Page 89 of Corrupting Ivy

He’d offered a cocoon of safety I needed.

It was dark now; the moon was covered by clouds, the only light coming in from outside the big window that overlooked the parking lot was a faint street light. The soft glow touched Randall’s bare chest and shadowed his strong jawline as he lay sleeping on the hospital couch.

“Randall?” I said, my voice barely a whisper.

“Hmm?” He opened his eyes and glanced at me.

“Will you lay with me?” I held out my bandaged hand while trying to avoid looking at the others that trailed up my arm to my shoulder.

“That’s not a good idea.”

I frowned. “Okay.”

I’d developed an unhealthy attachment to him. I could see that. But I didn’t care. I needed him to be near me.

Sitting up in the hospital bed, I flipped the blanket off my legs, revealing more bandages that hid an ungodly amount of stitches and some type of glue that held my skin together. I placed my swollen feet on the chilly tiled floor. The slivers and cacti thorns left raised red bumps along my feet, making any pressure applied to them painful.

“What are you doing? Don’t get out of bed.”

I motioned for him to move. “Scoot over. If you won’t lay with me, then I’ll lay with you.”

He jumped from the couch and met me at my bedside. “I said it wasn’t a good idea.” Randall wrapped his hand around mine, his thumb caressing the scar on my palm put there by his mother. It was something I’d noticed him doing since he found me.

“I can’t sleep.”

I pulled my legs back up and tucked them into bed, then slid over as he moved in beside me. Wrapping my arms around him, he pulled me against his hard body while I inhaled his warm, spicy scent.

“Again?”

I nodded. “I can’t get him out of my head.”

Mr. Grady was like a parasite that wouldn’t go away. And the more Sheriff Kennedy and the FBI questioned me about him, the more alive his memory stayed.

“He’s dead.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“They found his burned body in the cabin. There’s no coming back from that, he’s dead.” He kissed the top of my head. “Get some rest, we have a long day tomorrow.”

“What’s tomorrow?”

He cleared his throat and pulled me in a little tighter. “The day we leave.”

She’d survived. Killed herattacker and nearly died trying to get to help. She was strong and fierce, but I still couldn’t let her go. I wouldn’t.

“You made all the arrangements?” I asked Jake after closing her hospital room door, letting her sleep in peace.

“Yes, it’s all packed up and loaded on the plane.”

“Okay.” I held my hand out for the keys to her apartment and the phone I’d left there.

Jake slapped them into my hand. “You know this was well beyond my job description.”

I grinned.

Of course, it was. Packing her apartment up in three days was a lot to ask anyone that didn’t do it for a living, but seeing as she only had a backpack with clothes and a few knickknacks here and there, she’d picked up along the way… I’d say it was a cakewalk.

“I’m sure you survived. Did you get everything?”

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