I’d make sure she called. But it killed something in me that she had to. All because of my brother.
When Nash and Holt hauled Gabe outside to put him in a squad car, he’d been railing about how he was going to kill me and that I would pay if it was the last thing he did. The sheer fury in him was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
My mom had lost it when she saw the aftermath. She was so hysterical the EMTs had been forced to sedate her. Lena had freaked out on the cops, telling them they had it all wrong and that she planned to sue them.
My father had simply stared in dumbfounded shock.
Doc lifted her bag and glanced at me. “Call my cell if there are any issues.”
“I will.” I wouldn’t hesitate, not with Grae. I walked Doc to the front door and waited until she was in her car and pulling away before I returned to Grae.
She sat on my sectional, a blanket wrapped around her. I crossed to her, sitting on the coffee table so I could take her in fully. “What do you need?”
Grae blinked at me a few times. “Nothing.”
“More water? Some tea? Ice cream?”
“Caden,” she said softly.
“I can run you a bath. Sit with you.” I wasn’t about to let her go into a tub alone when there was a slight chance that she could have a concussion.
Grae took my hands in hers. “Caden,” she said again.
“Do you want something to eat so you can take some of those meds?”
“Stop it and talk to me.”
Everything in me constricted, making it hard to swallow, difficult to even breathe. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
Grae’s blue eyes pierced me. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”
I pushed to my feet, needing to move. I felt as though the sensations gathering in my chest would burn me alive if I stayed still. “It doesn’t matter what I’m feeling.”
Grae didn’t move, but her eyes tracked me. “It matters to me.”
“He hurt you,” I growled.
“Yes. But I’m okay, and he’s in a jail cell.”
Grae was so calm. As if she hadn’t been brutally attacked and almost strangled. Even now, those red marks on her neck were darkening. They’d turn purple before long, proof of what my brother had put her through.
“I left you alone, and he hurt you.”
Grae stood then, letting the blanket fall to the couch. She slowly crossed to me. “I wasn’t alone. I had Clint. And I told you to stay.”
I shook my head with vicious ferocity. “I shouldn’t have listened.”
Grae pressed a hand to my chest. “You didn’t know.”
“I should’ve.” The words hurt to say. I’d known my brother was furious at me. Knew that he saw Grae as my weakness. I somehow knew he would mess with her to get at me, but I had no idea he would take it this far.
Grae pressed her palms to my cheeks. “This isn’t your fault.”
But it was.
I stared down at the woman I loved with everything I had. “How can you even bear to look at me?”
42
