Page 65 of Twisted Revelations

“Laura, your other arm, lift it so that you can grip my free hand. I can’t pull you up like this,” I uttered, grunting some of my words.

At our angle, my free hand was higher than the one I clung to her with.

“I can’t. I think it’s knocked out of place.” The wind stirred her words, but I caught enough to know that the arm she needed to lift was possibly injured.

“Come on, Laura. Please. You’re the toughest woman I know. Lift that arm right now!” I ordered.

The determined set of her face and the tremble in her body revealed her efforts. Eyes shut tight, body shaking with exertion; she managed to lift her arm as high as her waist before it fell limp at her side.

A sharp gasp escaped when my biting grip slipped and inched up her forearm, sending her farther into the night that attempted to suck her in.

“Let go!” she yelled. “You’re going to bleed to death.” She must have viewed my wounded side through the glass portion of the balcony. We were going to have a long talk about how easily she was willing to give up her life. Because of her childhood, she didn’t know her worth. She didn’t know what she meant to people, more specifically, to me.

“Laura, lift that fucking arm right now!” I yelled at her, my breath growing shallower, my strength dimming by the second. “If you’re giving up this easily, fuck it, I’m giving up to,” I barked. “We are either leaving here together or we’re dying right here and now!” The words were the harshest I’d spoken to her, but also the clearest I’d expressed yet.

Her body shook hard as her straining grunts sounded into the night. I feared saying anything, even afraid to breathe as she lifted the arm past her waist. My blood flowed, snaking its way down my leg as I strained and grunted in my attempt to lift Laura closer to my hand that she fought to grasp.

When her shaking hand caressed the palm of my free hand, I gripped it, and sheer determination gave me the strength I needed to haul her across the balcony, my shoes slipping and sliding with my effort. We literally tumbled to the floor once her legs spilled across the railing.

We sat, tangled in each other’s exhausted bodies, as our harsh breaths mingled with the wind. I positioned her atop my legs with her back against my chest as we allowed our wounded bodies to relax.

The idea I’d come so close to losing her was a hit I wasn’t ready to face. Nothing in my life had been more important than her staying alive. Nothing in my life had been more important than her.

“Beverly?” She questioned as I followed her tear-filled gaze.

“She’ll be fine. She was knocked out from a blow to her head.” Her body relax after my quick words.

“What about you? How are you?” She turned to get a better look at me.

“I’ll be fine,” I lied. Truth was I wasn’t sure. Right now, I had to find a way to get her and Beverly to safety.

“You’re not all right,” she protested. “It looks like you’ve been shanked in a prison riot.”

Only Laura could make me smile through my pain. Despite the unknown dangers we had yet to face in our unfinished mission, I was thankful to have her with me.

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