Page 23 of Toxic
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he says. “Get me out of here, and I won’t have to hurtanyoneelse.”
“Out of here?” I say aroundagasp.
“Blackthorne. Get me out of Blackthorne, and I won’t hurt her. Get me out without tipping off the guards or getting us caught, and I won’t tell your husband what you did with me. How you wanted to screamforme.”
“Fuck you.” I try to buck away from him, but his arms band tighteraroundme.
The sound of footsteps is just outside the door when he says, “Make up your mind, little mouse, or this allendshere.”
“If I do this, you won’t hurt her.”I don’t trust him, but I can’t take the chance he’ll kill anyone else, especially someone like Annie, who doesn’tdeserveit.
“I won’t. But you’ll need to get rid of her before she suspects anything, or I’ll have to take careofit.”
I don’t want to know what “take care of it” means, so I shove out of his arms, and this time, he lets me go. Before Annie can round the corner and enter the room, I throw another blanket over Salvatore’s still body and hope it will cover most of the blood on his body. There is nothing I can do about the floor, so I can only hope she doesn’t look down. There also isn’t anything I can do for the blood on my scrubs, but I wipe off most of it from my hands with a towel and toss it behind the bed just as her concerned face comesintoview.
“Hey,” she’s already saying in a rush, “I heard you scream and wanted to make sure you were okay . . . ” Her voice trails off as she takes in my bloody scrubs and Gracin towering just a few feet away. “Tessa?”
“I know, I’m a mess, right?” I try to laugh, but it sounds more like I’m choking. “They just brought this guy in with a hell of a knife wound.” I jerk my finger over my shoulder at the prone Salvatore. “Bled like a son of abitch.”
“I’ll say,” Annie says slowly, as though she can’t quite get a handle on the weird feeling in the room or why I’m acting so crazy. “Are you sure everythingisokay?”
“Absolutely. Just a hell of a mess to clean up.” When she doesn’t leave after another pause, I add, “Thanks for checking, though. I’m sorry if I scared you. I didn’t know you were working thismorning,too.”
She pauses, her eyes flitting back and forth between Gracin and me. “I had to work a double,” she says, and I note the dark smudges under her eyes. “You sure you’re allgoodhere?”
“All good,” I glance over my shoulder at Gracin’s unreadable expression. “He was just about to help me clean up,” I say as though he didn’t just kill a man with a pair of scissors and then threaten to kill her and possiblyme,too.
She must read something in my eyes, some emotion I can’t control because she makes a move to run, to call out for help. Before I can warn her to stop, before I can even turn in Gracin’s direction, he’s across the room with his hands wrapped around a stunned Annie’s throat.His arms flex and tears leak from her eyes as she struggles for breath. The fact that I let this man touch me brings bile to the back of mythroat.
I manage to look up into Gracin’s eyes, startled to realize the same eyes that I’d found so alluring now seem as dead and as hard as the ice slicking the graveloutside.
His nod is little more than a jerk of his head. “Get me out of here, and I’ll let sweet little Miss Annie runalonghome.”
“Fine,” I almost shout. I would do just about anything if it meant him getting his damn handsoffher.
Gracin releases Annie and murmurs to her words that I can’t hear, but I can guess. Her face pales, and I send her a pleading look, hoping she knows that he really will kill both of us if she doesn’t do what he says. If I make it through today, I may just kill Gracin for this. The only thing that keeps me from going crazy is imagining all the different ways I coulddoit.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” the devil himself warns as another set of footsteps draws closer totheroom.
Surprisingly, Annie manages to compose herself just as the footsteps come to a stop. Whatever Gracin said to her must have been effective, because the only evidence of her distress is the redness circling her eyes and suffusing her cheeks. I hope my control is as absolute as Gracin takes a seat on one of thehospitalbeds.
“How is everyone doing here?” the officer asks, finally peeking his head in. If he notices anything off about the three of us, he doesn't say anything. His eyes merely skitter across the room without actually seeing anything before he nods to the bed Salvatore is in. “Doc give the all-clear for him to get outofhere?”
In the end, I don’t even have to think twice about what I’m going to do. The action feels as natural as breathing. I guess I’ve gotten better at lying than Ithought.
“I’ll need to keep him for observation. Those guys really did a number on him. He might have a concussion.” I’m pleased to find that fear doesn’t cause me to stutter. I sound as bored and impatient ashedid.
The officer shifts, visibly uncomfortable, either from the mention of the sound beating they gave him or the fact that he’ll have to take shit for not bringing the prisoner back. “Sergeant didn't say anything about observation. He's supposed to go back to the cell when you're throughwithhim.”
I have to rally all of the resolve I didn't know I had when I say, “Do you want to be responsible if he sustains further injury because you were too impatient? Let me do my job. You do yours.” Then I wait because I’ve learned it makes people more uncomfortable when there’s a tense silence, and they will do just about anything toavoidit.
“You’re the boss,” he says, shifting a hand through his hair and taking a step back toward the door. “No skin off my teeth. He's all yours.” He pauses, perhaps finally sensing the tension rolling off Annie and me in waves. “Are you sure everything is okay here? If you want, I can have anotherofficercome—”
“No, there’s no need, we’re okay,” I say shortly. My tone is sharper than I intend because he doesn't know how on the markheis.
The officer, no doubt irritated by my interruption and tone, lifts his hands. “Whatever you say,” he says andbacksaway.
Heart in my throat, I turn to Annie to offer an explanation or plead my case, but she backs away, her movements so quick and instinctual that she nearly trips over herownfeet.