His Broken Princess

Chapter Ten

I swear nothing is hotter than a man who is overprotective and can take on anyone for his woman.A man who can kill and yet be as sweet as a lamb when he comes back to her. -A.Gupta

Violet

“Damn it.” The low murmured words had me slowing down as we crossed the parking lot to where his car was. I looked at him in question and he answered, “I forgot to pick up the bags from the kids section.”

With a loud exhale he slightly shifted to face the entrance of the mall before he said, “Here...” He held out the car keys and bags. “You wait inside the car. I will be back in a minute.”

I wanted to shake my head and go back inside in the Mall with him instead of waiting here alone but instead I took the bags and the keys from him so as not to come out more pathetic than I had felt when he had to hold my hand so I could step on the escalator.

I watched as he walked away and then paused on the stairs leading to the huge glass doors before he turned to me and motioned for me to get inside the car. Deciding to do just that, I made my way back to the car. I had only opened the door to the backseat and was putting the bags down when something scratched at my leg. With a silent gasp I jumped back, only to look down into the dark pool of eyes and brown furry face.

Lips stretched into a smile, I crouched down and stared at the cute little puppy. He yipped as he stood on his hind legs and wagged his tail. I softly caressed his small back with two fingers and wished that I had something for him to eat. Suddenly the puppy paused and I felt his little body stiffening before it let out a distressed sound and disappeared under the car.

Even before I turned around I knew there was a presence behind me that had scared the little puppy.

“What do we have here?”

My skin tightening in distress and blood thickening with cold, I stood up on unsteady legs. The door was still open so instead of turning around to face the stranger I took a step forward to slip inside the car. Years of living with monsters had made me aware of them like one would be aware of stepping into a frozen lake.

“That’s very rude. We are talking to you.”

A hand came forward and slammed the car door shut and another grabbed my arm and whirled me around. Alarm bells rang in my chest and my stomach curdled and everything started to become a white noise. I hadn’t realized that living with Carters had made me so attuned to safety and warmth that suddenly this little danger was making me feel like I was thrown out into a blizzard.

My eyes went to the man standing in front of me, equally aware of the one standing beside him. I swallowed as the old sensations, fear of punishments, kept me locked in place. “Answer me, what a pretty girl like you doing all alone?” The man asked, a smell of tobacco wafting off of him.

I looked around in the parking lot, realizing that it was empty. My gaze went to the glass doors where Cole had disappeared and the guards were still standing. But from this angle I knew they couldn't see me as a black SUV was in the way.

Out of nowhere rough fingers grabbed my cheeks and the man leaned down, losing his patience, he barked out, “You don't know how to bloody speak. Let me teach you.”

The scream rose from deep inside me but never came out. Never passed the tight knot in my throat as he grabbed me and dragged me behind the cars into a dark section of the parking lot. I dug my heels and I tried to push his hands away. My mind screamed for me to understand the difference between past and now. To know that I could escape if I just tried. I wasn’t a prisoner here. But my body forgot everything as it shut down on me as it recognised the harsh touches, rough skin against mine and cruel words thrown at me. And slowly my mind followed it, abandoning every thought and every emotion as it became a blank canvas.

My heart hammered and clenched tightly, as the next words struck a chord. “Let's see how loud can you scream for us.” The other man said as he grabbed a handful of my hair and tugged me back that pushed my body into another man’s.

This pain was a long lost friend that came back to visit, taking my breath away and making cold rise in my veins. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see. I couldn't hear. My body lost its functions, its senses. The world around me became four dark walls and a concrete floor. My hands and legs were numb as I stood there. My skin not mine, my body not mine as nails dug into my soft skin under my throat as a hand grabbed my shirt and pulled it down. Another man’s hand came around to my waist, to my pants.

They were saying something. Something I couldn't comprehend. Something about me being alone here. But I wasn’t. I was with him. I was—

Cole.

I closed my eyes and saw those sherry brown with golden rings.

Cole. Cole. Cole.

And suddenly as if conjured up by my mind, by my screaming heart. A dark shadow entered the narrow corner followed by a roar that shook me to my bones. That even stilled the monsters around me.

I knew he wasn’t a monster and the flash of those golden rings and gritted teeth, the set of those beautiful features solidified it. Because how can he be a monster when he was the guardian angel. He was the beautiful warrior sent to protect. But he shouldn't be here to protect me as there was nothing left to protect. These monsters weren’t going to take something that hadn't been already taken.

The men shifted and looked at him. Before anyone could do anything, Cole charged forward. He gripped the man standing in front of me by the throat and slammed him against the wall. He then punched him in the face. Again and again. I watched in a trance, still frozen, as blood started to cover the man’s face. But Cole didn't stop.

The man standing beside me took a step toward Cole and a whimper escaped me. A sound, much like the distressed sound that puppy had made. I watched as Cole’s back stiffened and slowly, so slowly he turned around. His fingers uncurled from the throat of the first man who slid down the wall. The sight of him looking like a rabid animal should make me scared and it might’ve if I hadn’t already seen the real monsters. But instead looking at him, seeing that light in his eyes, it replaced the chill I was feeling.

Those sherry eyes darkened and golden rings sparked in them as they raked down my body. He took a step forward toward me and then shifted to face the other man. It was like something switched off inside him, and the Cole I knew, the kind and humble man who treated me with kid gloves, was nowhere to be seen. Instead here was the man raging like an inferno, a godsend warrior.

The second man must have seen the full extent of what happened to his friend as he cursed and then started to turn away, to make a run for it. But Cole snatched him back with the back of his shirt and slammed his face into the wall. I heard the loud crunch of bones and flesh hitting flesh. I couldn’t see much as his back was to me. But I heard the screams and painful grunts that came from the other man.

Feeling like insects were crawling on my skin I took a step forward and buried my face in his back, my finger clutching his shirt. Cole stilled. I could hear his heavy breathing and the rapid rhythm of his heart. I could feel the shift of sinew and hard muscles.

Without a word, he turned around to face me. I hated how it robbed me off the shelter of his body and the warmth I was starting to feel when I was pressed to his back but I couldn’t look up into his face so I settled on watching the middle button of his shirt and the smudge of blood there. Then he stepped back and my foot shifted automatically to step closer but I stilled when I saw him holding out his hand for me.

My fingers trembled as I slipped my hand in his. The warmth that spread through his palm to mine was the safety that I had forgotten. I swallowed. And without a word to me, he took me to the car. He opened the door and helped me inside. I watched from the window as he picked up the bags that were on the floor before he threw them on the backseat and then slid on the driver seat.

Then he just sat there.

His breathing was controlled.

The switch flipped back.

I watched from the corner of my eyes when his hands came up to grip the steering wheel. And this time a gasp left me when I saw the blood on his knuckles. As if he knew what I was thinking he said, “It’s not mine.”

His rough words had me looking up at him. He was beautiful I thought, just as a second thought registered that I was wrong. That the switch hadn’t flipped back to the Cole with kid gloves. He was furious. He was still the raging inferno with fiery eyes. Those brown eyes dropped from my face and focused on something else. I looked down and grabbed my torn shirt but paused when I realized what he was staring at. The red scratches just above my chest.

When I looked back at him, he was slipping back out of the car. Wide eyed, I watched as he strode away to that dark corner and a moment later I heard the lock engaging as he locked me inside the car.

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 You can also check out Carter Brothers book starting from SAVED BY THE DEVIL- Mad and Bree's book. And My Boss Is My Tormentor.

All my books are dark with Anti-heroes, take the warnings seriously.

Thanks.

A.Gupta