I stand up, reaching down and grabbing her by the shoulders. I haul her to her feet, catching her when she goes falling forward on unsteady legs. I wrap my arms around her waist as she lets out a small sob, her body jerking against mine.
My chest tightens.
"Winter." I try to be a little gentler this time.
"I'm... I'm," she stutters, her body tensing slightly before she pulls back from me slightly. I keep my hands out to catch her in case she goes tilting again, but she doesn't move except to tilt her chin up slightly. Our eyes meet and I'm not sure how to describe the emotions I see in hers, but they definitely make me sick to my stomach.
"Maximo," she stutters out.
I tense. "You can't tell Giovanni," I say a bit too quickly.
Her eyes crinkle slightly at the corner, her shoulders tense as she takes a slight step backwards. "What?" Her voice is quiet and I almost don't hear the one word.
"You can't tell Giovanni," I repeat, the words bitter on my tongue. I straighten my shoulders, letting any emotion fall from my face as she stares up at me, her lips parted slightly. "You can't tell him that you seduced his brother."
Is a monster even the proper term for what I am at this point? Surely there's something worse, something more fitting.
She blinks, inhaling a deep breath as her shoulders sink. Her lips fall open before she shuts closed and stares downward. I follow her gaze and I have to bite down on the inside of my mouth as I see the blood dripping down her knees. There are multiple cuts across both knees and a sliver of glass sticking out of one of them.
I glance over at the shattered bottles on the other side of the room. And as I'm bringing my gaze back to her, I spot a pile of liquid on the floor. Turning my nose up, I realize why the room smells like puke.
Winter is still looking at the ground when I turn my gaze to her and while she's defeated, she at least seems to be more lucid. I squat down slightly, pulling the glass out of her knee. She flinches away. More blood joins the streaks already on her knees.
Moving further into the stock room, I search for the paper towels and I find them, tearing a couple sheets off before pulling down a bottle of alcohol. I pop the top off and pour it onto the towel before moving over and dabbing at Winter's knees. She squirms, pulling away. I grab her waist, holding on tightly. "Stop moving," I order her before continuing to clean her up. I swipe at the cuts on her feet as well.
I'm thankful when it becomes apparent none of the cuts are deep enough to require stitches. I'll just have to sneak some Neosporin into her room and maybe bandage the cuts myself to make sure they don't get infected. I don't trust anyone else on the staff enough to risk them reporting to Giovanni.
I wipe up the last remains of blood before climbing to my feet. Keeping my face blank, I stare down at her. "Pull your dress down."
She obeys, pulling the dress down. It just barely covers her knees.
I take a step back, taking her in. Her hair is wilder than it was this morning, but I'm not sure there's anything that can be done about it. Still, I reach out, trying to brush it down with my hands. Her head snaps up and her hands slap mine away as she looks at me. There's a fire in her eyes that wasn't there a moment before.
"I'll fix it," she snaps, her voice stronger.
I don't offer a reply as she runs her own hands through her curls. Instead, I get to cleaning up the rest of the stock room as quick as possible. Locating a broom and sweeping up the glass, wiping up the liquor and puke. I have to remind myself that I saw the guts of my brothers on the ground, overseas as I deal with the latter.
Once I'm done, I clean my hands and move back over to her. She's back to staring at the ground, her arms folded over her chest.
She's as presentable as she's going to get.
The burn of bile rises in the back of my throat.
It’s clear that whatever went down in this room wasn't with her permission and yet I just sat here and covered up the scene without batting an eye.
And despite all that I’ve already done, I know I'm about to do even worse. I jerk her shoulders, forcing her eyes to meet mine. "Whatever you do, you don't bring this up to Giovanni, do you understand me? If he finds out you whored yourself out to Maximo, the plans he has for you will be replaced with something worse,” The words continue to taste disgusting on my tongue, but I say them again all the same. I say them to protect Maximo and while I wish I could say I regret doing it, it'd be a lie.
She blinks, and it's almost like she’s back to not being here.
"Do you understand, Winter?" I give her another shake, her head flopping backwards slightly.
But then she gives a nod, rough and jerky, but it's enough.
I pull her toward the door. "Now come on, before Giovanni comes looking for you."