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my bed.
My back hit the doorframe leading to the bathroom. It was all I could do to keep standing when my world was being ripped out from under me.
After everything I’d lost—after everyone I’d failed—I couldn’t lose her too.
Not her.
I finally managed a step away from the wall, my hands fisted in my hair as I took painful steps toward the bed. When my legs were pressed against the mattress, I dropped my head, my chest cracking open as I tried to force myself to pull the material away.
Wet drops fell to the sheet, one after another.
I didn’t know what they were or where they were coming from until a strangled sob climbed up my throat.
I flinched, my body instantly locking up when someone touched my arm. But my movements were too slow to defend myself.
Mickey could’ve walked up to kill me, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop him.
At that moment, I wouldn’t have cared.
I twisted my body to look, my eyes slow to drag away from the girl on the bed, and stilled.
Because Jessica was standing in front of me, looking like her world had shattered.
My hands fell from my head, my gaze snapping back to the body on the bed before I focused on the girl in front of me again.
When a sob burst from her chest, I knew.
“Shit,” I whispered as she fell into my arms. “I’m . . . Jessica, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Find him,” she cried against my chest. “Find him, Kieran. Don’t stop until he’s dead.”
With another look at the covered body, I pulled Jessica from the room and down the familiar hallway to the living room where Beck waited, pacing.
“What the hell happened?” I demanded.
Beck’s eyes had been locked on Jessica, his own pain mixing with hers. “She woke up and found her there beside her. Mickey and zombie man were still here, waiting for her to wake up. They dragged Jess from the bed.” Beck worked his jaw then nodded at Jessica. “Mickey said it was because she ran.”
My arms tightened around the shivering girl in my arms. My head dropped so I could press my mouth to her head. “I’m so damn sorry.”
“I promised her I would always take care of her,” she cried softly. “I promised.”
I looked at Beck, his expression when his stare met mine telling me everything.
That we knew everything Jessica was feeling.
We’d been through it.
No one knew the overwhelming failure better than Beck and me. But Jessica couldn’t have protected her mom from this no matter what she’d done.
Her mom had been determined to destroy herself. She’d had a lifetime of demons she was running from. Jessica had only prolonged the inevitable because she loved her and felt responsible for her. And then she’d met the devil incarnate.
“We need to get you out of here,” I whispered, then shifted her so she was curled under my arm.
“Did it work?” she asked before I could lead her away. When I looked at her, her head drifted in the direction of her room. “The running, my mom . . . was it all worth it? Did you find him?”
I glanced at Beck again. I wouldn’t have expected him to keep it all from her if he’d already known what I hadn’t—that her mom had been found and was no longer breathing.
He shrugged and mouthed, “She was sleeping.”
