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“What happened?” he asks, examining my arm. His eyes flit to the other women before landing on the syringe and then taking in the bloody mess.
“Eve?” His fingers comb through my hair when I look down at my lap, figuring out what to say so that he won’t lose his shit as bad.
I can sense his aggravation slowly mounting even though he’s trying to rein it in.
“What happened to your arm, darling?” he asks with more edge to his voice.
“Nothing.” I try to smile, but the adrenaline is crashing, and I’m trembling all over. “Just an accident with a broken glass.”
Henry peels his jacket off and drapes it over my shoulders as my shivers become more pronounced. His scent is still warm as it seeps into me, and I relax into his hold. I can feel everyone staring at us, but right now, I just need him to hold me tighter.
“You’re many things, Eve, but you’re not a liar.” I swear I’ve said this to him before, but my head is too fuzzy to remember when or why. In truth, I just want him to keep talking because the sound of his voice is all I need to hear right now. His hand cups my face lightly as he says, “Tell me what happened.”
Before I can say anything, Mary tells him what happened with Catherine. Now, I feel sorry for her, even if she had it coming.
His eyes flash to mine. Dark rage shrinks his pupils while his nostrils flare with the effort it’s taking for him to hold himself together. The tension in his body cords his neck.
“Do not lie to me again.” The statement is flat as he stands and spins towards Catherine.
“Henry.” I whisper his name as a plea for him to let it go as I grip his wrist with my good hand, and he steps towards her.
He looks over his shoulder with a shake of his head. “No.”
My shivers turn to anxious shudders as I watch him stop in front of her. He’s silent for a while, and it’s not because he’s reining himself in. His stiff posture and the tip of his head tell me that he’s considering what to do with her. To her.
“Would you like to press charges?” the policeman asks me.
However, before I can answer, Henry does it for me. “Yes, she would. Assault occasioning GBH.”
“Grievous bodily harm?” Catherine scoffs. “It won’t stick.”
“I say it will, or else…” Henry leans over her, bracing himself on the arms of her chair as he whispers something into her ear. Whatever it is shuts her up, instantly wiping the smug sneer off her face. “Don’t fucking test me.”
“Bastard,” she snipes at him as he turns to get back to me. “You and your fucking whore can go to hell along with your devil society.”
“Arrest her,” he orders the policeman. “I want her locked up.”
“Someone needs to shut her up for her own good,” Hannah groans as I stand on trembling legs to stop him from doing something that will hurt him.
“I need to get you to a doctor,” he tells me, catching me as I trip on my backpack on the floor and stumble over my stupid feet.
“Yes. Yes, please.”
“Let’s go,” he tells me, wrapping his arm around my waist before he leans over and slips the other beneath my knees, lifting me to his chest as Hannah picks up my backpack and follows us to his car on the curb.
“I can walk,” I whisper over his jaw with a kiss.
“I don’t care.”
My arm is throbbing. The comedown of adrenaline has me chilled to the bone. But he still manages to make me chuckle at his over-the-top protectiveness of me. We’re driving away when he calls Percival.
“We have a problem,” Percival answers the call instantly. “Elizabeth is dead.”
“When?”
“A guard found her outside the gate. Her throat was slit to the spine.” The reply turns my stomach over as a shudder rakes through me. I swallow down the bile that bubbles up my throat, only for it to make me retch when Percival says, “Her tongue was gone, like the driver.”
“Button?” Henry asks, his hands tightening around the steering wheel in a white-knuckle grip.
