“B., look at me.” Liza was suddenly holding Brennan’s shoulders, and she gave him a little shake. “Look right here, hon.”
He tore his gaze from Skye’s limp body and looked at Liza’s face.
She clasped her hands on his cheeks. “I know you’re freaking out right now, but you need to get it together.”
He tried to escape from the acutely harrowing situation by meditating on the feel of her hands on his face, but it did nothing to calm or comfort him. “You don’t know what he did to her, L.”
“He’s not here,” she said calmly; steadily. “You are. We are. She needs your help, and if you’re too far inside your own head right now, we will help you help her.” She nodded at Connor, who was carrying Skye toward the curb with the rest of the group clamoring and surrounding him. “This is our family, B. Right? That’s what we all have. We take care of each other. Skye needs that, too. I don’t know what you’re trying to do with her, but right now you need to put your problems behind you and step up to the plate.”
Her words cut him straight to the bone. He pulled his face away and stepped around her, approaching Connor in a daze, but with mission-like intent, and hoisted Skye out of his arms. She was still out cold, and her head fell against his neck. He held her close despite promising not to touch her. The promise seemed like it didn’t matter right then, but it made him wonder about other people and all their justifications for doing things to her that she didn’t want.
A cab pulled up, and Brennan slid in the backseat, still cradling Skye. Connor said something to Luke, Frankie, and Carson while Liza got in the backseat. She inched close to Brennan and stroked Skye’s head, which rested on his arm between them.
“She’s so pale,” Liza murmured. “Who the hell was that guy?”
Brennan knew, but all the ugly details were still missing. And once they got back to his house, it would be time for a mother fucking intervention to get every last bit of information out of Skye about what the hell happened to her.
26
FRENCH QUARTER, NEW ORLEANS
Skye was alert again and sat on the couch with Liza, who was helping her hold a cup of hot tea. Her hands were still shaking like autumn leaves ready to make their descent. A tall drink of scotch had shifted Brennan into a different type of numbness; this one more stable and mentally present. Like the calm before a great storm. It was time to finally get some answers.
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. No matter how much Skye didn’t want to tell him.
And that was the purpose of keeping Liza and Connor there. Liza was stable, loving, calm, and comforting. Skye needed that. Connor was practical and focused. And Brennan needed that. The four of them would get through this together. That’s what friends were fucking for, and Brennan was ready to prove to Skye that these people could be her friends. That she didn’t have to leave if she didn’t want to. That whatever she needed in life could be found right here if she’d only be open to it.
“Skye…honey,” Brennan said, perching forward in one of the chairs opposite the couch. Connor sat in a chair to his left, swirling a crystal tumbler of whiskey. “Who was that guy?”
Skye turned her weary, paler-than-usual blue eyes up to him. “Jesse.”
“He’s your ex,” he prompted.
Skye hesitated before jostling her head in a small nod.
“Real piece of work,” Connor mumbled.
“Your ex lives here?” Liza cupped one hand around the teacup and swept Skye’s hair over her shoulder. “Does he live here? Did you live with him? I thought you were from out of town.”
“I’m…he’s…” Skye attempted. “No.”
“Skye,” Brennan started again. “Darlin’, I need you tell me exactly what’s going on. You said in the hospital someone was trying to come after you. You told me it wasn’t your ex.” He gave a weighted pause. “Jesse,” he spat out the piece of shit’s name like it was laced with poison, “made it sound like he was trying to come after you, too. So what the hell is going on? Are there really other people looking for you or is it just him?” He paused as he looked at her and softened his words. “I’m here…” He gestured at Connor and Liza. “I mean, we’re all here to help you, but we can’t do that if we don’t know exactly what’s going on. Whatever it is, you can trust us, okay? As far as you’re concerned, we’re the safest people in this whole city.”
She turned her eyes down, and her hands began shaking so violently that the teacup was rattling against its saucer.
Liza took both and set them on the coffee table and then held Skye’s hand on her lap. “Take a deep breath, Skye. Then just start from the beginning. Okay? Just one step at a time. And just breathe.”
Skye looked at Brennan, but her pale blue gaze was hollow. Vacant. Like merely running into Jesse again had extricated her soul, leaving nothing in its wake. “I lied to you. I lied to you from the second I first opened my mouth.”
He rubbed the stubble on his upper lip, keeping his eyes fixed on her so she wouldn’t look away. “I know that, sweetheart. I know you had your reasons. I know you just needed a place to stay, and I already told you—”
“Omission is a lie,” she said, almost robotically and more like she was talking at the room rather than to him. “I didn’t tell you things that you had a right to know given what we were about to do.”
Well, Jesse had clearly filled her mind with a bunch of bullshit ideas that caused her to draw such a fucked-up conclusion. “I didn’t have any right to know anything about you, Skye. You didn’t have to tell me anything, but right now it would be helpful if—”
“You needed to know what you were taking home with you. I didn’t tell you. I was being selfish, but I had my reasons.”
Her voice was deadpan. Her body was still shaking. Liza rubbed her back, peering at Skye from below knitted brows.
