Free Chaos Bound by Sarah Castille

Jacks had done when Viper took her on his office desk.
    Not only that. Ally was on her way with Maurice and Doug. And although Doug was a marshmallow, he was a cop, a big guy, and more than able to hold his own in a fight.
    “Okay. But you have to put on the sweatpants. I’ve taken off the bedspread to protect us from germs, but we’ll need to put towels over the pillows and check for bedbugs, too. I got you some socks. You should wear them to walk on the floor, but take them off before you get into bed.”
    “Bedbugs?” Holt pushed himself up, laughing. “The things that were crawling around that dungeon…”
    “Don’t.” She held up her hands in warning. “I don’t need to know.”
    While Holt ate the leftovers she’d managed to procure from the motel restaurant, Naiya covered the pillows and checked the sheets all under Holt’s bemused gaze. She joined him at the table for a snack, and then went to the bathroom to change.
    “Where’s your sweatpants?” Holt, already in bed, glared as she hung her clothes up in the closet. She’d thrown on the biggest of the Bolton Beaver T-shirts and it fell to her mid-thigh, enough to cover what she didn’t want to be seen.
    “They didn’t have any my size.”
    “So I gotta lie here beside you while you’re wearing a shirt that says Beaver Country and nothing else but a pair of panties, after being alone in a dungeon for three months?” He cocked his head to the side. “You are wearing panties, aren’t you?”
    “None of your business. And if it’s a problem, we can go with plan number two, which is Naiya sleeps on the floor.” She reached over and turned off the light, her body freezing until she reminded herself she’d left the bathroom light on. “That’s probably better because I don’t want to hurt you.”
    Holt rolled to his side, propping his head up with his elbow. “Yeah, I’m hurting. But I know you’re hurting, too. You buried your momma, got slapped around, kidnapped, and now you’re on the run after escaping Viper’s dungeon. So come lie beside me and let me hold you and we’ll hurt together.”
    Emotion welled up in her throat, and for a moment she couldn’t speak. She’d locked the day away so she could focus on doing what it took to survive. Holt’s words and his gentle tone threatened to open a door to feelings she couldn’t analyze or understand. Feelings and emotions that scared her. “People don’t hurt together. They hurt alone.”
    “Naiya.” His deep voice rumbled through her. “I’ve been alone a long time. Lie with me.”
    Her breath left her in a rush, his command as much a permission to put aside her fears, as it was an invitation to share her burden, and behind it a plea. He needed her.
    No one had ever needed her before. She lay down beside him, her head on his shoulder, keeping her body rigid in case she hurt him. With an irritated huff, Holt pulled her close until her body pressed tight against him.
    “I’m sorry about your mom,” he said softly. “I lost my sister. I lost lots of brothers. I know how it hurts. You lose your dad, too?”
    His words. His touch. His warm embrace. She almost unraveled right then. “I never knew him. And now that my mom is dead, I’ll never know who he is. I used to pretend he didn’t know about me, but that if he did, he would have taken me away and protected me.” She held up her left hand, showing him her ring. “All I have is this. My mother said he came to see me at the hospital the night I was born, and left it for me. It’s the Phantom’s ring. Do you know who he is?”
    “Comic book hero.” Holt chuckled. “You like comic books?”
    “Yeah.” She buried her face in his shoulder so he couldn’t see her blush. “That’s my geek side showing again.”
    “Like the geek side,” Holt said. “We got a geek at the clubhouse. Hacker. Big into computers. He went to university and has a bunch of degrees, but he’s pretty laid back and doesn’t make a big deal