I scrubbed a hand over my jaw. “I fucked up.”
“With your caretaker?”
“She has a name.”
“Sorry, with Shay?” he asked, drawing her name out.
“Yeah,” I grumbled.
“She dump your sorry ass?”
“No.” But I wouldn’t have blamed her if she did. I’d pushed after promising her that we could move on her schedule. Thinking I knew what was best for her when she’d been dealing with decades of terror and looking over her shoulder.
Carson made an out-with-it gesture. “Are you going to tell me what happened, or do I have to get you drunk first?”
I wouldn’t put it past him. On more than one evening, Carson and I had shared a bottle of whiskey and more than a few of our most closely guarded secrets. “I pushed her to come with me, and she wasn’t ready. It was a crappy move, especially when I’d promised her that we could go at her pace.”
Carson let out a low whistle. “Definitely a dick move. But she’ll forgive you if she hasn’t already.”
It was more than that, though. “I’m worried she thinks I’m not happy with the way things are. But I am. Even amidst the hell of the past few months, it’s the happiest I’ve ever been. I just want to make sure she’s not living some half-life because she’s scared.”
“But that’s not your choice to make. It’s her life, Brody. Not yours. You have this protective streak that can mow down anything in its path. But you have to let Shay make her own way. All you can do is stand beside her and support her.”
Everything Carson said was true, but at the same time, it went against every instinct I had. But in trying to help, I’d ended up controlling the situation. “Hell,” I muttered. “When did you get so wise?”
Carson smirked. “Always have been. It’s about time you started listening to me.”
“I need to call Shay. Then what do you say you and I skip out and find a beer and some real food?” I’d always despised the hors d’oeuvres they served at these things. You needed to eat thirty of them to make a meal.
“Sounds like a plan.” He inclined his head down a pathway. “That leads to a back alley. Should have some privacy there. I’ll run and grab my stuff from the back room and meet you back here.”
I nodded and headed down the path as Carson disappeared inside. The alley was dark, only the glow of the light over the door to the gallery casting a muted glow. I paced back and forth in front of a dumpster, searching for the right words. Everything I came up with felt incredibly pathetic. I could always just throw myself on her mercy and grovel, beg. Whatever it took.
My finger hovered over Shay’s contact in my phone. “Stop being a pansy and call her,” I muttered.
The sound of the back door opening had me looking up from the phone number taunting me. But before I could turn around, something stung the back of my neck. I felt a bite of pain before every muscle in my body spasmed. As the world around me went blurry, I heard a shout. But it was too late. I was falling. I saw a flash of light, felt pain, and then nothing at all.
43
Shay
As I handed Caelyn the last dish from our sundae extravaganza, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was past eleven. My heart gave a casual flip in my chest as I pulled the phone out. Brody flashed across my screen.
Everything in me eased at just the sight of his name on my phone. That he was thinking about me. That instead of partying it up with his best friend, he was calling me. That silent knowledge gave me hope that everything might be okay.
I hit accept and put the phone to my ear. “Hey, Brody.”
A vaguely familiar voice filled the line, but it wasn’t the one I’d been expecting to hear. “Shay, it’s Carson. Something happened. Brody was attacked…”
The world around me went fuzzy as my grip on the phone loosened. It clattered to the floor, but even the sound of the device slamming into the tile wasn’t enough to break through the fog. I was slightly aware of Caelyn moving around me, picking up the phone. The muffled conversation.
“Shay, look at me.”
I blinked rapidly, Caelyn coming into focus. “Oh, God.”
“He’s going to be okay,” she assured.
“What happened?” Every image that popped into my mind was worse than the one before it. My stomach roiled as I considered the possibility of the killer returning to Washington and setting his sights on Brody.
Caelyn kept her tone even and calm. “They think it was a botched mugging. He’s got a concussion and needs stitches. They’re just waiting on a CT scan to make sure there’s no bleeding in his brain.”
I let out a muffled noise that sounded like an injured animal. “Bleeding in his brain?” This couldn’t be happening. After everything and everyone I’d lost in my life, I would’ve thought I’d be stronger in the face of someone else being torn from me. But I wasn’t. Not in the slightest. Brody had opened my world and shown me what it was like to live again. He understood me in ways no one else ever had. And his heart…God, it was everything good. A heart like that couldn’t leave this world.
“Doctors are treating him now. If he needs surgery, he’s in the best possible place. Seattle Memorial has wonderful doctors.”
I nodded woodenly. “I have to go. How do I get to Seattle in the middle of the night? Can I take the Whaler?”
“You want to go to Seattle? Are you sure you’re ready for that?”
Just hours ago, I’d watched Brody climb aboard the ferry, so sure that I wasn’t anywhere near ready to venture onto the mainland. But now, nothing in the world could keep me away. Not even the knowledge that I’d be in range of my brother. “I need to go now.”
Caelyn wrapped me in a hard hug. “We’re gonna get you there. Griffin has a boat that can make the trip. Ford can drive it, and Bell will go with you.”
“I can’t ask—”
Caelyn held my shoulders as she pulled back from her embrace. “Don’t say another word. This is what friends do.”
And for the first time in my life, I had those kinds of relationships. I’d be forever grateful.
I trembled in the back of the cab as we rode to the hospital. The trip had taken far too long. I stared at my phone, willing it to ring. Carson had texted to tell me that the CT scan was done and they were waiting for results.
My finger rubbed circles on the smooth stone, the one I’d used to ground myself for years. But now it wasn’t doing a damn thing to help. Space seemed to be closing in around me as I struggled to keep my breaths even.
Bell patted my knee. “He’s going to be okay.”
I nodded, refusing to voice the fears running rampant in my mind.
“Would you mind going a little faster?” Ford asked. “We’ve got a friend who was in an accident.”
But it wasn’t an accident. Someone had deliberately tried to hurt Brody. For what? A few dollars and a cell phone? But I knew better than most that some people didn’t need a reason to inflict pain. Sometimes, they simply liked it. I shuddered as an image of Michael sneering over me filled my mind.