Page 54 of Deceiving Grier

I’d never been patient, and sitting next to Grier’s prone form, doing nothing but waiting, had me almost crawling out of my skin. Carefully, I held the hand of the arm that didn’t look broken, taking some comfort in the warmth of his skin.

A soft moan pulled my gaze to Grier’s face. His features tensed, closed eyes squeezing tight. He groaned again, shifting on the floor.

“Hey,” I said, a mix of relief and terror coiling inside me. “Try not to move, okay? Paramedics will be here soon.”

“Sawyer?” His eyes fluttered open, gaze unfocused when it met mine.

“Yeah, it’s me. You’re going to be okay. Help’s on the way.”

He tried to lift his bad arm as if to reach for me before I could stop him, but he let out a high whine, face turning pale. His eyes closing once more. He sagged against the floor, and for a second, I thought he’d passed out. Only his quick uneven breaths and the sheen of sweat slicking his skin led me to believe otherwise.

“Try not to move,” I repeated. “You’re hurt, but you’re going to be all right.” I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince more, him or me.

His brows pulled together in a confused frown. “I fell.”

“You did, but you’re okay.” I stroked my thumb over the back of the hand I was still holding. “You’re going to be fine.”

I thought I could hear the distant whine of a siren, and a little of the tension coiled around me loosened until Grier’s hand gripped mine tightly. When I looked up, his eyes were open and wide and panicked.

“There’s someone in the house,” he said, shifting as if he were going to sit up.

I gently pressed my free hand to his shoulder to hold him in place. “Our house?”

He had to be confused, uncertain about where he was or what had happened. There was no one in the house. The unease I’d felt for most of the night had me checking the locks and even walking through the house before he got home.

He tried to nod and winced. “I saw them upstairs before I fell.”

“Who?” I could definitely hear a siren now, and it was close.

“I don’t know. It was too dark to see their face, but there was someone there. They came at me.”

My pulse beat quickly in my throat. “Did they push you?”

“I don’t think so. I was backing away—”

I glanced up the stairs but couldn’t make out anything in the gloomy darkness above. Maybe I should have looked, but there was no way in hell I would leave Grier alone for even a minute. I didn’t care if Jack the Ripper himself was upstairs. I wouldn’t have left Grier’s side for anything.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sawyer

“Didyouhearorsee anything unusual in the house tonight?” The police officer looked up from his notepad to meet my gaze. Not much older than me, the officer was probably in his late twenties, my height—his dark eyes level with mine—but broader and more heavily muscled than me. His dark hair was cut short and to the scalp, and he might have been attractive if he had been a little less stiff and robot-like.

I glanced over my shoulder, where his partner stood in the open doorway. The ambulance was still parked out front, but the paramedics had loaded Grier inside.

I shook my head. While I had an uneasy feeling, jumping every time the wind picked up or the house creaked, none of those things were evidence that there’d beensomeonein the house. “Nothing, but if Grier said he saw someone, then he did. He doesn’t imagine things or make things up.”

The cop scribbled something down on his pad but didn’t comment. He and his partner had already spoken to Grier, and they’d walked through the house, starting from the attic and working their way down to the basement. They didn’t find anything … or anyone.

“You said you’d locked up after your other roommate left for work,” the officer prompted.

I nodded, glancing again at the ambulance. The EMTs had closed the rear doors, and one of them was climbing into the driver’s seat.

“Do you think we could finish this later?” I asked. “I want to go with them.”

“They’ll just have you meet them at the hospital. This won’t take much longer,” the officer assured me. He’d told me his name earlier, even given me his card, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what it was now. I’d been too fixed on the paramedics treating Grier. They’d been worried about his head—and between the crack in the plaster at the bottom of the stairs and that he’d been out cold when I found him, they should have been worried.

While he was conscious and coherent now, I still wanted to be with him in case he needed me.

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