Page 210 of The Black Trilogy

In my peripheral vision, Nate stun-gunned the freak then hog-tied him like the pig he was while I crawled out of the truck and puked in the bushes at the edge of the parking lot. The low rumble of our SUV drowned out my retching as Black manoeuvred it to block Crunch’s twitching body.

“You okay?” Black asked.

What a stupid question. Possibly the stupidest question in the whole of history.

I tugged my torn shirt around me, not trusting myself to speak as Black hauled me to my feet and brushed gravel off my knees.

“Emmy?”

I shook my head, and he scooped me up in his arms. Crunch had wet himself and the delightful aroma of urine drifted over from the boot of the car. Black climbed into the backseat with me clinging to his neck.

“Is he going to wake up?” I croaked.

“Not with the amount of ketamine I gave him,” Nate said. “He’ll be out the whole trip.”

Black held me on his lap all the way back to Virginia. I made a half-hearted attempt to move to my own seat, but he wouldn’t let me go, so after a couple of tries, I gave up and dropped my head against his chest. The sound of his heartbeat soothed me, so steady in comparison to mine.

At the precinct in Richmond, we offloaded our package. Crunch had snored so loudly on the trip that Nate had suggested strapping him to the roof—the only lighthearted moment in a dark day—although I think he might actually have been serious. Black stayed with me while Nate got the body receipt, then we went back to Riverley. Home, sweet home. But for how long?

Nate drew up outside the house, and Black carried me inside. It seemed as if he, like me, knew my legs weren’t to be trusted tonight.

“Drink?” he asked after he’d set me on the sofa.

He didn’t bother to wait for an answer before he poured two glasses of Scotch. His preference, not mine.

“Are you going to speak? What happened back there?”

He moved me back onto his lap, but I couldn’t look him in the eye. My gaze fell to the far wall where the second hand of the grandfather clock ticked its way through the numerals.

“I panicked. I thought you weren’t going to come.” A little hiccup escaped. “I’m sorry.”

“We had to wait a minute because half a dozen of Crunch’s buddies walked out front for a smoke. We’d never have abandoned you. You have to know that.”

“Logically, I do. But I just couldn’t think. It brought back memories, and I freaked out. I’m so, so sorry.”

“What do you mean, brought back memories?” Black’s voice turned low and dangerous.

Oops. I’d never intended to pop the top on that can of worms.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does.”

I’d kept my secrets for years, but now I owed Black the truth. After all, he’d given me a chance and I’d screwed up.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been in that position,” I said quietly. “It’s happened twice before. When I was a little girl.”

“How far did it go?”

He turned colder than liquid nitrogen, and I stayed frozen in his arms.

“All the way,” I whispered.

His glass flew across the room, smashing in the fireplace on the far side. I’d never seen him lose his cool like that, not once, even when I was deliberately winding him up. “You never said anything.”

“What was I supposed to say? It’s not exactly something you drop into casual conversation.”

“I’d never have asked you to do that tonight if I’d known.”

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