“Why? Couldn’t you have just told me the truth from the beginning?” She rolls to her back, disbelief in her voice.
Breaker walks into the room and leans against the wall across from the hospital bed, taking in the scene. His change of clothes tells me he’s been home. “It’s good to see you awake.”
“What are you doing here?” she asks. Her defenses are up and alert.
“I’m here on behalf of Dixon. He’s—” Breaker switches his glance from Palmer to me. “Right now, he’s a little fucked up. He’s destroyed the house.” Nothing else needs to be said. The boy is twisted up, and nothing seems to unwind him.
“As he should be,” I suggest, beating Palmer to it.
“That much I can agree with.” Breaker shrugs. “Delaney’s in the waiting room. They won’t let her back, her not being family and all. I promised her I’d let you know she was here. She doesn’t know what happened, but I figured you’d make that decision.” His head dips low, his mood contrite. The ramifications of our actions don’t end in this room.
“How’d you manage to sneak past them, then?” Palmer asks, glancing at the door. “You didn’t kill my nurse, did you?”
“Too public.” He shrugs playfully, winking at Palmer.
I groan, irritated with his blasé attitude. “Come on, man. It’s not funny.”
One thing I can say is Palmer is taking this all too well. Maybe she’s in shock or too drugged up on painkillers to realize how fucked this whole situation actually is. Come morning, we could be dealing with a completely lucid and aware Palmer. Our entire lives rest in her fragile hands.
“This thing, you two”— Breaker waves his hand between us— “I always knew you had a fucked up little soul, Palmer Weston.” He starts for the door but stops near the foot of the bed. “Will you be coming home tonight, or are you planning on staying here? I’ll hang back if you need me to.”
“That’s kind of up to her.” I gaze over, studying every feature I’ve taken for granted as she looks at Breaker.
“Actually, I’d kind of like to be alone.” Her eyes dart straight to me and then back to Breaker. The corners of his mouth turn up because she’s kicking my ass to the curb.
“Like I said before, don’t make it easy for him.” He grabs her foot, and I notice how she doesn’t retreat from his touch like she does mine. Damn.
“I’ll get Delaney back here somehow.” I smile, knowingly. There’s a hint of relief. “What? I know what my girl needs. Delaney and you don’t do alone.”
“I’m not your girl, Marek.” Sorrow and anguish pass between us. “Maybe once I was, but not now, not after everything.”
“I’ve allowed horrible things to happen to you. You won’t hear me ask for your forgiveness and grace because I don’t deserve an ounce of either of those things.” I fall to my knees and swallow the lump in my throat, afraid of losing everything. “You said Weston girls don’t break, and you’re right. Thank God for that.”
Palmer’s blue eyes hold me captive. Under the cheap lighting, they appear dull. I know the truth, though. There is nothing dull about this girl.
“If you need anything at all, Palmer, I don’t care what time it is, you call me. I’ll be here.” I stand and lean down to kiss her forehead. She zips her head to the side, protecting herself.
“I made you promise not to hurt me before”— her thumb runs along her bottom lip— “and you broke that promise.”
The cut on her throat is superficial, but it’s there for anyone to see. It’s proof of how savage I can be.
“I’ll be back in the morning, and the next, and all of the ones that follow, until you can trust me again.”
“Who said I ever trusted you?” She holds her chin high, prideful and stronger than she should be after the hell she’s passed through.
“Then I guess I have a lot of work on my hands.” I rap my knuckles on the footboard before turning and leaving the room.
Palmer isn’t looking for another promise. There is no point in giving her false words. She and I both know who I am now. I may hurt her again, but never like tonight. When it comes to love, lust, and all the shit that makes us do stupid things for another human being, pain is inevitable. But when someone is willing to pick up the pieces, to weather the fucking storm beside you, to forgive the unforgivable, you’ll know you found someone worthy of loving, someone who knows your soul better than you do yourself.
I will spend however long it takes to convince this girl I’m that person for her.
Breaker meets me at the elevator. “So, what now?”
“We go home.” I pat him on the back as the elevator doors open. “Attempt to clean up the pieces.”
A nurse with blonde hair pulled back in a low, loose ponytail steps off the car. My shoulder brushes into the bill of her baseball cap. She grabs it, shielding her face so fast, I barely see her move.
“My bad,” I apologize, steadying her. She jerks away, nods, and hurries down the hall.
I hold the elevator doors open, my mind a million miles away.
“You going to get on, or should I have Byron bring me a sleeping bag?” Breaker jokes, pushing the Close Door button, and I get inside. “What has you looking like a scared cat?”
“Palmer said someone cornered her before she went into the woods, and since it wasn’t any of us, it has me reeling the fuck out.” I run my hand over the length of my face, fatigue finally setting in.
“Isn’t this what we wanted? To use her to draw him out?”
He has a point. She may not see it now, but if we can get closer to finding out what happened to her sister, Palmer may understand everything a little more.
“He said he wasn’t after her money, but that she had something worth far more. What if whoever hurt Reed doesn’t want to hurt Palmer, but use her?”
“For what, though?”
“That’s what I don’t know, but I do know that someone who’s out for blood doesn’t try to murder a girl twice and fail both times.” I gulp at the thought.
“You sure you want to leave her alone tonight?”
The elevator stops at the parking deck, and we step off, checking the area before we get into the truck.
“Not at all, but she needs space. If I can’t sleep, I’ll just camp out in the parking lot. Just in case she does need me.” I shake my head, hating the idea of leaving her. A quick scan over the hospital exterior, and I find what I believe is her room. “We could have hurt her, like the no going back kind of shit, Breaker.”
“But we didn’t,” he contends.
“Do you think that makes a difference?”
I don’t.
Chapter Fifteen
Palmer
I wake with a startle. The sun shines through the cheap curtains. My body lurches forward, and I immediately regret the sudden movement.
“I’m in a hospital,” I say, clutching my hand over my stomach. I lift the gown and see a white bandage wrapped around my middle, right below my ribs. The cloth is tinted pink. Blood. I’m bleeding.