Free Red Noon by Capri Montgomery

on to for light.
    “That’s okay. I probably won’t be able to stand to look at me either. I’ll do it myself if you help me get the water set up in the sink in there.” She pointed to the bathroom.
    It wasn’t that at all. He couldn’t let her think she was heinous or anything like that. “How about if I do it but I keep, what Kelly calls, your girly bits covered.”
    “Is Kelly your wife?”
    “I’m not married, dating, engaged or any of that. I’m single,” he said as if he was just answering her question when in reality he was doing more than that. All he had to do was say no yet he told her of his complete freedom which was a mistake because now she knew there was no reason on the books that she couldn’t latch on to him.
    Takahiro went and put warm water in a bowl and brought it, the towels and the softer lemon verbena oatmeal soap bar back with him. He watched her turn over onto her stomach with a significant amount of pain in her eyes and tears that sprung out one drop at a time.
    “I’ll be gentle,” he said as he pulled the sheet down to her tailbone. His jaw clinched tight as he looked at the swollen redness of some of the belt marks. Some of them were trying to go down, but she was lit up like a forest fire of red. Each bruise spoke of the torment she had sustained. This wasn’t just one beating. This was multiple attacks. A man the size of the guy they took down had enough power in one strike to cause pain but to keep hitting the same marks over and over again was a kind of torture he hadn’t seen before—and he had seen a lot of evil doing this job.
    He softly bathed her, making sure each touch was soft as not to hurt her too much. Even though he tried to be gentle he could still here her whimpers so he knew even gentle was hurting her which told him lying in bed was hurting her more than she led him to believe. He would have to see what the doctor could do about that. Maybe she could sit more or something.
    He was contemplating getting her a chair brought in that would allow her to put her feet up if she needed to without putting too much pressure on her back until he eased the sheets up from the bottom to her behind and saw her legs.
    “God I’m so sorry,” he felt the anger striking him like a bolt of lightning. “I’m   so sorry we didn’t get to you sooner.”
    She started to cry as her hands fisted the pillows.
    “I’m so sorry.” And on those words he felt a tear escape his own eyes. This woman had been nearly mutilated with that belt. What kind of sadistic bastard could do something like this to anybody, let alone a woman. God did he wish he had managed to get a moment alone with the guy before the squad pulled the trigger on him because he would have loved to beat him into oblivion. He wasn’t some martial arts expert, but he knew how to fight. He knew how to defend himself, and he knew how to take down the enemy with lethal force—by hand or otherwise.
    He put the soft lotion the nurses left the previous night on the skin he had washed except the backs of her arms. He could do her arms later. The lotion smelled much like the soap. They had said the natural essential oils would help take care of fading the bruises while giving her a stroke of comfort to her olfactory system.
    He covered her when he was done putting the lotion on her. She turned, painfully so, and looked at him before pulling one of the smaller towels from the pile and taking it under the covers. She maneuvered around a bit before pulling the sheet back some.
    “Girly bits covered,” she said so innocently he thought he might just break and shatter this time. Instead he put the same care into the front of her as he had the back. But God if he didn’t get angrier seeing the same welted marks running from stomach to breastbone. It wasn’t tears coming to his eyes now. Right now it was rage coming to his heart and coursing through his body like a train speeding brakeless downhill.
    “I still don’t know