Page 31 of Swallow Your Fear
She didn’t move a muscle as she sat there, my thumb running up and down her delicate skin. She was so fragile, so breakable in this moment, and a piece of me loathed that some stranger managed to break her determined attitude in the span of a few minutes. One misstep was all it took, and she was shattered.
“You want to tell me what happened?” I murmured, continuing my strokes.
I gave her a moment to decide where to start as she took a steadying breath.
“I was finishing up at the gym when he came out of nowhere,” she said, her arms tensing the slightest bit. “I tried to get away, but he slung me over his shoulder and had me against the wall in seconds.”
I used every piece of restraint in my body to keep my hands from tightening on her. Just the thought of some other man handling her like that had my mind slipping to dark places I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull myself out of. Not that I wanted to. I’d already proved I’d kill for her. Hurt for her.
I was quickly finding there were no limits to how far I would go when it came to Brynne.
“The glass on the mirror cut me, I think,” she said, finally moving. She lifted a hand to the back of her scalp, prodding around until she winced slightly, finding the gash.
“It’s not bleeding anymore,” I reassured her.
She brought her hand back under the water, red seeping through the clear tub like tendrils of smoke.
“I tried to fight back,” she continued, her voice gaining some of her usual self again. Determination. Strength. And that little bit of sass I was coming to like. “But it didn’t go so well. And then you came in.”
“Was it the same man from the diner?”
She shook her head, leaning back into me further. “No.”
Knowing Chase’s boss was sending multiple people to threaten her for answers didn’t comfort me in the slightest.They wanted what he had, and they were determined to get it by whatever means necessary.
Unfortunately for them, I didn’t allow anyone to put their hands on what was mine, and until I got that deed back, Brynne was mine to protect. I wouldn’t let them use her as some chess piece because of her ex-boyfriend.
Silently, I wet her hair in the tub, not caring about the red tinge the water turned as I did. I washed her hair, scrubbed every inch of her body with soap, then helped dry her off afterward. Once she was in bed, wrapped in my shirt, I went downstairs to wait for Austin and Henley to get home.
I had a plan.
Chapter 14
Brynne
Booker had left two pills and a glass of water on the bedside table, and I was thankful for it when I woke up at the crack of dawn the morning after the attack. My head pounded, but about an hour after taking the medication, I was feeling good enough to get out of his bed.
I’d slept so hard, I wasn’t sure if he’d joined me at all during the night. There was a mess at the gym, and I assumed Austin and Henley would take care of the deceased man for him, but I wouldn’t have doubted it if he helped in some way. Hiding a body didn’t seem like an easy task, and I was sure the last place any of them wanted to end up was prison for murder.
I fixed my hair in the mirror above his dresser, then headed downstairs. As soon as I reached the last step, I found the three of them staring at me from the living room. Austin was bent over his knees on the couch, hands clasped between his legs, as he studied me. Henley was in the chairby the bookcase, and Booker was sitting on the edge of the loveseat.
“Good morning?” The greeting sounded more like a question as it seemed almost like they were waiting for me.
Booker’s eyes trailed my body, likely checking for any injuries that may have gone unaccounted for last night. He knew there were none, though. He’d dried every inch of my skin so gently, looking closely for any bruising or abrasions.
“We have a plan,” Austin said, straightening so his back hit the couch.
Booker nudged his chin in the direction of the cushion beside him, and I crossed to it, propping myself on the edge of the seat as I looked at them all expectantly.
Henley had this guilty look on his face, like he thought this was his fault. While in the beginning, it may have been, it was clear the rest of this was Chase’s doing. Him not handing over the deed to his boss was the problem, not necessarily anything Henley did.
“You’re going to text Chase to meet you somewhere,” Henley said, taking the reins.
“Why would I do that?”
This time, Austin spoke up. “So we can get the deed back.”
“And then what?”
