The Predator and His Prey

Chapter Twenty

Jade laid on the bed, curled up into a ball. She heard the noises around her, smelt the food they brought into her hoping she would eat. She didn't want to eat, she didn't want to leave the bed. Loco and Jo didn't make her.

Jo would come in and rub her back, put a plate of food on the night table for her, then come back hours later as it laid untouched. But she had no desire. She could feel her stomach in knots, hunger pains she knew. But she had no desire to do anything to fix it, to make them go away.

What was the point? To eat, live, laugh, care, only for her to ruin it all? Nothing mattered. She would never be anything or happy. She ruined it. She was the cause of everything bad in her life. So, why was she bothering to live? That was what she did after all, ruin things. She ruined her family, her home, every foster home she had after, and now she ruined whatever she had with Dominik. She was better off not being there, what was the point of trying. The point of living if everything she had she was just going to ruin?

She heard the door opening, she knew it was them forcing the noise since she knew from experience with Dominik that they could move without a sound. They were warning her they were coming in, giving her time to prepare. But she never did, she never moved, never looked at them, never spoke.

"Is the plan to starve to death?" She heard his voice and flinched from the sound of it.

She was sure she was just hearing things, she kept looking out the window, ignoring the presence in the room, it would never be Dominik again. Why would it ever be Dominik? All she did was ruin things, set him off, she was bad for him. For everyone.

She felt the bed dip beside her and the body heat of someone moving through the comforter of the bed to her body. The heat sending a small jolt of something into the pit of her stomach. A feeling only one man in her life had ever made her feel. But it was not him she knew, for how could it be when she had once again ruined something. That was what she did. She ruined her own life.

She felt a large hand on her back, small circles rubbing against her skin through the comforter, as the familiar shock waves went up her spine. The feeling only one man ever made her feel. She turned her head and looked, his light green eyes staring at her with concern.

"Kitten." The name on his lips sounding like a melody only she would ever love, making the tears come instantly at the mere sight of him.

"You are here." She sniffled, the strain of her emotions on her voice making her voice come out thick and heavy. He looked at her, his eyes intently staring at her.

"I came for you."

His words shot something deep into her heart, her chest, her stomach, her core. The tears fell down her cheeks freely as she sat up and flung herself into his arms. Relief and warmth swelling inside of her as his warm body pressed into hers. He didn't hold back, pulling her into his lap like a small child and cradling her as if she was the most precious thing in his world. She cried into his chest as all the years of pain, all the years of hurt and sadness spilled from her eyes. Her tiny hands clinging to his shirt for dear life as though if she were to let go even a little he would disappear from her.

She stayed in his arms, crying until the tears stopped but only for her body to be racked by silent sobs and shakes. When they subsided, she laid against his chest in silence, he never spoke, never asked her to stop. He just held her and rubbed her back as she let everything that had hunted her for years spill out of her eyes onto his shirt. When she finally had no more to give, when her body had finally worn itself out, he had laid her down on the bed, carefully engulfing her into his arms as her eyes drifted close into sleep.

HE moved through the house, HIS eyes always on her. She didn't have to look at HIM to know that HE was watching her. HE always watched her.