Page 33 of The SongBird's Love
As her hazel eyes remained locked on that sight, it all came back to her. The bar, the attack. Visions of her dead colleagues came back in flashes. The chaos around her, glass and bullets flying in all directions. Eden couldn’t calm down. Her mind was still there, in Jack’s wrecked bar. She took a few seconds to calm herself down and try to think. She forced her memory to remember the last events.
The gunshots. She had been injured. She looked down, but her abdomen was... perfectly fine. Not just fine. There wasn’t even a scar or injury. Eden grimaced and checked everywhere else she recalled getting shot. She knew that bastard Yang hadn’t hit any of her vital points, but she still remembered very clearly she had taken at least five bullets. Yet, her body was as good as new... except for her legs. She glanced under the covers but found nothing she didn’t already expect, other than the fact that her camouflage was down, revealing the two long leg-shaped pieces of metal.
“You’re finally awake.”
Eden grabbed the cover and pulled it back over her legs with a frown. She was only wearing panties, her breasts exposed, but for the moment, that was the least of her worries. She glared at the man who had just walked in.
Just like before, De Luca was wearing an impeccable suit ensemble, although he didn’t have a jacket on this time. That new outfit had hints of green that highlighted his jet-black hair. Eden wasn’t happy to see that man alive, far from it. She wasn’t happy to see him at all. He came to sit down in the chair, perfectly calm, and slowly lit his cigarette.
“Did you have a good night’s sleep?” he asked in a mocking tone.
Eden frowned. Was it morning? She glanced at the screen, which displayed something like a couple of hours after dawn. Although she didn’t trust screens like these, it may have reflected the weather outside. Had she slept here? Why? From her wounds, she should have died there. Why had he bothered to take her and heal her?!
“...I take it you aren’t a morning person,” he chuckled.
“What am I doing here?” coldly retorted Eden. “What do you want?”
He squinted his eyes.
“A lot of things, little songbird. First, I want you.”
Eden rolled her eyes.
“No thanks. Are you done now? Give me my clothes. I need to go back.”
The Tiger chuckled and took a drag from his cigarette. Eden had just woken up, but she had that fire in her eyes of someone who couldn’t be swayed easily. Everything in her body language said she loathed him and wanted to leave. She was sending daggers with those hazel eyes of hers. At that very moment, that little piece of a woman in his bed was the one acting like a fiery tiger... or a grumpy kitten.
“Aren’t you going to thank me for saving you?” he asked.
“That’s my line,” she retorted, annoyed. “Let me go home. I didn’t save you to become your fucking pet!”
She stood up, wrapping the bedsheets around her. Dante was very intrigued by Eden’s attitude. She wanted to hide her lower body but didn’t seem to care about her exposed breasts. She was considering her bionic legs as more important to hide than her feminine traits...
“...It’s odd,” he said. “When we scanned your SIN, there was no trace of you being a hacker at all. How did you do that?”
Eden froze. They had scanned her SIN? Her blood went cold, and she raised her hand to touch the little spot where her SIN was hidden. Indeed, it felt slightly bruised when her fingertips touched it. ...Was it deactivated? Probably so. Otherwise, Loir would have already located her and done something. At least, it looked like they hadn’t found out the truth about her. Still, Eden knew she couldn’t stay here. That guy was dangerous.
“I’m not a hacker.”
“You’re a poor liar,” he said. “I saw you. You made the lights turn off and disabled some of their guns.”
“It wasn’t me. Maybe they had enemies on the outside.”
“One who knew what was going on inside, precise enough to find which weapons to deactivate? Even if someone externally did this, they needed intel from inside.”
Eden frowned. This guy wasn’t an idiot, and that was a problem. How much did he really know? She looked around, staring at the door he had come from. She wasn’t stupid enough to suddenly barge outside when she had no idea where that outside led. Moreover, with him here and her SIN deactivated, she couldn’t call out to Loir either. She was literally trapped here.
“Why the hell did you bring me here? Wasn’t it easier to let me die?”
He chuckled.
“I’m curious about you, Eden. Moreover, since you survived, I have decided to make you my new bodyguard.”
“As much as I’d love working for a jackass, that’s a no. I’m not a bodyguard, and neither am I for hire. Is it your custom to pick your bodyguard from people who nearly died because of you?”
“I saved you.”
“Says the guy who intended to use me as a fucking shield.”