Page 78 of Lust

“Fucking hell,” I curse as white-hot pain stabs at my eye when I touch it. Dropping my hand, I spot something red—blood.

A piercing scream echoes around the room…no, a barn, we were in a barn. Cognizance slowly returns as hands pull at me, and I hear Kincaid talking to someone.

Then he’s gone.

I’m gone.

I lean over,slipping my shoes on, and wince as my ribs smart at the movement. “God damn you,” I grumble.

“You’re not still complaining about your ribs, are you?” Ro teases as he enters my room. The clean, crisp clinical walls and that bleachy, medicinal smell are things I won’t miss of this room. And the food. Anyone who rates hospital food has obviously never had a decent meal.

“How is she?” I ask, changing the subject to something more important than a couple of broken ribs.

His face drops, and he hangs his head. “She’s okay,” he says unconvincingly. “She’ll be okay,” he adds.

“Yeah, she fucking will.” I push to my feet gingerly and grab my things from the bed. “Let’s get the hell out of here and take our girl home.”

Roman opens the door, and I pause to cup his face, feeling the bristles of his stubble scratch against my palm. “And you?”

He kisses me gently, conscious of my split lip, and that’s answer enough for now.

The last twenty-four hours have been fucking exhausting and emotional. I can’t wait to get home and sleep. But before we can do that, we need to check on Hannah and her dad, then we need to break the news to Sydney about her dad.

Roman leads me to the female ward across from this one where Hannah is recovering. Knocking on the door of herprivate room, a male voice calls out to enter, and Roman pushes the door open slowly.

“Hey, Brian.” Roman greets, walking over to where he is sitting beside Hannah’s bed while she sleeps.

“Roman, Blake,” he says, getting to his feet to shake our hands. He directs us away from Hannah’s bed, not wanting to disturb her while we talk. He looks back over his shoulder to check she’s still sleeping before he speaks. “The cops came by this morning to talk to Hannah, but she was sleeping and the doctor told them she wasn’t well enough to talk yet.” He’s saying the words but there’s no emotion, no inflection, it’s monotone and like he’s just going through the motions.

His gaze wanders back to his daughter. “I need to…to organise Trisha’s funeral and speak with Hannah’s school and look at a therapist, but I?—”

“Hey, Brian. Brian, slow down. You don’t need to think about any of that right now. Just focus on Hannah,” I tell him, and he nods.

“How’s Sydney?” he asks.

“She’s doing okay. She’s being discharged today, but I’m sure she’ll want to check in on Hannah,” Roman says.

“Yeah, that’s…I’d like to thank her, for you know…” His words trail off.

A nurse enters the room, nodding to Brian before her gaze lands on us, and she scowls.

“We’re going,” Roman tells her as she prepares to reprimand us for being in here outside visiting hours. Ro pulls a card from his wallet and holds it out to Brian. “We’ll check in with you in a couple of days, but if you need anything before then, call me. Okay?”

Brian takes the card, slipping it into his pocket, and nods. “Thanks.” Then he walks back to his daughter.

We leave him to it and head down to Sydney’s room. She’s dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed when we enter. She lifts her head to look at us. “Hey, we ready to go?” She hops off the bed without waiting for an answer and walks toward us.

Her bruised cheek and nose look worse today, and I wish I could bring the motherfucker back from the dead to torture him over and over.

“Syd—”

“Let’s go,” she says bluntly, cutting me off. “Please,” she tacks on the end, softening her tone.

Ro shakes his head when I gesture to her as she walks past us to the door. “We’ll tell her once we’re home,” he says before following and almost getting hit by the swinging door.

As I suspected, this conversation isn’t going to wait until we get home. The second we leave the hospital in the opposite direction of her father’s house, she’s asking questions.

“Pa’s is that way. I need to check on him.”

---