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She began shaking her head as tears filled her eyes and I knew she had to be as mentally and emotionally exhausted as she was physically.
“Lucy,” I said and I waited until she looked up at me. “He’s safe. You’re both safe,” I murmured.
She let out an ugly, choked laugh/sob combination. “He’ll never be safe.”
I didn’t miss the fact that she was referring to Ethan and not herself with the statement. Frustration coursed through me. I wasn’t equipped to deal with this shit. Ronan would have known what to do. Hell, any one of my teammates would have been better at dealing with the emotions of a teenage girl.
“I can tell you two have been taking care of each other for a long time,” I finally began. “When he wakes up, he’s going to be worried about you…if he knows you got some rest…”
Lucy’s warm brown eyes slid closed for a moment before she stumbled to her feet. I was half tempted to reach out to steady her, but my body recoiled at the prospect and I took a step back instead. Logically, I knew she was no threat to me, but my brain had stopped working on logic a long time ago when it came to other people.
“He’ll want to know where I am when he wakes up,” she said shakily.
I nodded. “I’ll come get you right away.”
“I’ll be right next door,” she said, her voice actually sounding a little fierce. My respect for her went up another notch at the unspoken message. I had no doubt she’d come after me again if I even looked at the man in the bed wrong.
Once Lucy had left the room, I returned to Ethan’s side and snagged the stained underwear from beneath the pillow and placed it on the pile of clothes I’d removed from Ethan’s battered body earlier. I grabbed the hand towel and gave it a good wringing out before I gently rolled Ethan onto his side so I could clean the blood from his backside and legs. I made quick work of the task and then I got him settled under the covers again before snagging his clothes off the floor along with the dirty towel and water and taking them to the kitchen. I’d found the laundry room off the kitchen when I’d gone in search of the fuse box so I quickly tossed Ethan’s clothes into the washing machine and got it started. On my way back to his room, I grabbed a glass of water and shrugged off the light jacket I’d been wearing. I had a change of clothes in my bag in the truck, but I didn’t want to risk leaving the cabin for the length of time it would take to grab it. In addition to the water, I grabbed one of the kitchen chairs.
Once I was back in the room, I put the water down on the nightstand and settled the chair next to the bed. I studied the man in the bed for several long minutes as I thought about what to do next.
I guessed him to be older than my own 25 years but maybe not by ten years or more as I’d initially suspected. He wasn’t quite as tall as my own six feet and looked skinnier than he probably should be. With the bruises on his face, I couldn’t make out much more than a firm, chiseled jawline and pale, full pink lips.
Full?
What the hell?
A twinge of discomfort went through me at the word my brain had decided to use to describe the man’s mouth. I brushed it off and leaned forward to put my hand on his shoulder, ignoring how warm his skin now felt compared to the iciness of before. “Ethan,” I said softly as I gave him a little shake. I didn’t like how long he’d been out and while I knew nothing about head injuries, the fact that he’d told Lucy to wake him up every couple of hours gave me the encouragement I needed to keep at it. Relief went through me when his eyelids began to twitch.
Thank fuck.
Now maybe I could finally get some answers.
Chapter Two
Ethan
The pain had me wanting to scream out loud, but I knew that would only make things worse, so I swallowed it down and fought back the tears that threatened to fall.
He liked the tears just like he liked the screams. They were like throwing gasoline on a fire. But the silence…
“Ethan, you need to wake up.”
The voice was wrong and he was being way too gentle. The weight of his hand on my shoulder was too light.
Why wasn’t he digging his fingers into my skin? Why didn’t it feel like he was trying to snap the bone in two?
“Lucy’s really worried about you.”
That was enough to have me fighting the pain and exhaustion that were keeping my eyes sealed shut. It felt like there was sand scraping beneath my lids every time I tried to force them open and I couldn’t stop a tear that escaped my eye.
