He must have been waiting for that because he slides his palm around the nape of my neck and presses a kiss on myforehead. “Harder, but not impossible. He won’t hurt you again. My word and my life, Byrdie. You’ll always be safe with me.”
My eyes burn, so I look away, back at my lap, and his hand grasping mine.
“Doyou want to come back with us?” he asks quietly.
With so many questions buzzing around me, spoken at me, gone through me, that hasn’t been one of them.
I think about what I have in New Mexico.
Nothing.
Jeremiah had his acolytes bury my mom in his compound, a place I will never go to lay flowers on her grave. Even that Jeremiah took from me. This place was never home, never my fresh start, or even where I wanted to be. I followed Mom here because it’s where she wanted to be. This was the place that killed her, and I’d be happy if I never set foot here again.
I nod once.
He kisses my forehead. “I’ll get a nurse, and the doctor can give you a final checkup before they discharge you. Nash got more clothes for you.”
He’s gone for what seems like seconds.
A nurse bustles in, bright and cheerful. She opens the blinds and chats nonstop as she checks the bag I’m attached to. The doctor, smothering a yawn, probably just starting their shift, walks in with a gruff “hullo,” and closes the door.
The final checkup is brief, and the doctor confirms that I’m well enough to go home.
The nurse helps me to change into the panties, a cotton sports bra, loose sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a hoodie that Nash left in a bag beside the door. Everything is slightly too big, except the new sneakers, which fit me perfectly. I don’t know if it’s because he bought my original size and I lost weight, or he purposely bought everything a size too big so the clothes wouldn’t rub against my still-healing sunburned skin.
Vonn pushes me out of the hospital in a wheelchair as the sun is rising in the distance.
Nash says the journey home will take a few hours, but we’ll stop halfway and stay the night in a hotel so the road trip won’t be too hard on me.
Makhi is somewhere behind me.
Vonn helps me into the back seat and buckles me up. Makhi slides into the back beside me, and I freeze.
Everything stops.
Without saying a word, Makhi gets out of the back, steps around Nash, and climbs into the passenger seat as Nash takes the seat beside me.
Sitting next to Nash is okay. He doesn’t have a million questions in his eyes when he looks at me.Hedidn’t slam a door in my face or kill me. And I know I’m not dead, I really do, but the feeling that he killed me won’t go away.
I don’t want him near me.
Vonn starts the engine, turns on the radio, and we start the long drive back to Massey, Arizona, and a mansion full of secrets.
Chapter 9
Byrdie
“She hasn’t said a word in a week.”
With my hand under my pillow and my eyes pointed at the wall, I can’t help but overhear the conversation filtering through the living room door.
Nance pounced on me when we got back to the mansion, speaking so fast as she grasped my hand and led me through the front door that I could barely understand her.
Nash called her when we stopped at a luxury hotel between New Mexico and Arizona. I had my own room. Nash told me I could order any room service I wanted. But I didn’t order anything, even though my stomach was grumbling. I took the bag of new clothes he gave me, closed the door, went to bed, and lay down.
All night.
I felt a little rested the next day, so I must have slept, but I don’t remember.
