Hostage of the Heart

A Little Taste (Fourteen)

Keeping the ice pack on her hand, Piper unclenched her teeth in order to speak. "Get real? I've spent the majority of my life having to be painfully real. Forgive me for not wanting to delve into that shit here with you."

"I merely asked about your hand."

"And I told you that I hit a tree."

"You didn't tell me why."

Dropping the ice pack on the cushion, Piper sat forward, linking her fingers as she stared up at Desiree. "Here's some real for you. I don't wish to discuss it, so back off. Please."

"Piper--"

"I'm serious."

"So am I. It's about time that you start providing me with some answers. Think I'm entitled to the truth. The whole truth."

Piper softly sighed, feeling the beginnings of a headache. "I disagree. I'll tell you what I want to, when I want to," she replied, managing to somehow make that statement sound mostly polite.

"Thought we were in this together? That I was no longer your hostage?"

"You're not, yet I'm still in charge, Desiree."

"You don't think you're obligated to share with me? Tell me if you disagree, but I believe that overall I've been pretty easy going and open-minded all things considered. You just kidnapped me with a gun, and I consider you a friend while seemingly everyone else except Taj is calling you a murderer."

Wishing that she had swallowed four of those tablets, Piper raised her right hand, cautiously sifting it through her hair. "You want to be my friend? In that case, respect my privacy, buddy."

Eyes narrowed, Desiree imagined snatching that sandwich bag, opening it, and pouring the melting contents into the other woman's pants. Of course, she didn't have the balls to do so. Figuratively or literally. So, she settled for a glare, receiving a raised eyebrow in response. "You're not in any position to ask me for respect. Especially, when you obviously have a lack of respect for me. Disrespectful, secretive, controlling...did your parents not teach you any better?" Although her glare didn't hold a candle to the intensity of the one Piper now sported, she continued, as Desiree had reached a point of being too vexed to shut her mouth. "Oh, I suppose they didn't, since your ass ended up in prison."

Instead of yelling, the seated woman's voice turned deceptively calm. "Let's not bring our parents into this considering what your father did."

"All you have are suspicions. My father is a good man."

"Your definition of good must greatly differ from mine. You didn't see him in that courtroom. He's hiding something...he's been hiding something for years, something that involves me and my trial."

"Suppose I'll add paranoid to the list." Arms folded over her chest, Desiree stared. "Don't blame my father because you made the wrong choices, because your parents evidently didn't deem it necessary to teach you right from wrong. You--"

"Need to shut up." Ignoring the pain it caused, Piper wrung her hands together. "Desiree, you just need to shut the hell up. Right now."

Instead of taking the quietly uttered advice, Desiree chose to continue what she intended to say before being interrupted. "At such a young age you screwed up your own life, and my father hadn't a thing to do with it. You want to blame someone for the predicament you're now in? I'd suggest that you look in the mirror."

"And I'd like to suggest that you get out of my fucking face." Her hand trembled as she pointed toward the other woman's bedroom. "Go in there."

Tamping down any fear, Desiree stood her ground. "No."