Page 164 of Saving the Halfback

“Stop.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “If it’s a night terror, you shouldn’t wake her up.”

“What do we do?” Chase asked.

“Be calm, just try to soothe her,” I told them.

Nolan jumped up and went to the bed, pulling the blankets down. “Lay her down here.”

“Please,” Bailey whimpered, clutching on to Chase’s shirt.

The breath was stolen right out of my lungs. As Chase lay down next to Bailey on the bed, not leaving her side and letting her hold on to him as if he were her lifeline, Ethan got in behind her, reaching out and brushing her hair back out of her face. Nolan propped himself up in between them, next to her hip.

“What happened?” I asked, pacing back and forth. “Something set her off.”

“Chill, Lach,” Chase said. “When you raise your voice, she shakes more.”

“I didn’t mean to.” Bailey cried, and I fell to my knees.

“Stroke her, someone please just fucking hold her,” I begged.

Chase leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead while Nolan curled his arm around her stomach, laying his head on her gently. Ethan continued stroking her hair. I wanted to touch her, I wanted to fucking take her away and hide somewhere, anywhere no one could find us. Somewhere the world would stop fucking us over. I was afraid my touch would scare her, though. They seemed to have it all under control.

“Earlier, on the bus, she seemed off.”

“She was crying,” Nolan mumbled sleepily.

“What the fuck? And no one told me?” I growled.

“You were busy,” Ethan said. “She wouldn’t have said anything, anyway.” He cleared his throat. “She said she wasn’t in danger, but I didn’t believe her.”

“And what about now?” I snapped.

Bailey jumped, burying her face into Chase’s chest. On instinct, I reached out to her, my fingers lightly grazing her calf.

“She’s still not in trouble.” Ethan glared at me. “I haven’t let her out of my sight for longer than the time it took her to change in the dressing room, and even then, I was right there, waiting.”

“Guys, seriously, this isn’t helping her,” Chase admonished. “Lachlan, come in here. I think she will do better with all of us.”

I shook my head. “If she’s having night terrors ofhim, my touch will only make it worse.”

“Why?” Nolan asked, and I shrugged, because I had no clear reason why. If she was reliving moments of being harmed, would the darkness within me continue to feed her terror?

Bailey mumbled something, her voice softening. “I think she likes that, man,” Chase said, nodding to where my fingers were doodling lines on her calf.

I could feel her legs relaxing.

I pulled away so I could flip off the lights and crawled into the bed, between Bailey and Chase. As I lay my head on her hip, continuing to doodle along her thigh, I kept my voice whisper soft. “I’m going to kill him,” I promised, my tone sweet and whimsical because those were the thoughts I wanted Bailey to have right now—sweet. “When we get home, I’m going to go into that fucker’s hospital room and slit his throat.”

There was a beat of silence before Chase spoke. “That’s not very efficient. He can still make a lot of noise, and he may not bleed out fast enough.”

“It’s also very messy,” Ethan said.

Nolan yawned. “Getting out with that much blood on your hands might be hard.”

“It’s not efficient, because I don’t want him to die right away. I want to look in his eyes as he realizes he’s about to die. I want to look in his eyes when the pain takes over and he sees his own blood covering himself. I want it messy. I want to bathe in the heat of his blood, pure domination. I don’t care if I don’t get out. At least she will feel safe enough to fucking sleep at night.” I turned my head, pressing a kiss to her hip without really meaning to. I just wanted her to feel safe.

“You can’t leave her,” Ethan said. “If she lost you, she’d be pissed.”

“She doesn’t want to lose family anymore,” Nolan said.

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