My mouth was left hanging open as she walked to the door. His hand went to her lower back, leading her out. She didn’t question, didn’t bother to argue. Hawke gave me one last look, as he led her out. Before he shut the door, Hawke pushed his head back in.
“Everything is going to be all right. You are safe here, little one.” He nodded, and I flinched again as the door shut.
How was I safe if I wasn’t allowed to be around anyone?
The banging next door grew louder. The door groaned, and it slammed at the last minute. The knot in my stomach grew. I didn’t want to be alone, but I didn’t want to know what was happening in the apartment next door.
Was it Sizzle? I thought they’d locked him up.
The banging lessened, and heavy footsteps approached the only door in or out of the room. I scurried away, hearing voices on the other side, and slipped into the one closet this apartment had. It was small, just large enough for me to slip into and gently close the door. Growling and scuffling came from the other side, and a bark of laughter sounded.
I kept the door shut, not wanting to see who it was.
I used to be so wild, so free, scared of nothing and no one, but look what I had become—hiding in a closet from people that had yet to hurt me. But what if they did? Hit me where it hurt, crushing what little self-preservation I had left? What if that little bit of hope that these people were friendly was all a ploy to get me to do something for them?
What about the girls living in an apartment complex a few blocks away? Had they actually saved them or were they using them for labor? It could all be a lie. All of this could be a lie. Doubt encircled me, closing in on the dark closet.
Muffled noises and words of panic filled the other side of the door.
“I’m safe, I’m safe,” I whispered, rocking myself into a ball. How many times had I told myself that lie? How many times had the mantra been drilled into me, but I never was okay?
Because nothing was ever okay, lies were part of my life, and I would always have trouble trusting people. No one really cared about other people. That was just not how the world worked.
“Journey!” A yell came through the closet door as soon as he opened it. I didn’t look up, but I knew who it was.
His enormous arms gathered around me. He kept me in the tightened ball I’d created for myself and took me away from the closet. He didn’t yell at me, didn’t scream, didn’t ask where I was. Grim gently pulled me to his lap as he sat on the couch. One hand petted my hair, and the other rubbed up and down my back.
“She’s going into shock,” Locke muttered under his breath.
He pulled out his phone and left the room to make a phone call. Shudders wracked my body, sweat beading on my forehead.
“Relax,” Grim’s rugged voice called to me. “I’m here.” Those words shouldn’t have brought me comfort. They should’ve terrified me. He was a big guy, a guy I knew nothing about, but the soothing words relaxed me as I melted into him.
“Good, keep breathing.” His beard tickled my forehead, and I unwound my legs slowly from the ball I’d hid myself in.
The door slammed open, hitting the wall, and I curled back, wincing at the sound.
“Locke,” Grim growled.
The growl and purr in his throat made me bury my face in his chest. God, he smelled so good, so nice. It was a drug. It was a smell I found so comforting. I never expected it to calm me like it did. To feel comfortable with a man, to feel safe was not a feeling I was familiar with. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt like that, to feel the touch of another person who didn’t want something sexual or to hurt me.
“Bones is coming,” Locke whispered.
Locke’s voice was soft, just like Hawke’s when he spoke to me and Delilah, when she wasn’t disobeying. Maybe there was a softness to these men, and maybe something more.
But don’t fall for them. Don’t fall for him.
If Delilah was telling the truth, then I shouldn’t get invested. That was hard when the only person who had stuck up for me was holding me in his arms, treating me like precious cargo, and taking every movement he made into account to make sure I wasn’t startled.
God, my brain hurt.
“Hurt?” Grim grumbled, the heat of his breath tickling my ear.
By body ached, the longing to be touched and a bit of something else. It was the same as earlier, the wanting to be closer. Wanting to be with him more than just him holding me.
A giant Grim blanket.
To have him lying on top of me, shielding me from the world, making me feel safe. It felt just so right.
