Page 64 of Heartbeat Girl

I froze as I watched her continue to cry. At that moment, I would have given anything to make her happy. I just didn’t know why I wanted to.

“Even under the influence of a vampire…” Pete’s voice drifted off.

“She still cries.” I finished his sentence. Something in me cracked wide open as a single tear slid down her cheek.

“We can’t always be right. We can’t always be good,” I said slowly, coming to terms with the decision I’d made.

“I believe you picked a great fucking night to be bad,” Steve stated, already in sync with what I wanted to do.

“Heartbeat girl, do you want to be free of the man that led you into a group of vampires?” I asked.

She nodded.

“He’ll never hurt you or anyone again.”

Denise moaned behind us and then asked, “Can you play with my clit?”

Pete sighed and said, “I don’t think you’d want that, really. How about you sleep it off?”

I ran my fingers across Jayne’s forehead. “I’d like to get to know you, Jayne, but not like this.”

“Why?” she whispered. Her chest rose and fell steadily.

At least I took her worries away.I can keep her problems away forever.

“You’re only calm because I made that happen. I want your reactions to be true. Sadly, that can’t happen with how we’ve started.”

I tilted my head as I gazed upon her with renewed interest. She was a petite woman. Her slender neck was veryappealingto my nature. Brown hair and eyes that matched. She was a beautifully broken little thing. Just something… About her tugged at me. It was almost like I had a heart. Well, I supposed I did. A beatless one, and it stirred. Not for the noise of music in which I loved, but for the rhythms of this woman’s sounds.

“Do you want to meet me under better circumstances?”

“No,” she murmured flatly.

Pete and Steve cackled.

My mouth stretched ear to ear. “If you didn’t catch me with my fangs in a blood bag, I feel like your answer would be different. Would it?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

Well, that was better.

“What about me? Want to meet me again?” Steve asked her.

“No.”

I smiled at her response.

“Jayne!” the man shouted in the hallway. There was a click, then a creak, like he opened a door. That meant he was still searching for her.

Frowning, I looked at Jayne again. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to forget about the pain. All the abuse, you’re going to forget it completely. Today, you dumped him because you caught him cheating. If you share a place together, you move out tomorrow.” I held my hand out to Pete. “Give me the apartment keys.”

Pete sighed. “We just got that place.”

“Here.” I pushed the keys into her jeans pockets. “We’ll walk you to your new place, okay?” I studied her black eye before looking down at her limp wrist. It was a risk, but one I’d happily make. For my words to work, there could be no outside traces of her abusive boyfriend.

“Fucker is getting closer,” Steve warned.

He didn’t have to tell me. I heard the doctor’s hurried footsteps. Whether he’d open this door was the question. Regardless, it would make everything easier if he came to us on his own.

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