***
Kinzer searched through the contents on the cart for something—anything that could free Hayde from his bindings. Hayde groaned out, tears and sweat mixing across his face.
“Fuck!” Kinzer shouted as he knocked boxes and weapons off the cart, onto the floor.
“Kinzer,” Eilee said, coming up beside him.
Kinzer retreated quickly. The sight of Eilee with blood across the white dress she wore and dripping from her mouth was rather frightening.
She must’ve noticed his gaze fixed on her jaw because she put her hand to her face, feeling it before saying, “Oh, don’t worry. It’s not mine. It’s Vera’s.”
That didn’t make Kinzer feel any better, especially as he wondered how she’d gotten that on her face like that.
“How’s Quintz?” he asked.
“He’s healing. She got him really bad, but he’s still alive.”
Relieved, Kinzer headed over to Hayde. “I’m looking for a key, Hayde, I promise.”
Kinzer turned to continue his work when he heard Hayde mutter, “Don’t leave me.”
Kinzer turned to Hayde, whose body shook in the contraption they’d locked him into. “Please stay…for a minute.”
He struggled to get even those words out, Kinzer could tell. Hurrying to him, Kinzer wrapped his arm around him, kept close to let him know he was there. Hayde lifted his head, his face and lips white as could be.
“I’m gonna get you out of this, Hayde,” Kinzer said. “We’re going to get you out of here, and—”
“Kinzer.”
“What?”
“I need you to shut the fuck up right now and hold me.”
Kinzer obeyed. “I’ve got you,” he said.
And Hayde wept into Kinzer’s shoulder, Kinzer imagined not just because of the unbearable pain he must’ve been in, but because of all those emotions that assault must’ve brought up from his past.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Eilee said. “See if there’s anything else around here that needs to be killed.”
Odd as it was for her to say, he was glad she was leaving them to have a moment. He wanted to keep Hayde close to him and comfort him, assure him that he was going to be fine and safe as long as they were together.
“I’m going to make this up to you, Hayde,” Kinzer said.
“I say we make it up to each other,” Hayde said, and Kinzer pulled away, looking at Hayde’s frail face, a fit of quivers and spasms. He snickered before groaning and cursing.
But he was right. They had done it. They had won, and now, once he got that fucking thing off him, they could find a way to make it up to one another for as long as they possibly could.
