Page 66 of Your Worst Fear
I felt…useless. Then, and now. Hell, I was leaning on Grace when she should’ve been relying on me. She was hurt, too.
I tried to get her to let go of me, but she refused. “Don’t try to act tough now, Henley.” She moved until she was standing at my side with an arm looped around my back.
“The woman,” I gritted out as we started to move. Each step sent agony tearing through my abdomen, and I tried to hide it the best I could. “Did you kill her too?”
When we approached the door, she scanned the hallway before dragging us through. “No. She got away.”
I stopped walking and winced. “She’s still here, Grace. We have to?—”
“I know,” she interrupted, urging me to keep moving. “I’m going to get you out, then deal with her.”
“No,”I growled. “No fucking way are you coming back in here without me.”
“You’re about to knock on death’s door, Henley. You can’t fight, let alone defend yourself.”
I shook my head. “I’m not leaving you. It’s not up for debate.” After a few steps, I noticed a limp in her gait. “What’s wrong with your leg?”
“Don’t deflect,” she muttered. “I’m fine.”
“Nothing about this isfine?—”
“The woman is Tyler’s mother,” Grace cut in. “She’s also my boss.”
The muscle in my jaw feathered, a throbbing sensation following it. “Anything else you need to tell me?”
“We’re underneath Club Fourteen, and this is also apparently some sort of…sex place?”
My brain stuttered at all the information. “Sorry, what? How did you find that out?”
“That’s not important.” She adjusted her hold on me as we hobbled down the hall. Hopefully she knew the way out, because I sure as hell didn’t. “I’ll get this handled, okay? Can you trust me?”
Of course I fucking trusted her. Did a bear shit in the woods? It wasthemI didn’t trust. I opened my mouth to say as much, but stopped as a woman’s voice echoed from somewhere behind us.
“Grace,” she singsonged. “Kill him, and maybe I’ll spare you.”
Our steps froze, and Grace swung around to find where the voice had come from. I flinched in pain as she switched arms, hooking one around my front. She must’ve noticed my reaction, because she gentled her touch on me.
“I’d rather kill you,” Grace replied, eyes darting around the space. The voice clearly belonged to the woman I’d seen before, but she was nowhere in sight.
“That’s too bad,” she cooed. “I guess I’ll have to get my own hands dirty, then.”
A shot rang out, piercing my eardrums. Grace shoved me against the wall, and her eyes fell to my shoulder and widened. Something warm trickled down my chest andarm, a numbness taking over the right side of my body. Pain blended together, so much of it enveloping me that I couldn’t tell where one injury ended and another started.
Grace pressed her hands to my shoulder as I slid down the wall. Slowly, my gaze fell to a bullet hole marring my skin, and the blood pouring through her delicate fingers. I’d always wondered how someone with such small, beautiful hands could spill so much blood.
“Fuck,fuck!” She pulled off my Carhartt and pressed the fabric to the wound. “You’re going to be okay.”
I nodded, leaning my head back against the wall. She cupped my neck, my cheek, ran her hand through my hair. It was like she was categorizing every part of me in case it was the last time she got to touch me. I wanted to do the same to her, to feel and worship her, but my limbs were heavy.
The strength she elicited in me seeped out of my soul, and I hoped it flowed into her.
“Henley, baby. Look at me.”
Her voice pulled my eyes open. I hadn’t realized they’d closed. “Go.”
She shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks. She was crying for me?
“I won’t,” she promised.
