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6
CASTLE
Logicand all my training scream at me that I’m following the wrong objective here. That I’m reacting emotionally, not rationally.
Rationally, I can see that Callie is in shock, but that’s okay. The blood is obviously Luca’s, from whatever the fuck she did to his face and neck. So the logical thing to do here would be tokeep her in her damn roomwhile I fucking deal with this. Not storm down the hallway of a two-thousand-dollar a night luxury hotel with a girl drenched in blood in my arms.
But I’m reacting emotionally, which means Ido not fucking care.
I brushed past the two European fuckwits that Callie left the gala with outside the hotel. For a moment, that was enough reassurance to make me turn around, or at least just go up to my own room. But that was before I paused at the curb and saw the black Escalade.
The one with tinted, thicker-than-normal windows. The one sitting a bit too low, giving away that it was armored. The person who used it could be anyone important, or wealthy, or dangerous. But when the driver leaning against the fender started talking into his cell phone about LA—in both English and Italian—that’s when my hacklesandmy suspicions were raised.
That’s when I ran up here and saw one of Callie’s black heels outside her suite.
I wince a little as I shift her slight weight in my arms. One of Luca’s goons got in a decent hit on me while I was busy snapping his buddy’s neck. That never would have happened ten years ago when I was still a Ranger.
Fuck, I’m getting rusty.
The door to my room opens to my keycard. I slip inside, shut the door, and walk directly into the bedroom off the living area, setting Callie down on the edge of the bed. Her expression is blank and her face is pure white, her eyes staring a thousand yards through me.
Yeah, she’s in shock all right.
I squat down in front of her, peering into her face, willing her to look at me. “Callie. Callie, honey.”
She blinks—once, twice, before her eyes come into focus. But it’s only for a moment, then she’s staring through me again.
Shit.
I frown, turning to head for the bathroom. Suddenly, her hand shoots out and grabs my wrist in a vice-like grip. She doesn’t say a word.
She doesn’t have to.
“Easy, I’m not going anywhere,” I murmur quietly.
I grab a pillow off the bed, strip off the case, and then reach for the bottle of water on the bedside table. I wet the pillowcase and start to clean the blood from her neck and chest.
I pull her dress back into place to cover her nudity, dabbing and wiping more of Luca’s blood from her skin.
“Callie.”
I hold her chin softly, lifting her face to mine again.
“You’re in shock. You need to breathe, and you need to drink this.”
I press the bottle of water into her hands. She nods mutely.
“Drink it.”
Callie nods again, still in a numb haze, bringing the bottle to her lips and taking a tiny sip.
“All of it, Callie. You need to drink all of it.”
Her eyes swivel slowly to mine, puzzled.
“What?”
“Drink the whole thing.”
