Page 52 of Until Hanna

Walking toward me, Walker grabs my waist and lifts me over the bottom two steps.

“Mrs. Lewis fell down the stairs. She….” I close my eyes, dropping my forehead to his chest. “I found her when I got home.”

“Jesus.” His arms wrap around me. “Is she okay?”

“No, she’s… gone.” I drag in a breath and step out of his hold, swallowing as I look around. “Her sister and Josh’s parents are going to be here soon. I don’t… I don’t want them to see....” I swallow again, this time over the bile crawling up the back of my throat. “I need to clean this up before she gets here.” I motion to the steps.

“Where are your keys?”

I take them out of my pocket, and he removes them from my grasp. I don’t bother picking up my stuff, which is still by the door, when he opens it. I go to the kitchen and open the cupboard under the sink. Taking out a new roll of paper towels and a spray bottle of bathroom cleaner, I start to walk back to the door, but three men block my path. “We’ll clean up. Go get in the shower.”

“I’m fine,” I lie, feeling like I’m about to come undone at the seams.

“Baby, you have blood on you.” I look down at myself and see that my cream top I have on under my blazer is smeared with blood, and so are my hands. I hadn’t noticed. “You shower. We got this.”

He presses a kiss to my forehead and then ushers me across the hallway to my room after handing the cleaning supplies to Otto and Ham. Walking me into the room, he stands in front of me and helps me out of my work uniform, and when I’m down to nothing but my underwear and bra, he urges me into the bathroom and starts the shower.

He cups my jaw, forcing my gaze to his. “I’m gonna go check on the guys. Will you be okay for a few minutes alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

When he leaves, I unhook my bra and step out of my underwear, then walk into the open shower. As the hot water beats down on me, I grab my soap and scrub the blood from my hands, then I wash my hair and body.

Walker comes back before I’m even done, and when I shut off the water, he holds the towel open for me and wraps me up in it. Grabbing another he begins to dry my hair. “Everything is cleaned up.”

“Thank you.” I fall into his arms and fight back the urge to cry, because I know when I let go, I’m not going to be able to stop.

“I’m sorry, baby. I know she was your friend.”

“I just saw her yesterday before I left for work. She was excited about the flowers she planted last fall coming up in the garden. I was in such a hurry to get to the train I...” I close my eyes. “I should have taken a few more minutes to talk to her. I should have given her a hug. I never hugged her.”

He holds onto me without saying anything, and the tears I’ve been trying to fight back begin to slip from between my lashes as a sob climbs up my throat. Lifting me off my feet, he carries me to my bed and lies down with me.

Curled against his side, I cry myself to sleep, wondering what would have happened if I’d been home just a little earlier.

CHAPTER16

walker

“Oh no,” I hear Hanna whimper, and a second later, she’s crawling over me to get out of bed and rushing to the bathroom. I follow right on her heels and watch her fall to her knees in front of the toilet as she begins to heave.

Pulling her hair away from her face, I rub her back, then flip on the sink and grab a washcloth from her linen closet. When it’s soaked, I ring it out and rest it on the back of her neck as she gags. Nothing comes up—probably because she didn’t eat last night.

“Better?” I ask, squatting down next to her, and she shakes her head, looking over at me. Her eyes are still red-rimmed and puffy from crying herself to sleep and she looks absolutely heartbroken.

“No.” She drops her head to her arm resting across the toilet. “I have a migraine.”

“Do you get them a lot?” I’ve never had one, but my mom would get them on occasion while Miranda and I were growing up, and she’d have to lock herself away in the dark until it passed.

“Not often, but they get more regular when I’m under stress. I have medicine.” She squints over at me like the little bit of light coming in through the smoked-glass window in the room is causing her pain. “It’s in my carry-on from the plane, in my toiletry bag.”

“Do you need to eat something before you take it?”

“No, it’s a shot.”

---