Kiss & Control by Karina Light

Author:Karina Light [Light, Karina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

I barely doze off when a sound pulls me from sleep.

Teeth chattering.

Eva’s in front of the fireplace, wrapped in my button-down, suit coat, and the sleeping bag, but she’s still somehow a glorified ice cube, apparently. Granted, the fire went out an hour or so ago when the last log let out its final gasp of life. I climbed into the cot not long after.

“You ok?” I say it to the darkness, unsure if she’s awake or off in dreamland. For all I know, the teeth chattering could be sobs. I hope it’s not. I don’t want to go down that path again.

She finally fell asleep a few hours ago, quitting her pursuit for conversation after my hundredth one-word response. I knew what she was doing. Making nice wouldn’t earn her freedom. It’d only come once the threat was eliminated, and she wouldn’t enjoy the mouthful of pills and booze it’d take to see the outside world again.

“C-cold,” she stammers.

“Out of logs.” I’m not exactly toasty myself on the stiff cot with just a blanket. My neck is bent at an awkward angle, and I’d do anything for a fucking pillow right now. Even the cheap, shitty ones that department stores practically beg you to take off their hands.

She doesn’t reply, but I swear I hear a whimper.

I flop to my back from my side, running my hands through my hair. This is hell. “You want to come up here?” I don’t want her next to me, but there’s room on the cot, and sleeping side by side might help us both stay warm.

That gets a bite out of her. A snarl, really. “NO!”

I chuckle at the horror in her voice. “Am I really that ugly? Sheesh.”

“No.” Just as soon as the word slips out, she falls quiet, other than the chattering of her teeth.

I adjust the blanket over my chest. “You sound like one of those wind-up denture toys.”

“You sound like an asshole.”

I smile. “Come on. You’re cold. I won’t tell your pop that you have the hots for me.”

Her sleeping bag scrapes against the floor, no doubt because she’s sitting up in outrage. “I do NOT have the hots for you!”

“Then what are you afraid of?” I challenge. I hate to admit it, but poking this spitting cobra is my new favorite game.

“Nothing,” she barks. “I just don’t want to sleep next to a murderous kidnapper.”

I laugh, shifting on the cot’s thin mattress. “I didn’t kidnap you. Someone else did. You’re lucky, too. You’d be dead if he didn’t. And if it weren’t for me stopping in before the storm really hit, you’d be dead. So watch the insults.”

“But you’re still a murderer.”

“Where are you going with this?” I sigh. “You’re cold. Get your ass up here.” I doubt she’ll try anything sketchy to get away. And even if she does, I’m a light sleeper.

I don’t miss the tiny gasp before she speaks. It’s amusing coming out of Lombardi’s daughter. He has more blood on his hands than any local crew.

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