Page 102 of Grave Matter

“Stay back, Wes,” Michael warns.

“Stay back?” Kincaid sneers. “Are you serious right now? She’s my fucking patient.”

“And a patient you’re fucking,” Everly says under her breath, so bitterly that it causes something to dig in the back of my skull.

She’s jealous.

“Fuck off, Everly,” Kincaid says. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“She’s breaking,” Michael says again. “And your sessions have been no help, that much I can see. Preventative, my ass.Weneed to do something. Take a look at her brain, see what her problem is. See if we can fix her.”

Excuse me, what?I think. I moan, trying to run, to scream, but I can’t.

“Hold on, Syd,” Kincaid says to me, trying to sound calm. “You entrusted her into my care. Both of you did,” he says to them, his voice brimming with raw anger. “So you’re not laying a single fucking finger on her head, or I swear to god I will burn this whole damn place down with you in it.Especiallywith you in it.”

“Idle threats,” Michael says. “You’ve said this before, and yet you’re still here.”

“I don’t make idle threats,” Kincaid growls. “She’s mine.”

Everly sighs. “Such a caveman. Fine, fuck, what do I care what you do. I don’t.”

Michael lets out a derisive snort.

“What?” Everly snaps. “I don’t care.”

“Right,dear,” Michael says sarcastically. “Sometimes I can’t tell who will be your downfall here, Sydney or Wes? Perhaps both of them, hmmm?”

Everly suddenly lets go of me, and I slump toward the ground, held up only by Michael’s cruel grip.

“All of you can go to hell,” Everly says, and I hear her walking off.

“You first,” Michael says under his breath, but he’s still holding me at an angle, as if I’m diseased.

“Michael, you’re traumatizing her,” Kincaid says in a low voice. “You think she can’t hear this right now, can’t feel this?”

Michael grunts and starts to release me. Suddenly, Kincaid rushes forward and grabs me by the waist, hauling me up.

“You need to be careful,” Michael says as Kincaid cradles my head against his chest. My entire body lets go, slumped against him. “You need to be a lot more careful.”

“Sounds like you’re the ones who need to get things under control,” Kincaid says. “One more mistake will put all of us over the edge. And you have the most to lose.”

Michael laughs bitterly. “That’s where you’re wrong, doctor. That’s where you’re wrong.”

Then he walks off, leaving Kincaid and me alone.

“Jesus,” he swears, exhaling heavily before kissing the top of my head. “Syd, are you okay?”

I try to speak, but it all comes out as gibberish.

“That’s okay,” he says. “I’ll take you to the boat. Come on.”

He leans down and scoops me up in his arms, carrying me past the totem pole and boardwalk, down the ramp, to the docks.

He carries me on board and down the stairs, and then takes me to his sleeping quarters, laying me down on the berth.

“You’re going to want to sleep for a few hours until the sedative wears off,” he says. “I’m not sure exactly which onethey injected you with, but you should be okay. I’ll be right here keeping an eye on you. You’re safe.”

Then he kisses my forehead tenderly and pulls the blanket over me, tucking me in.

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