Page 61 of Blind Trust
There was a satisfactory crack of wood on bone as the weight holding her leg eased. She didn’t wait. She crab crawled backward to get away, but something hard behind her stopped her escape.
A bit of light from the window showed the shadow of her attacker coming toward her. She tried to roll to the side, but he caught her hair and yanked her onto her back. A slap cranked her head sideways, and a cry escaped her lips as sharp pain seared through the side of her face. Her mouth filled with blood and she spat it out, afraid of choking on it.
“Try that again and I’ll kill you. Give me what I want and I’ll let you live.”
Lyla forced her eyes open. She wanted to see the face of the person making a promise she didn’t believe he’d keep, but he was shadowed in the darkness.
“Tell me where it is.”
Her jaw ached as she opened her lips. “Where. What. Is?”
A low chuckle rumbled from the man whose weight was crushing her chest, and in the darkness, she didn’t see the next hit coming until it connected with her face. Tears streamed from her eyes, but she wouldn’t cry in front of him.
“Where is it?”
The angry whisper hovering near her ear made her want to recoil. Instead, she allowed her body to go limp, relaxed against the cold, damp ground like she was giving up. A second passed, and she felt the grip on her arms loosen just enough. With a burst of speed she didn’t know she had, she twisted her elbow, breaking the man’s hold, and struck straight up with the palm of her hand,hoping for the nose but landing close to his eye. His head reared back a bit but not enough to give her time to break free of his hold.
“Nicolás!” she screamed before her head was slammed to the ground and everything just disappeared. The silence overwhelmed her senses. Was she dead? No, because she could still feel the man on top of her.
Lyla blinked, trying to clear her vision. A mirror. She was staring at a mirror. Weird. She blinked again. Her reflection wasn’t blinking back. Why? It hurt her brain to figure it out. It hurt everywhere. Her head pounded.
Lyla!Nicolás’s voice echoed in her mind—No!Lyla blinked, her senses waking up. That wasn’t a voice in her head. That was Nicolás. He was here.
“Nicolás!” She choked out his name and winced, preparing for another hit, but all she felt was a sudden lightness to her body. She curled into a fetal position as nausea climbed her throat.
The sound of wood breaking caused her to flinch. She squinted, trying to adjust to the brightness, and that’s when she saw the mirror. Except it wasn’t her hair splayed out on the ground next to boxes of tile. Or her eyes staring back at her. It was Genevieve’s.
The horrific odor of decay washed over Lyla and she gagged.
“Lyla, hang on.” Nicolás was at her side. “The ambulance is on its way.”
“Go.” Her demand came out strangled and weak. She tried to get up, but dizziness anchored her to the ground. They couldn’t let him get away. “Go. I’ll be fine.”
“Lyla—” Her name came out scratchy as he brushed the hair out of her eyes. “I’m not leaving you.”
20
Raging crazy. Was that a thing? It felt like a thing. Should be a thing. Because it perfectly described the minefield of emotions Nic was trying to navigate. He looked down at his hands, which were still red and raw from scrubbing her blood off in the sink. He shook them, trying to get rid of the tingling sensation he hoped was from fear. Or rage.
Listening to Lyla give an account of what took place, from finding the cell phone to being shoved into the house by the jerk who ran off when Nic got to the door, had been difficult. If only he’d gotten there sooner. The blood on his hands wouldn’t have been Lyla’s.
Nic lifted his gaze to the closed blinds inside Walsh’s office, giving Lyla and the physician tending her wounds some privacy.She should be at the hospital. But when he’d refused a trip to the hospital, so did she—against the EMT’s advice—choosing instead to bring in Dr. Patel to look them over.
Kekoa held out an ice pack. “What’d the doc say?”
“Likely a concussion.” Nic gently pressed the ice pack to the throbbing goose egg at the back of his head. He’d been coming around the back of Genevieve’s house when someone smashed a brick against his skull. He didn’t know how long he was unconscious, but when he opened his eyes, it was to Lyla’s scream. His stomach rolled at the memory of it and finding her on the floor, her face battered and bloodied. “She got the worst of it.”
“Don’t do it, brah.”
Nic sat his hips against his desk. “What?”
“Don’t start beating yourself up for what was beyond your control. It’s a path that leads to nowhere. Trust me on this.”
He knew Kekoa wasn’t trying to make him feel better. Nic had witnessed the helplessness his friend experienced firsthand when Elinor was attacked a few months ago under their watch. They all bore the weight of that, but none more than Kekoa. It almost drove him to walk away from the team.
And now Nic faced a similar decision.Leave or stay.
“Have you heard from Jack or Walsh?”
