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He has to practically toss me over his shoulder to get me out of the elevator.
“Taney.”
The voice that comes out of me isn’t mine. It’s a child’s voice. In my head I see the moment I found Dad underneath the glowing red sign of the convenience store, with the lighter displayed prominently on his chest.
Gabriel guides me over to where I parked and I push against him, determined to walk on my own even though I can use his support. The car is there. If I make it, then I’ll get home, I’ll get my whiskey, my gun, I’ll—
Gabriel grabs the car keys out of my hand and I hadn’t realized I’d reached for them until he does. I definitely do not feel the way the metal bit into my skin and left a bloodless imprint.
“Give me my keys,” I growl.
The world spins around me and the sky overhead is nothing but a blur. The heat of Indian summer has started to fade and the chill of the night air burns against my skin. I welcome the sensation. Anything is better than numbness.
What am I supposed to do? How do I go on without Taney?
She is everything I’m not, full of life and confidence. The real kind. Not the fake crap I peddle.
Not is, I correct.Was. Shewasall those things. And I’ll never get to see her again.
My throat clenches, closing, hot and scratchy and every piece of me feels poked with needles.
“You aren’t driving in this state.”
“You don’t know me.” I wrap my arms around myself although it does nothing to help. “What state am I in, Gabriel? Death happens every day and I’m right in the thick of things. If you think this is any different, then you’re fooling yourself.”
He snags me around the waist and hauls me close, glaring at me and daring me to try and stop him. Rather than fight me, he tightens his grip.
I’m still shivering when he drags me over to his vehicle, the monstrous black SUV. I’m forced to let him take over and lead.
There’s silence, silence all around me. He says nothing when he throws me down into the passenger seat and I flinch. Nothing about the strange hiccupping cough in the back of my throat. No one is more surprised when I actually stay in the seat and let him buckle me in.
Silence all around me.
No more counting.
No more people will come to find me.
TWENTY-TWO
gabriel
Layla goesrigid in the passenger seat and I ignore it, focusing on driving, my hackles raised. Drawing my rage around me at the situation, rage that she’s been hurt this way. Rage that all of this leads back to Broderick Stevens somehow, and that makes me responsible.
If I’d managed to catch the fucker responsible for these deaths, then her friend would still be here and Layla wouldn’t be fighting to keep it together. She’s a hairsbreadth away from shattering and refuses to admit it to herself.
She still says nothing when I pull into the parking lot of my apartment complex and walk around the front of the vehicle, moving quickly. I grab her and swing her out of the seat and into my arms. She takes a halfhearted jab at me which does very little to lighten my mood.
Normally she’s got much more fight in her than this, which leads me to believe that she’s in shock. Whatever fears she hasn’t told me about keep her paralyzed.
There’s no better place to take her than mine.
I’ve got no plan when we make it to the apartment and I click the door shut.
Forget the usual checks. I’m going on a gut feeling that the place is secure as I carry Layla to the shower. Keeping her close, I reach out with the opposite arm to flick the handle on and get the water hot.
By the time I set her on her feet she’s stopped shaking, but her eyes are blank and she simply stares at the water.
She’s covered in blood and she knows she is. But any spark of life inside her is gone, just as she looked before I took her on the stage the other night. And I know that anything I have to say, she won’t hear me. She’s not capable of it right now.
