Page 29 of Web of Lies
I feel my arm wrapping itself around her waist and pulling her closer to me.
Very bad.
Shit.
“Don't cry,” I order. “Don't you dare. I can't do crying.”
Her shoulder's do that tight, hunching thing that happens when people try not to cry.
Fuck.
“It's alright. I got you out. But you really can't cry. I don't do crying. You're alright.” My other hand comes around to rub her back and I can't make it stop. I stand there and let her lean against me, ignoring what my hands and arms are doing, until she's breathing slower. Gently, I pull back and hold her out in front of me. “You don't look any worse for wear. Have you been in there very long?”
She glances at the brightly lit window then back at me before she nods.
“What happened? Why did he put you in there?”
She shrugs, shaking her head.
I'm about to try to drag more out of her when I hear a car door shut outside.
“Are you better now?”
She holds my gaze for a few long seconds before she nods.
“Okay. Good. Let's go.”
I wrap my fingers around her wrist and pull her behind me down the hall and into the kitchen where I pull out a chair and push her into it before I turn a glare onto Shaun.
“Explain.”
He finishes dumping his grocery bags onto the counter and washes his hands before he turns to face me. “I needed some stuff.”
“Why didn't you wake me up?”
“You were tired.”
“Are you serious?”
“Are you?”
My violent thoughts from a few minutes ago threaten to boil over and the effort to keep them from shooting out of my mouth has my jaw clenching. “Yes, Shaun. She was in the chest.”
“And?”
And?And?!“Why did you put her inside a chest instead of just waking me up?”
He rolls his eyes. “You were tired. I heard your alarm go off and you didn't come down. You don't strike me as the kind of guy to sleep through an alarm so I figured you were exhausted. I let you sleep. She was safe, it's fine.”
I breathe through my nose, audibly, and count backwards from seven. Seven has always been a good number for me. I ask the next question when I get to one. “What was so important that you had to lock her in a trunk and not wake me up to go get it?”
“Why is this an ingredients house?”
“A what?”
Shaun walks to the fridge and throws open the door. “Blocks of cheese. Sticks of butter. Eggs.” He goes to the cabinets and starts opening them, leaving the doors wide open as he goes. “Raw pasta. Tomato sauce,notspaghetti sauce. Fucking flour. A jar of sugar. Sardines. What is wrong with you? Do you usually cook five star menus from scratch for the people you kidnap?”
“We had sandwiches yesterday.”
