Page 61 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
A girl, he finally discerned.
He attempted to swallow down the bile as he knelt. He needed to turn away. Put in an anonymous call. But he couldn’t do anything but reach out and roll her onto her back.
The deepest moan reverberated out of her, and her eyes blinked open.
Relief rasped out of Theo, though rage pummeled him when he got a good look at her face.
Bruised and battered and left for dead.
But that’s what these streets did. They ate you up and spit you out.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m gonna get you help,” he muttered, trying to survey the damage. Her clothes were torn but at least she wasin them. There was some blood on the edge of her mouth, but he couldn’t tell if she was bleeding from anywhere else.
He fumbled to get to his phone before a whimper mumbled between her lips, and she reached out and clutched him by the wrist. “No.”
A frown carved his brow. “Need to get you to an emergency room.”
She blinked frantically.
She was too fucking thin and frail, and by the ghosts that haunted her brown eyes, he imagined she’d been on the streets for a while.
“I can’t go there. You know that.”
He got it on a level he wished he didn’t. “You’re hurt.”
She emitted a hoarse, self-deprecating sound. “I’ve had it much worse.”
Theo’s chest clutched. “Can you sit up?”
“I think so.”
She groaned as he helped her upright, the girl gasping through the pain as she did.
A girl he’d pin between eighteen and twenty.
He warred, staring down at her. She wasn’t his problem. But he couldn’t just leave her there.
“Come on, let’s get you someplace safe. Get you cleaned up and something to eat.”
Surprise jetted from her, and she shook her head as she tried to process through his offer. “You’re…going to help me?”
Theo might have become a monster.
Might have been involved in horrible things.
His life surrendered to wickedness.
But he couldn’t stomach the idea of leaving her there.
“Yeah. I have my bike. You think you have the strength to hold onto me?”
She warred for a beat, her gaze slanting to where his motorcycle chugged and rumbled, before she gave a slight nod. “I think so.”
Theo pushed to his feet and extended his hand, not realizing just how fucking bad he was going to regret murmuring, “Come with me.”
TEN
PIPER
