Page 40 of Hunted in Hope Town

But she had no words for what was happening to her. And she was in the dark. Even as he came to her, she was in the dark.

“Hey. Hey, it’s okay.” His arms came around her. Held her, tight and strong, one hand moving up and down her spine. She could feel the stubble of whiskers against her temple, feel his breath against her hair. “It’s all right, baby. You’re safe.”

Safe. And she felt it. She would have relaxed into all that safe, all his strength and warmth, but the extreme emotions swaying back and forth seemed to create a kind of emotional whiplash sickness.

She pushed away from him, dashed into the bathroom, and threw up. Retched and retched until there was nothing left.

She clutched the sides of the toilet, too many images swirling in her mind, like some horribly grotesque carnival ride of blood and terror and…

Ellis placed a cloth against her forehead with one hand, held her hair back out of the way with the other. He kept assuring her everything was okay in that low, steady voice, even as her body seemed content to shake itself apart.

She remembered the night he’d been shot. No dream. She remembered…being woken up in the dark. She remembered.

Once she was sure the wave of nausea had subsided, she pushed back and sat against the wall opposite the toilet. Ellis moved with her. So they were both sitting there against the wall in the cramped bathroom. Her breathing like she’d run a marathon, him gently pressing the washcloth to her forehead.

Like she was sick. Like he could make it better.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Against the wave of too many emotions to wade through. She reached up, took the washcloth from him, and tossed it into the tub with one hand, while she clutched his hand with the other.

“They pushed me off a balcony.” She opened her eyes to look at him.

She could see his throat work to swallow in the dim light coming from the other room. Then he inclined his head.

“I…remember. I remember waking up and knowing someone was in the house.” She could see it, in her mind’s eye. No fuzziness. No confusion. She remembered it, second by second. “I got the gun. I did what you always told me to do if there was an intruder. I got my phone. I got the gun. Went into the closet and locked it. I was asleep when they got in, so no alarms had gone off. They must have bypassed the security system.”

Ellis squeezed her hand. “Yeah. They had some high-tech former military guy on their staff. We figured he was the one who did it, but he never stood trial for anything.”

“They broke down the closet door, like they just…knew I was in there. Like I was what they were after. Two men. They were dressed in black, but I could see their faces. I was holding the gun, pointing it right at them.” Emotion at the memory, the helplessness, the terror, clogged in her throat. But she had to get it out. “I couldn’t… It wasn’t that I didn’t want to shoot them. I wanted to shoot all of them. I was just…frozen. Then they grabbed me and pulled me out. They ripped the gun away from me, and I finally…unfroze. I kicked and I fought, but they just kept dragging me.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she was shaking, but she knew she had to get it out. Make it real, so she could move past it instead of letting it be the thing that kept her from remembering, that kept her separate from herself.

Ellis had told her she was safe back there, and she was. Because she wasn’t in that house. Because his arm was around her. He was here. He was hers.

“I think they heard your car come up. Or maybe they had lookouts who warned them.” She took a shaky breath to steady herself. To see it. Because remembering it couldn’t hurt her. It was only what had happened. “They weren’t going to take me to the balcony, but they wanted to see who was coming. I guess…no one knew who it was at first. There was some confusion over if it was one of their own. So they dragged me out to the balcony, and I saw a car. You running out of it and then the gunshot went off and you jerked. Fell.”

It was the part of the dream she’d remembered when she’d remembered nothing else. Him shot. Bleeding. Her reaction to that.

“I thought you were dead. I thought we were both dead.” She pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes, trying to stem this tide of tears that seemed never-ending. But it was too much to absorb all at once, even if her brain had finally accepted that Ellis was right.

She was safe.

Except they weren’t safe at all. It was coming back for them.

“Come on,” he said gruffly, getting to his feet. He helped her to hers, wrapped his arm around her, and led her back to her bedroom. He nudged her back into the bed, even pulled the covers up over her, like a parent tucking a child in.

“You need to rest. Relax,” he told her very gravely.

Panic started to beat again. He was going to leave her. It would be the dark again. Alone. Targeted.

She reached out to grip his hand. “Please, don’t leave me alone. I… Please.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said softly. “I’ll just sit right here.”

She couldn’t quite make his face out in the dark, but it wasn’t the dark that scared her. It wasn’t this place. She wasn’t fully sure what it was.

She just knew she needed him. And that he was going to sit on the floor or something stupid when… She tugged on his arm. “Please, Ellis.”

On a sigh, she felt the mattress dip. He sat there next to her, her hand still clutching his. She was still shaking a little, and that must have been what broke down that last wall. He lay fully down next to her.