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I moved outside, looking around.
The trees.
She would have run toward the trees.
So that was where I took off.
It wasn’t long before I saw the shed.
No, it wasn’t safe to camp out there. But if she needed a minute, to catch her breath, to formulate a plan, that was where she would go.
My heart was too wedged in my throat to talk past it, to call out to her, so I just grabbed at the doors and yanked them open.
Then there she was, bleeding down her forehead, her hands wrapped around some sort of handle, ready to bash my head in if she needed to.
“Voss,” she gasped out.
Then the handle was falling, clattering to the ground.
Then she was following, landing hard on her knees as a sob escaped her.
“It’s okay,” I assured her, dropping down in front of her, pulling her to my chest. “They can’t hurt you anymore.”
That information seemed to only make her sob harder.
From relief, I was sure, mixed with the fear and the uncertainty.
Sylvie was a big cryer.
She didn’t do it often, from what I could tell. But when she did it, she did it loud, with sobs that racked her body, like her emotions were too big for her small body to contain.
There was no comforting her through it, trying to shorten it.
So I just held her as she emptied all those feelings out.
Then, when it was all over, helped her back up to her feet. “Come on, let’s get you home,” I said as she sniffled hard.
“I knew you would come. If I gave you enough time.”
“We lucked out when I tried to surprise you with coffee at work,” I admitted.
If it weren’t for that, there was no telling what might have happened.
Would they have come for her, overpowered her, forced her to live through god-knew what kind of hell?
Or would she have saved herself?
There was no way to know.
I was just glad we didn’t have to figure that out.
We had just made it back to the lot, feeling Syl tense with each passing step, when Junior came walking out, holding Irwin against his chest.
“Irwin!” she said, breaking away from me to rush forward and take her lizard. “Hey, buddy. I’m so sorry. I’m going to get you so many bugs. So many. The expensive ones, too. You deserve them,” she told him as she cuddled him to her chest. “Can we stop?” she asked, looking at me as though seeing me for the first time, and her eyes widened.
Brows pinching, I looked down at myself, seeing what she was seeing. Which was a fuckton of blood.
Shit.
“I will send someone out,” I promised her.
“Can they get his enclosure too?” she asked, gaze slipping down as she admitted, “I don’t want to go back to my apartment.”
“Here comes the cavalry,” Junior called as the rumble of bikes came closer.
It was Sully who arrived first, eyes moving over my blood-splattered appearance with complete indifference.
“Seems like there’s a mess I need to clean up,” he declared. “Think this counts toward ‘cleaning’ to Brooks?” he asked, as laid-back as ever. Even with a traumatized woman with red, puffy eyes from crying. “Nice lizard,” he said, then moved past us and into the building.
Junior and I shared a surprised look, but said nothing.
“Can we catch a ride?” I asked Junior as more of the guys started to pull up.
“Yeah,” he said, leading Sylvie over to the car as I turned to address Fallon, Brooks, and Sutton. “It’s over,” I told them.
“Good,” Fallon said, gaze moving over me. “You need to handle all that evidence.”
“I will. I just need to get her back to the clubhouse and settled first,” I said.
“She okay?” Brooks asked.
“She’s strong,” I said. “And smart. And I think she managed to avoid things getting too far.”
“Good,” Fallon said with a nod. “Do you need anything?”
“Well, Sully is in there… cleaning shit up.”
“Sully?” Brooks asked, surprised that the slacker was willingly signing up for work.
“I’ll have Dezi and Nave lend a hand with that,” Fallon said. “And Seth can come and haul the rig out of here.”
“Thank you,” I said, meaning it. “If anyone doesn’t have something going on, can they go to Syl’s place to grab all her lizard shit?” I asked.
“I can do that,” Sutton offered.
“She needs bugs for him too. She said the expensive ones, whatever that means.”
“I’ll figure it out,” he assured me. “She need anything else?”
“I don’t know yet,” I admitted.
“Go figure that out,” Fallon said, nodding toward Junior’s car where he and Syl were waiting for me.
“Thanks,” I said, suddenly overwhelmed with the appreciation for having a crew behind me, who would act without question, who would do anything I needed from them.
With that, I rushed back to Junior’s car, squeezing in with Syl, and holding her to me as we drove across town.
