“Baby…”
After she gave Jay the key and the kill switch, she’d be free. They’d all be free. Well, except for Maya, hopefully she’d be locked away for life. In a padded cell. Somewhere she couldn’t hurt herself. Or harm others.
“Becca…”
Nothing else mattered. Not these people. Not their talk of home. Assurances of protection. Promises of family. No, sir. Domestic bliss? Not for her.
“Jamie, help her…”
Family fucked each other up. Sisters betrayed sisters, stabbed knives into wombs, killed unborn babies, and sliced away hopes and dreams. She’d rather snort powdered arsenic than put her faith and trust in another woman.
“Jesus Christ, everybody out. Now.”
Drink chlorine bleach before letting herself be caught up in the sacred lie of family.
“Rebecca…”
Bathe in concentrated sulfuric acid before she let another person get close enough to hurt her—again.
“Rebecca…”
Inject mercury into her veins rather than?—
“Rebecca, look at me.” The brusque order given in a voice she recognized as safe cut through the noise in her head, but it was the press of Jamie’s fingers into the pulse point on her wrist that brought some awareness back into her body. “There you go, focus on your breathing. Feel your chest expand and contract.”
Brain connectivity and motor functions returning, she lifted her gaze, and a rumpled doctor with a serious case of bedhead occupied her personal space. Oh, shit! She’d gone catatonic, her fists clenched, and her body frozen while her mind had spun out of control. No. No. No! Now was not the time for her crazy to be on display.
“Stay with me,” Jamie said when she started to slip backwards. “That’s it. Now let’s breathe together. Ready?”
Her eyes locked on his, she nodded, and followed his lead, taking in enough oxygen through her nose to feel her chest inflate and her ribs expand as he slowly counted to three.
“Excellent, now exhale.”
On command, the air whooshed from her lungs.
“Again. Slower this time.”
With her next breath, she separated her emotions, tucking each one into its own mental box and sealing it tight. Then she visualized a wall of iron slamming down to protect herself from the rest of the world, and the silence she heard inside and out came with a wave of relief.
“Good.” Jamie nodded. “And one more.”
She breathed deep, and once again back in control, embarrassment colored her cheeks. “I’m okay.” She flexed her cramped fingers, and when Jamie let go of her forearms, she shook out her hands and wrists to get the blood flowing again. “Sorry about that.”
“Nothing to be sorry about. Here…” With the toe of his shoe, he pulled over a padded stool on wheels. “Take a load off for a bit.”
Ignoring the fine tremors weakening her limbs, she shook her head. “I’m fine. I can manage.” A quick look around revealed the room had emptied, and she’d been left alone with Jamie and Jay.
“Sit,” he said again, no judgment or malice in his tone as he used his thumb to hook a strand of shoulder-length hair behind his ear.
“Please,” Jay added, his voice a soft plea and his pale expression full of concern. “Stay.”
“Okay.” Heart rate returning to normal, she nodded and sat, because really, she had nowhere else to go, and she wanted to be near him anyway. Hear for herself, he was fine—an idiot—but fine, without any lingering effects from trying to sacrifice himself to save her.
Unable to look Jay in the eye, she watched Jamie instead. Her crisis dealt with, he wandered over to the sink, a slight limp in his step as he passed her cot and the now sandwich-free table beside it.
Shoot! The promise of sustenance stolen while she’d been lost in her own little world, her stomach squelched an angry reminder. And man, hungry enough to offer the traitorous Miss Kitty as a prize in exchange for an overcooked square of chicken penne à la microwave, she swallowed the saliva flooding her mouth.
“Becca’s hungry,” Jay said. “She needs food.”
