“She saved me. She wouldn’t leave me, you know,” Rory whispered. “I was ready to give up, but she wouldn’t let me. I told her to leave, to save herself but she wouldn’t go.”
What? She’d stayed when she could have gotten free? A mix of anger and gratitude filled him. He didn’t like that she’d stayed and risked herself but at the same time he appreciated that she’d taken care of his sister.
“I’ll be back.” He nodded at the ambulance driver and quickly raced over to where Lacey sat in the back of another ambulance, her cousins all stood outside, speaking to her.
“Lacey,” he called out when none of them moved. Asses.
“Gray? How’s Rory?”
He managed to shove Tyler aside and stepped closer. Lacey stared around at her cousins. “Could you guys give us a minute?”
None of them moved until Travis gave a nod. Then they all frowned at Gray as they moved past, Jace bumping his shoulder into him. Nice. Real classy.
“Sorry about that,” she told him.
He shrugged. “It’s okay. They’re just protective of you. I get it. Are you okay?”
She looked pale and exhausted and she had bandages wrapped around her wrists, but she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on.
“I’m okay. Just really tired.”
“Good.” He wanted to touch her, to pull her close but there were things he needed to say to her first. “I wanted to tell you I’m riding with Rory in the ambulance, she’s scared to have me out of her sight for too long. But I want you to wait for me at the hospital. We need to talk. Rory told me what you did for her.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she protested.
“You didn’t leave.” He leaned over and squeezed her hand. “You stayed when you could have gotten to safety. That means a lot. So, I’ll find you at the hospital, okay?” He turned away before she could answer, not wanting to leave Rory for long.
Travis approached, glancing over to where Gray climbed into the ambulance with his sister. “He’s going with Rory?”
“Yes.” Which was how it should be. Rory needed him. Lacey, well, she needed him but she wasn’t certain he still wanted her. It could be that the only reason he wanted to talk to her was to break things off completely. She swallowed. If that was the case, she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.
“Still want to come home with me?” Travis asked.
Physically, there was nothing wrong with her past a few bruises. Mentally, it was another story.
“Yes.”
Chapter Nineteen
He was exhausted. He was hungry. He hadn’t washed in more than forty-eight hours. And he was grumpy as fuck. It wasn’t a good combination.
As he stared at the door to Travis’s apartment building, he could feel the anger building. She’d run from him. Again. He’d told her he’d see her at the hospital, and she’d blatantly ignored him, instead coming here to hide.
Well, he wasn’t putting up with it.
And as soon as she was feeling like herself again, he was going to make it abundantly clear that she wasn’t to run away from him again.
He pressed Travis’s buzzer. It had taken a lot of bribery to get his address. He now owed a few favors to several people. Not that he cared. All that was important was finding Lacey and bringing her home with him.
“Go away,” the male voice bit at him through the speaker.
“I’m not leaving. I’ll camp out here on the doorstep if I have to, but I’m not leaving.”
“I’ll call the cops.”
“So, do it,” he said tiredly. “I’ll just find some way to get back here. I need to talk to her.”
“Why?” the voice asked. It didn’t sound like Travis. One of his brothers maybe?