Junkie (Broken Doll #1) (4 page)

“Shit,” I muttered when an inspection of her other arm turned up the same.

“I-I use my feet.” Miri’s voice was so soft I nearly missed her response.

Caught in the sliver of emerald in those captivating eyes, it took me a minute to reply.

“All right.” I removed the tourniquet, put it around a slender ankle, and placed her left foot on the floor to get better blood flow to the extremity. A single bluish vein stood out, surrounded by a half-dozen faded and fresh track marks. “There it is.” I grabbed another alcohol pad and swabbed the area. Syringe in hand, I uncapped a vial of sterile water and drew up a small amount, adding it to the powered opiate in the spoon. Using a lighter, I cooked the drugs until the mixture was reduced to a clear, bubbling liquid. As I waited for the chemicals to cool, Miri became frantic.

“I-It’s okay. I c-can take it hot. Really. I-I don’t mind. Please…”

“No.” I shook my head. “It’s not safe. You could blow a vein or worse.”

“I don’t care! Give it to me.” She started to struggle in the chair, in danger of tipping it over again.

Fed the fuck up with today’s events and bullshit in general, I caught her chin between my thumb and forefingers and pinched hard enough to hold her still.

“Stop this immediately or you’ll get nothing. Listen carefully, because I’m only going to say it once. I’m never,
ever
hospitable to intruders, so you should consider yourself lucky to still be breathing right now and not being driven to a remote location where no one will ever find your body.”

Those dull eyes widened with fear and her lip trembled. “Okay, okay. I’m g-good. I’ll be good. I’m s-sorry.”

I ripped open another alcohol swab and wiped off my fingers. Once the mixture was cool, I drew it up into the syringe using a filtered needle and made sure the air was out.

“Ready?” I’m not sure why I bothered—I knew the answer before the question was asked.

“Yes, please, please, please.” Miri vibrated with anticipation.

Despite the fact I grew up around drugs, despised drug use, watched my family implode from drug addiction and never once allowed anyone to get high in my house or permitted drug use among my employees, I went against everything I believed personally and stuck the needle into the vein on Miri’s foot. I pulled back to watch as dark red blood entered the syringe. With visual confirmation I hit a vein, I removed the tourniquet and slowly injected the opiate into her system until the syringe was empty. Working efficiently, I cleaned up the kit, put the used items in a container for the staff to dispose of, and washed my hands at the sink.

Then I sat down and waited.

In less than a minute, the hot, tingling rush in my veins made a complete loop through my body. The sweating, the coughing, the excruciating pain in my abdomen all vanished with the depression of the plunger on the syringe in the man’s big hand. My head fell back, though not from ecstasy—I was long past being able to get high off of H. It fell back because I was
finally
able to stop thinking about getting my next fix and concentrate on something other than how to make the agony of withdrawal go away.

Scoring this one hit exhausted me to the point of going near comatose once the drugs took hold. All I wanted now was a place to fall asleep. I didn’t even care if it was right here in this chair with my hands still tied.

On some level, I knew the rope around my wrists was being undone and my body lifted into a set of strong arms to be held against a warm broad chest. Content in a way I hadn’t been in a long time, I burrowed my face into the soft cotton fabric and inhaled deep. The smell was clean and masculine, with a cologne or soap that made me feel warm and safe. I sighed and snuggled in closer to grip the front of the shirt in my fists. A low rumble vibrated against my ear, the deep sound washing over me like the rhythmic lapping of the ocean on my toes. The imagery was so real I actually heard the splash of the water.

Must be some really good H.

“What the hell?” I was rudely jolted awake as the comforting warmth of the delicious-smelling chest disappeared and I was plunged under an icy spray.

“No offense, doll, but you smell and look disgusting.”

Water dripped into my eyes and made it difficult to see which end was up. I glared in the general direction of the man, a guy who was most likely
the boss
, who’d dumped me, fully clothed, onto the floor of an impressive glass and stone shower. Glacial cold water rained down on my body, soaking me through in seconds.

“Well now I’m fucking freezing!” I shivered violently, covered in goose bumps. Now that I wasn’t jonesing, I had found my tongue and didn’t hesitate to use it against the asshole who’d dropped me into the shower.

“You’ll live.”

The jerk’s callous words made me want to tell him off until the smirk fell right off his irritatingly handsome face. I opened my mouth to do just that and in a brief moment of sanity, thought better of it. It was definitely
not
a good idea to piss off a powerful drug lord. Especially when you crashed his house and was extremely vulnerable surrounded by goons. Plus, the tall man was staring at me like he wanted to strangle me. I had no doubt there was a greater than 50:50 chance he would do just that.

I wiped the water out of my eyes and watched, gaping, as the boss took a step back, stripped off his T-shirt and pushed down his dark sweatpants to reveal one of the most perfect male bodies I had ever seen in real life. Despite my fear and confusion, a spark of desire flared, heating the inside of my frozen body.

Without the intense craving for heroin taking over my every thought, I was lucid enough to study the man who for some unknown reason, injected me with drugs and saved me from painful, debilitating misery. He was big. Muscular big. And tall. I wasn’t sure how tall because the guy was currently towering over me as I sat on the shower floor, huddled in an icy ball. His long legs were sinewy and muscled, with a light dusting of dark hair. The man,
the boss
, still wore a pair of black cotton boxer briefs, which did nothing to hide what appeared to be a sizable package, though he wasn’t aroused.

Further up, my eyes traced perfect tan obliques and an impressive set of abs. I spent extra time looking at those thick bands of muscle on either hip, the ones that pointed directly down to his groin. Swallowing down an unexpected rush of desire, I followed a dark treasure trail from the waistband of his designer underwear up to wide, tanned pecs. There was a large tattoo of a rose over his heart, between tight copper nipples.

Before I could get to his face, I stiffened, paralyzed by a surge of panic. The water had finally turned warm, but the heat in my body dissipated, replaced by an icy cold fist of terror. The boss, half-naked, huge, and frightening as fuck, stepped right into the shower with me.

I scrambled to the far corner, plastered against the stone tiles. “What… what are you doing?” My voice cracked, betraying my fear.

Is he expecting payment for the hit?

“Helping you clean up, doll. You’re not in much condition to do it yourself, and no way in hell are you walking around dropping your filth all over my house.” His deep voice had a seductive drawl to it and I shivered again. The boss picked up a washcloth and a bottle of soap, and poured a good amount of green liquid onto it. Then he lathered it up until thick white foam overflowed from his big hands.

“Are you? Do you want…?” I bit my lip and glanced down at his clothed crotch, surprised to discover he was still soft. In my experience, men didn’t get almost naked with women unless they wanted something, and since I owed him for the drugs and for not killing me, I figured he’d be hard and ready for his payment.

I closed my eyes and inhaled through my nose in a pathetic attempt to rein in my panic. The scent from earlier, the one that clung to the man standing over me, filled my nostrils and I realized it was the fragrant soap he was lathering up that had smelled so good on his skin. I tilted my head and stared at the man’s face.
I could do this.
He was good-looking. Hell, he was more than good-looking, he was flat-out stunning, fit to walk any runway in the world. Hell, if I managed to make it through paying the vile, disgusting Jorge without puking, I was confident I could take care of Mr. Tall, Dark, and Scary, no problem.

Swallowing my pride—
and let’s face it, I didn’t have any left
—With shaky hands, I reached up to pull down his briefs.

“Whoa!” The man sidestepped out of reach and batted my hands away. Bewildered, I pulled my brows together.

“I thought—”

“You thought you owed me one? That I wanted you to suck me off because I gave you a hit?” The revulsion and anger in his deep, rumbling voice flooded me with shame. My face grew hot from his blatant disgust and I dropped my gaze to the floor. Of course he didn’t want
me
touching him. He was powerful and gorgeous. A man like him didn’t need some junkie slut to suck his dick. He probably had a line of willing, and clean, women waiting in his bedroom to do just that.

The man crouched down and took my chin in his soapy hand, tugging until I met a pair of the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. “That’s not how I work, doll. Here’s what’s going to happen, so listen carefully.” My pulse leapt at the commanding tone, and I wasn’t sure if the increase in my heart rate was from fear or something else entirely. “I’m going to wash the nasty junkie filth off of you and then you’re going to sleep in my guest room. Since you came uninvited onto my property, your stay is not optional. You will
not
leave this house until I allow it. Until I decide differently, you will remain here and answer to me. The talk we’re going to have tomorrow is also mandatory. Do you understand?”

Water ran down my face and trickled into my eyes as I blinked at him, his expression hard but a touch of kindness in his eyes. Still suspicious of his intentions despite the words indicating otherwise, I nodded. Apprehension had my blood racing in my veins as my heart slammed painfully against my ribcage.

He’s keeping me here? As in, I can’t leave?

I remembered Nicky’s words from earlier.

“Get real, girl. There’s no free in this game.”

Nicky was right. I mean, Jorge proved Nicky’s point a few minutes later in his car when he made me suck his disgusting little dick. At the memory of swallowing Jorge’s thick, foul cum as he held my head down, nearly suffocating me as he came in my mouth, my stomach heaved, and I began to retch. The boss gently turned my head toward the drain and held my hair. He waited patiently while I heaved, the aftershocks going on and on. Nothing came up but bile and saliva. I couldn’t remember the last time I ate, so my empty stomach wasn’t shocking. A large hand gently caressed my back until the spasms passed.

“You good?”

Humiliated, I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, so I merely whispered, “Yes.”

“Let’s get you clean then.” With strong, sure arms, the boss pulled me to my feet and propped me against the tiled wall. “Can you stand on your own?”

Now that I was upright, I realized this man was very,
very
tall. Tall enough that at five foot four I had to tilt my head back to meet those intense blue eyes. The top of my head barely came to his chin.

“I’m good.” I coughed, my throat raw and sore.

The boss nodded and began to work the scented, soapy cloth over my body. Starting at my feet, he scrubbed each one thoroughly, lifting them to clean the bottoms. When he picked up the first foot, I swayed, nearly slipping on the slick foam. “Hold on to my shoulder,” he instructed, his large body crouched in front of me. Hesitantly, I placed one hand on the wet skin of his wide, rippling back. With a wicked grin on his face, he tilted his head up. “You can hold on tighter than that, doll. I won’t bite.” The gleam in his eyes said otherwise.

Fighting the intense, gut-clenching fear, I tightened my grip, using his strong muscles to keep me upright as he washed my feet. The cloth skimmed up my legs one at a time, his hands scrubbing over and over as the foam rinsed away days of dirt and grime. The boss skipped my clothed midsection, straightened to his full height, and repeated the process with my arms, spending extra time on my dirt-caked hands and nails, and the track marks on my arms, only moving on when my skin glowed pink.

Next, he lifted my long red hair off my neck and slid the cloth across the top of my back and shoulders, then around the front to wash the exposed part of my chest where my tank top dipped low. I glanced down as his enormous, bruised and scabbed hands worked over my skin, only then realizing my white tank was completely transparent and I wasn’t wearing a bra. Instinctively, my hands flew up to cover my breasts. He chuckled, a smooth, deep sound so seductive it could easily charm a roomful of people and melt every pair of panties in a five-mile radius.

“A little too late for that, doll. Seein’ as I’ve already got a good look at everything.”

Something about his cocky drawl, the crooked smirk on his face, and that single raised eyebrow felt like a challenge. My courage, boosted by the decadent lull of the heroin, had me meeting his gaze head-on. Determined to show him I wasn’t a cowering scaredy-cat, I fingered the hem, tugged the wet tank over my head, and tossed it to the floor with a loud
splat
. The man’s eyes widened, which only fueled my desire to make him eat his words. Still staring right into those sapphire eyes, I stuck my thumbs in the waistband of my shorts and shoved them down, stepped out, and kicked them aside. Completely naked, I stood my ground and raised my own brow in return, hands on my hips.

Our eyes were locked a few more seconds before he threw his head back and burst out laughing. The action made him look years younger than I originally believed. “You are somethin’ else, you know that, doll?”

Instead of answering, I snatched the soapy washcloth from his hand and quickly finished washing my newly exposed skin.

“Here.”

Jerk
.

The boss scrambled to catch the cloth I whipped at his chest and I turned to storm out of the shower. I yelped when he grabbed me by the arm and yanked me toward him. The blazing heat of his chest pressed against the bare skin of my back and I trembled from head to toe. The boss held tight and lowered his mouth to my ear.