She hesitated.
Shit.
He was right. She probably couldn’t go anywhere for at least another few days. Maybe more.
Brennan pulled out his phone and held it out for her. “You should probably call your family. The assholes who did this took your purse so nobody knew your last name, and we couldn’t get a hold of your emergency contact.” He set the phone on the bed next to her and then reached for her cheek to turn her face toward him. “I know you were hell-bent on maintaining your anonymity, but we’re well-past that at this point.”
She pulled her face out of his hand. “Shit.”
“Skye, darlin’, this is an emergency. The police will have to talk to you.”
Her stomach bottomed out. “I can’t talk to the police.”
“Why not?”
“I just can’t.”
Brennan climbed out of the bed and began pacing next to it as he eyed her. “Skye…” He rubbed the dense five o’clock shadow on his sharp, aristocratic jaw. “Baby, I know we were just trying to have some fun together, and I know you wanted to keep your life and stuff private, but that’s impossible now.” He stopped pacing and stood next to the bed with his arms crossed over his chest. “I need you to tell me what’s going on. I need you to tell me your last name. Where you’re from. Where you were headed. All of it. Then I’ll help you talk to the police. Okay? I’m here for you, honey. I’ve been here every single day. I’m not a bad guy. I’m not dangerous. The people who did this are, and the police need information to go after them, so they need to interview you. They’re going to need your personal information. I will talk to them with you. I’ll help you. You don’t need to be afraid of me. I’m here for you, and we’re going to figure all this out.”
She shook her head as much as her stiff neck would allow. “Brennan, you don’t understand. I can’t tell you this stuff. I can’t go to the police. I can’t—”
“What are you so afraid of me knowing, sweetheart?” he asked gently, approaching the bed. “I already know you were involved in a bad relationship and were trying to get away from it. I don’t see what on earth could be worse than that, and in every potential scenario I can think of, you’re the one being victimized, which means the police will be on your side. I’m on your side. I’m not going to freak out or judge you or anything like that. I’m in no position to judge anyone for anything.”
That’s what you think. You would be the first to kick me out on my ass.
Brennan sat on the bed again and rested his hand on hers. “In fact, if either of us has something to worry about it’s me because I was involved with some seedy people. I was one-hundred-percent sure this was their doing. But I confronted them about it already and it wasn’t them.”
That information turned her stomach. Seedy how?Dear Lord. She cast him a wary glance. “Who are they?”
His dark eyelashes flapped indignantly as he rolled his eyes. “I was playing poker under the table, and I owe a guy a lot of money.”
She arched a brow. “Youowe someone money.”
“Yeah.” He inhaled and exhaled loudly. “But after confronting them it was pretty clear they weren’t responsible for this. I’m still on the hook, but they wouldn’t come after you.”
She looked away and sank back into the pillow. That was still nothing compared to her. That was mediocre vice. Her life was not mediocre vice. It wasallthe vice. “Your bookie didn’t do this. I know who did it. They aren’t involved in gambling.”
“You know them?” Brennan held her shoulders and attempted to catch her gaze. “Was it your ex?”
She swallowed as she shifted her gaze and then shook her head.
Technicallynot.
“Then who the hell was it?”
She looked at him through bleary eyes and wished to disappear.
“Are the people who did it the ones you’re running from?” he demanded.
Tears were now streaming down her cheeks, and she didn’t have the voice to tell him even if she wanted to.
His expression pulled tight with concern and urgency. “Baby, you have to talk to the police.”
“I can’t,” she managed to eke out, and with the words came a strangled sob.
“Skye…honey…I don’t understand any of this. If you’re in trouble you need to—”
“The police would take them to jail, but then they’d get out, and then they’d kill me. This wasn’t just a mugging, Brennan. Those people tried to kill me. Right now, they probably think they did. If the police go after them over this, they’ll know I’m still alive, and then they’ll really kill me.” Her words spilled from her mouth in rapid-fire succession and left her choking on sobs and sucking in ragged gasps for oxygen. She dropped her head forward, clutching her face, and she cried like she hadn’t cried in years. “Please just take me away from New Orleans, Brennan. If you really care and really want to help me, you’ll get me as far away from this city as possible, and then pretend you never even saw me.”
