I hesitated, though I wasn’t sure why. I wanted to go to her; I wanted to hold her in my arms and tell her I’d never let anything else happen to her again.
But that was a promise that I could not keep.
As much as it killed me to admit it, I could never keep her safe forever. She had a life to live, and there’d always be things out of my control.
The only thing I could do was promise to try my damn hardest.
I forced my feet forward, toward her bed. When I was close enough, I reached for her hand. Her skin was warm, and the constricting band that had been locked around my ribs loosened. I took a full breath for the first time in over a day.
A crack splintered through my facade of calmness and the tears welled on their own. I lifted her hand, and so very carefully brought it to my lips. I kissed the back of it.
“I’m so, so sorry,” I whispered, my voice cracking as one tear escaped, sliding down my cheek. I brushed it away with my shoulder, hoping she hadn’t seen.
“Graham,” she breathed, and when I met her pale, beautiful eyes again, there was a deep sadness in them. “This isn’t your fault.”
She turned the hand I held so our palms faced each other and she threaded her fingers through mine. She squeezed gently.
I almost choked on a sob. “I shouldn’t have left you alone. I’m sorry. I—”
She cut me off with a shush. She reached up and touched the side of my face. “Stop. This isn’t on you. I made the decision to stay in the library. Neither of us could’ve known what Mara was going to do.”
I clenched my jaw, but leaned into the heat of her palm. “I should’ve seen it.”
“Stop,” she chided again. “It’s not your responsibility to read people’s minds, Graham. It’s impossible.”
I let out a breath. “I know.”
I did know, but it was still difficult to believe that I wasn’t at fault for this.
“Do you—do you know what happened?” I asked gently.
Her thumb stroked the stubble that had grown out along my jaw. “Basically, yes. Whize answered most of my questions when he talked to me.” Her sharp gaze ran quickly down my body and searched my face. “You’re all right?”
My grip tightened around her hand. “I’m not injured.”
Tension I hadn’t noticed before eased from her shoulders. “When I heard that last gunshot, I was so scared something happened to you.”
“I’m okay.”
She nodded, as if to reassure herself.
“I actually have some questions, if that’s all right,” I said cautiously.
Her brows cinched. She let her hand drop from my face, but I didn’t let go of the hold I had on the other.
“What do you want to know?”
I swallowed, wondering whether it was the best idea to talk about it now, but I wanted to do it while the memory was still fresh in her mind.
“What did she all say to you?” She stiffened, but I continued. “I got a general idea from what Whize told me, but it still doesn’t make sense to me. I would’ve never expected this level of violence from her.”
I shook my head; it was heavy and crowded with all the events that had transpired the last couple of days.
Quinn’s mouth thinned. Some of the hardness started to creep back into her expression, but her eyes were not full ice, just a bit of frost.
“It was you,” she said simply. “She wanted to protect you from me.”
My mouth turned in a hard frown. “I understand that’s what she said, but I don’t know why she’d see you as such a threat.” My teeth clenched. “Jake said she was sleeping with that Preston guy, of all people. I couldn’t have been that important to her.”
