Page 57 of Out for Blood
Something in her went cold in that room, clinical.
The line between justice and vengeance vanished, and she didn’t care where it disappeared to.
She aligns her strides with mine.
I close the distance between us warily.
“Cass,” I whisper.
No response, not even a glance.
Blood drips down her arms, hanging on the tips of her fingers before hitting the gravel below.
An agonizing ache tears through me.
The back door to the house opens as we step inside. The house is deathly silent compared to the nightmare behind us, but the metallic scent of blood smothers me.
My grip on her hand turns protective.
She stills immediately.
Her eyes lift to mine; there’s barely anything behind them.
A terrifying emptiness people have when their mind hasn’t caught up to it yet.
She left pieces of herself back in that guest house.
My thumb circles the pulse inside her wrist.
Needing her to understand the truth under all the darkness, that the woman inside her isn’t gone. That there is still compassion beating through her veins under all the blood and rage.
“You need to come back to me,” I plead with her.
Her throat bobs, but no words come out.
I reach up tenderly, sliding both of my hands along her jaw, forcing her focus to stay on me.
“Look at me,” I rasp out. “Don’t think of them. Really look at me.”
Her breathing falters, and her eyes dart over to the door leading to the guest house. I sense her internal struggle with what she is about to say.
“I liked it.” Her voice is so faint that if I wasn’t standing so close to her, I would have never heard it.
The words hit like a blade between my ribs.
She sounds detached.
“Cassidy.”
“I wanted him to hurt,” she continues, eyes unfocused now. “And when he did, it felt good.”
A tormenting ache in my chest coils for her. I fear that she’s drowning in this, and the further we go, the less she’ll know how to climb back out.
I plant my hands onto her shoulders and shake her more harshly than I should, forcing her to stay present.
“Right here. Stay right here with me.”
Her eyes round with surprise, finally locking onto me, the fog inside them lifting.
