the one receiving condolences and pats on the back. Psychology and feelings in general are a little too complicated to pick up by just reading a book, so I can’t even fix that shortcoming. So, I just continue to rely on my instincts. “Talia, you came to me for a reason. Please, let us help you.” I take a few steps toward her. “Are you hurting badly?” Another few steps are made, and she shakes her head as an answer to my question. “Can I come closer?” She nods and I sit in front of her. “What happened?”

She looks at me with tears and shame glistening in her eyes. “I am sorry,” she says lowering her head. “I can’t go to the hospital. I can’t,” she whispers.

I look at Kane who is still standing in the doorway. “You can go, we’ll be fine. But thank you, for everything.” I wish I could tell him more, tell him how kind and caring he is, how much he means to me, how much I need him to be my next-door neighbor. Not because I find him attractive, but because, somehow, he manages to remind me why I am here and what I have to do. He keeps me sane, both in the ring and out of it.

“You know where to find me.” I hear him walking away and so does Talia as she is slowly rising her head again.

“I have something to tell you,” She says while taking my hand in hers. “But you have to promise me, that you will try to understand me.” She squeezes my hand, forcing me to look at her instead of our bonded hands. “Promise me!” Her eyes are even more demanding than her voice.

“I’ll try, I promise!” I am not supposed to make promises I am not sure I can keep, but this is different. Hopefully. She is hurting and she needs to unload, so I will say whatever to make her feel better.

“I lied. Everything I told you was a lie. And I dragged you into it, thinking I can get away with it.” She is not looking at me while speaking, her eyes are moving between several places and my eyes aren’t on her radar. “It all started so long ago that I don’t even know where to start.” She lets go of my hand to wipe her tears, but her emotions are not making me feel bad for her, something clicked when she confessed lying to me.

Once again, I trusted someone I shouldn’t have. Will I ever learn?

“Lied about what?” I want her to get to the point.

“About the escort thing,” she says and finally looks straight at me, probably trying to read my emotions about the topic. “And why I am in Vegas. And the party tonight.”

“So basically, about everything.” Well done, Lex. Nice choice of friends. I want to kick myself right now for believing whatever anyone tells me. My street smartness is minus one hundred.

“I didn’t mean to befriend you. You were just a casual acquaintance from the gym, and I liked you, so that is why I remembered you and offered the event tonight. The event I wasn't even supposed to attend.” She leans her head back against the wall and stares at the ceiling.

I wait about a minute for her to speak again, but seems like she is waiting something from me as well. Maybe assurance that I will forgive her? Maybe just a nod or a cough? So here we are, in silence, both waiting for something.

“You were right,” she states almost silently, still focusing on the ceiling.

“About what?” I ask almost instantly to get something more out of her before her beloved ceiling crushes us because my nerves will blow the walls out if this drags on any longer. I keep myself calm and don’t push her as hard as I would like to because of the state she is in, but the more she speaks, the less I see her cuts and bruises, the less I see someone in pain. Instead, there is someone who lied without a reason from a get-go.

“About me being a prostitute.”