A screech tears free,and I lunge forward to staunch the bleeding, but there’s too much, and it’sing too fast. Asleep as he is, Salvatore doesn’t so much as twitch as Gracin rips the scissors away and his life slowly slips through my fingers. Seconds tick by before Salvatore jerks once and then goes still again, significantlystill.
With dark red smears of blood covering my hands and seeping into my scrubs, I stumble backward. All I know is that I need to get away. Away from what just happened, away from Vic, this ce, Gracin.Just<span>away.
I spin, intending to do just that when Gracines up behind me and braces me against his chest. “Not so fast,” he says into my ear, and I shiver against him, feeling both too cold and too hot at the same time. “We’re notdone<span>yet.”
“Please don’t kill me,” I say. I guess Vic hasn’t beaten all the begging out of me after all. “Please, just let me go. I won’t sayanything.”
“Oh, I know you won’t.” His hands cinch down around my arms. “You’re gonna stay real quiet-like while I take care of our man here. If anyonees in, you tell them you’ve got it handled, just like you did before. Can you do that, littlemouse?”
My insides turn colder than the ass-crack of a Michigan wintermorning.Belonging to N?velDrama.Org.
“You bastard,” Iseethe.
“Awe, now, don’t be so upset. Just do as I ask, and no one else willget<span>hurt.”
If I had something in my hands, I would have thrown it at his carefully nk face. My thirst for revenge quiets when I hear the squeak of sneakers against the tile floors and all the blood drains from my face. Someone’sing. I shove my feelings aside and try to figure out how the hell I’m going to get out ofthis<span>mess.
“Hey, Tessa, are you okay?” Annie’s voice calls from down thehallway.
My shoulders are tight and I blink rapidly as my mind races for an exit strategy. As if he can sense the direction of my thoughts, Gracin’s armstighten.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he says. “Get me out of here, and I won’t have to hurtanyone<span>else.”
“Out of here?” I say arounda<span>gasp.
“ckthorne. Get me out of ckthorne, and I won’t hurt her. Get me out without tipping off the guards or getting us caught, and I won’t tell your husband what you did with me. How you wanted to screamfor<span>me.”
“Fuck you.” I try to buck away from him, but his arms band tighteraround<span>me.
The sound of footsteps is just outside the door when he says, “Make up your mind, little mouse, or this allends<span>here.”
“If I do this, you won’t hurt her.”I don’t trust him, but I can’t take the chance he’ll kill anyone else, especially someone like Annie, who doesn’tdeserve<span>it.
“I won’t. But you’ll need to get rid of her before she suspects anything, or I’ll have to take careof<span>it.”
I don’t want to know what “take care of it” means, so I shove out of his arms, and this time, he lets me go. Before Annie can round the corner and enter the room, I throw another nket over Salvatore’s still body and hope it will cover most of the blood on his body. There is nothing I can do about the floor, so I can only hope she doesn’t look down. There also isn’t anything I can do for the blood on my scrubs, but I wipe off most of it from my hands with a towel and toss it behind the bed just as her concerned faceesinto<span>view.
“Hey,” she’s already saying in a rush, “I heard you scream and wanted to make sure you were okay . . . ” Her voice trails off as she takes in my bloody scrubs and Gracin towering just a few feet away. “Tessa?”
“I know, I’m a mess, right?” I try tough, but it sounds more like I’m choking. “They just brought this guy in with a hell of a knife wound.” I jerk my finger over my shoulder at the prone Salvatore. “Bled like a son of abitch.”
“I’ll say,” Annie says slowly, as though she can’t quite get a handle on the weird feeling in the room or why I’m acting so crazy. “Are you sure everythingis<span>okay?”
“Absolutely. Just a hell of a mess to clean up.” When she doesn’t leave after another pause, I add, “Thanks for checking, though. I’m sorry if I scared you. I didn’t know you were working thismorning,<span>too.”
She pauses, her eyes flitting back and forth between Gracin and me. “I had to work a double,” she says, and I note the dark smudges under her eyes. “You sure you’re allgood<span>here?”
“All good,” I nce over my shoulder at Gracin’s unreadable expression. “He was just about to help me clean up,” I say as though he didn’t just kill a man with a pair of scissors and then threaten to kill her and possiblyme,<span>too.
She must read something in my eyes, some emotion I can’t control because she makes a move to run, to call out for help. Before I can warn her to stop, before I can even turn in Gracin’s direction, he’s across the room with his hands wrapped around a stunned Annie’s throat.His arms flex and tears leak from her eyes as she struggles for breath. The fact that I let this man touch me brings bile to the back of mythroat.
I manage to look up into Gracin’s eyes, startled to realize the same eyes that I’d found so alluring now seem as dead and as hard as the ice slicking the graveloutside.
His nod is little more than a jerk of his head. “Get me out of here, and I’ll let sweet little Miss Annie runalong<span>home.”
“Fine,” I almost shout. I would do just about anything if it meant him getting his damn handsoff<span>her.
Gracin releases Annie and murmurs to her words that I can’t hear, but I can guess. Her face pales, and I send her a pleading look, hoping she knows that he really will kill both of us if she doesn’t do what he says. If I make it through today, I may just kill Gracin for this. The only thing that keeps me from going crazy is imagining all the different ways I coulddo<span>it.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” the devil himself warns as another set of footsteps draws closer tothe<span>room.
Surprisingly, Annie manages topose herself just as the footstepse to a stop. Whatever Gracin said to her must have been effective, because the only evidence of her distress is the redness circling her eyes and suffusing her cheeks. I hope my control is as absolute as Gracin takes a seat on one of thehospital<span>beds.
“How is everyone doing here?” the officer asks, finally peeking his head in. If he notices anything off about the three of us, he doesn’t say anything. His eyes merely skitter across the room without actually seeing anything before he nods to the bed Salvatore is in. “Doc give the all-clear for him to get outof<span>here?”
In the end, I don’t even have to think twice about what I’m going to do. The action feels as natural as breathing. I guess I’ve gotten better at lying than Ithought.
“I’ll need to keep him for observation. Those guys really did a number on him. He might have a concussion.” I’m pleased to find that fear doesn’t cause me to stutter. I sound as bored and impatient ashe<span>did.
The officer shifts, visibly ufortable, either from the mention of the sound beating they gave him or the fact that he’ll have to take shit for not bringing the prisoner back. “Sergeant didn’t say anything about observation. He’s supposed to go back to the cell when you’re throughwith<span>him.”
I have to rally all of the resolve I didn’t know I had when I say, “Do you want to be responsible if he sustains further injury because you were too impatient? Let me do my job. You do yours.” Then I wait because I’ve learned it makes people more ufortable when there’s a tense silence, and they will do just about anything toavoid<span>it.
“You’re the boss,” he says, shifting a hand through his hair and taking a step back toward the door. “No skin off my teeth. He’s all yours.” He pauses, perhaps finally sensing the tension rolling off Annie and me in waves. “Are you sure everything is okay here? If you want, I can have anotherofficer<spane—”
“No, there’s no need, we’re okay,” I say shortly. My tone is sharper than I intend because he doesn’t know how on the markhe<span>is.
The officer, no doubt irritated by my interruption and tone, lifts his hands. “Whatever you say,” he says andbacks<span>away.
Heart in my throat, I turn to Annie to offer an exnation or plead my case, but she backs away, her movements so quick and instinctual that she nearly trips over herown<span>feet.
“Don’t,” she squeaks out. “Just—don’t.”
Gracin observes from his spot on the other side of the room, his expression unreadable. The attraction that has been ever-present since we met has turned to t out rage, but I manage to channel it into determination.I have to make this work. ForAnnie.
“You’ll need to stay out of the way until it’s time,” I tell him. “We’ll have to wait for shift-change, and you’ve already caused enough fucking troubletoday.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says, and the amusement is in inhis<span>tone.
I grit my teeth and imagine gutting him with ascalpel.
Annie takes a seat behind theputer, leaving me to face the rush of afternoon patients—a mix of regrs whoe to have their meds administered and a handful of inmates in for annual exams. The work keeps my hands busy, but my mind is on Gracin, who sits quietly in the corner. When the nurse in charge of medical stops by to inquire about Annie’s presence, I beg her off, saying I’m swamped and desperately needAnnie’s<span>help.
Under her condemning eye, I clean up the murder scene with unsteady hands, silent tears streaming down my face. There’s blood all over the grout again, and I can’t help butpare it to the night I had to clean up my own after one of Vic’s beatings. I gag on my disgust and throw the bloody towels into the appropriate receptacle. I allow Gracin to get up long enough to help me change the sheets on Salvatore’s bed. When I’m done, it looks as though he’s just resting peacefully, which only makes me cryharder.
By the end of the day, my nerves are shot, and I can’t stop from shaking. The poor man whose medicine I’m trying to administer withstands several long minutes while I fumble with bottles until I get my hands on the correct one. I mumble a distracted apology as the patient shoots me an irritatedre.
Even though I’ve desperately tried to ignore Gracin, I find myself looking up while I’m in the middle of treating patients. Each time, he’s watching me, waiting. In response, I bare my teeth, which only causes him to smile. He obviously has me right where he wants me. There’s no need for him to continue the little charade. It makes me want to w hiseyes<span>out.
When Gracin lifts into a sitting position and pins me with a level stare, I know it’s time. With a nod, I nce at the door and find the officer has abandoned his post for the evening shift change. The very thought of how precisely Gracin orchestrated this entire situation makes my whole body go cold. If he can do this, what else is he capable of?Murder may seem like the worst act on the spectrum, but after years of torture from the one man I was supposed to trust, I know there are worse things than a quickdeath.
Annie still hasn’t said a word to me, and she hasn’t moved from her spot behind the desk. When Gracin gets to his feet and heads in her direction, she shrinks back against the chair, which emits a terriblesqueak.
“Gracin,<span>don—”
But before I’ve finished my plea, he strikes out with a swift grace I’m always surprised to see from his bulky form. His fist collides with Annie’s cheek, her eyes roll into the back of her head, and she slumps indelicately in the chair. He ignores my cry of protest and carefully arranges her body at theputer. When he’s done, her back is to the door. Anyone looking in would think she’s working. During shift change, no onees to the infirmary, and most inmates are busy going to and from the mess hall for dinner.Salvatore is expected to sleep throughout the night for observation, and no one but me will know he isn’tsleeping.
My stomach sinks when I realize this is actually happening. I’m about to wreck my life for this man. All the prisoners who saw us together. The guards he bribed. Everyone will see me walk him out of prison, and I can only imagine the news reports. The trial. Oh my God, Vic is going to befurious.
“Time to y, littlemouse.”
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