Pure Punishment(35)

Hawaiian God – What’s wrong? How come you haven’t been answering?



Julia – Girl, we need another girl’s night out soon.



I place my cell next to me, not having the energy to move to put it back. I don’t need any more pain from moving. I lay my head back down and dream of a woman whose love was odd, yet beautiful at the same time. I can’t remember much about her, but what I do remember is that she was full of life.





Just because you don’t remember your dreams doesn’t mean you don’t dream. Everyone dreams!





I wake again this time to a banging on my door. I roll to my side, hoping Leanne is there. When I see she’s not, I groan out loud in frustration. I pull myself up from the bed and make my way slowly to the mirror above our closet. I see myself and I want to cry again. My eye is fully closed and the side of my face is black and blue from the bruising. I take slow and deliberate steps to the door, leaning on anything I can find and trying to be careful not to hurt myself any more than necessary. I pull the door open to see Kai standing there. When he looks at me, his gaze goes straight to my face and I see pure rage wash over him. His eyes travel lower, trying to assess further damage. When he can’t see anything else his gaze locks back onto mine. I’m actually scared of him at this moment.

“Who did this?” he asks fiercely. He steps into the room, picks me up like I weigh nothing and carries me to the bed. I don’t answer him when he puts me down and he lifts the front of the dress that I’m still wearing. I try to reach down in humiliation, when one of his hands captures mine to stop me.

He looks down at me again, replaces my hand back to the side of the bed, and then continues to lift my dress. All embarrassment flies out the window. He stops pulling the dress when it reaches just above my breast and swears under his breath.

“Your ribs need to be wrapped.” He goes over to our mini fridge and grabs another ice pack, placing it softly on my ribs before he walks out the door, slamming it in the process.

I sit there wondering where he went. Not long after, the door swings open wide again and in walks Kai with a plastic bag from the pharmacy. He grabs a bottle of water and offers me some pain medication. I start to sit up slowly and wince when the movement hurts. He hands the pills to me and lifts up my dress again tucking it into my bra. He pulls gauze out and starts slowly wrapping it around my ribs. It hurts, but when he’s done the restriction feels better.

“Tell me, Kristy, now,” he demands calmly, grabbing the chair opposite my bed and sitting down next to me.

“It was an accident,” I say, not looking at him.

“I call bullshit. Now, tell me the fucking truth. If you don’t, you’re coming home with me. No arguments,” he says, threatening me.

Shit, I don’t want to go to his place. I want the comfort of my own.

“It was Bianca, but it was an accident. I spilled coffee all down her dress and she hit me back,” I say, telling him the truth. Just not the extent of what she inflicted on me.

“A woman did this to you?” he asks, surprised.

I nod my head and his look turns furious. “Tell me where she lives, Kristy. Tell me now!”

“I don’t know, I’ve only seen her a few times,” I lie.

“I know you’re lying, it’s written all over your face. But don’t worry, I have my ways,” he says, winking at me. Shit, I completely forgot about what he does. He will have no problem finding her. Then she’ll fill his head with awful things about me.

“Please don’t, just leave it alone,” I plead with him. He looks at me, then picks me up carefully and positions me so I’m close to the edge. He climbs into bed and very carefully pulls me close to him.

“Someone hurt you, Nani, that’s not something I will forgive. But for you, for now, I will let her live. That’s all I can give you right now.”

I nod my head into his chest and breathe him in. “What does Nani mean?” I ask out of curiosity.

“It means what you are… beautiful,” he replies and then leans down to kiss the top of my head. He reaches over and picks up the television remote and puts on a movie that I left in there. I grab the remote from him and turn the television off.

“Let’s play a game. I want to ask you questions and I want honest answers,” I tell him, not looking up.

“Only if I can do the same,” he responds. I nod my head again and think of my first question.

“Did you always want to be a detective?”

“Yes. You know I lost my parents young. I wanted to do as much as possible to help people that couldn’t help themselves,” he tells me in a serious tone.