A dissociative numbness had crept up my limbs, locking them up as I tried in earnest to suck in a breath of air and failed.
I nearly screamed when a dark shadow filled my vision.
“Daphne, what’s wrong?” Cash was crouched down in front of me, his quicksilver gaze worried as his long gray tail lashed behind him.
I opened my mouth to respond, but couldn’t seem to find the words to describe how I was feeling.
Cash made a noise deep in his throat. His eyes dropped to the phone still clutched in my hand with Wendy’s muffled voice still coming from the speaker.
He grabbed it and held it up to his ear. “I don’t know who you are or what you said, but she’s practically fucking catatonic.”
He was quiet for a minute before he responded to whatever she was saying. “Yes I’m the one helping her. No, don’t tell me any details that aren’t yours to share. Yeah, let me get her settled and then I’ll call you back.”
He ended the call and dropped the phone on the floor, crouching low so we were eye to eye again. “Daphne, look at me, what’s going on?”
There was so much concern in his voice that it finally broke me out of the stupor that had taken over my body.
My lower lip wobbled as I shakily rubbed my hands on my jeans before answering. “I… I think he’s coming for me.”
The tendon in Cash’s jaw tensed as he clenched his teeth together, his expression shifting from worry to anger. “Whois coming for you? Dragonfly, I can’t help you if you don’t let me in.”
“I don’t think you can help me at all,” I whispered, afraid to break the easy peace we’d established between the two of us.
Cash gripped my face with gentle hands, making sure that I was fully looking at him. “Try me.”
A shaky whoosh of air left my mouth as I finally relented to the instinct to trust the gargoyle in front of me. The one I’d been fighting against because I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t be sticking around long enough to really get to know him.
“I ran away from my husband, Mike.” The words started to tumble out of me in a blurred jumble as I told him everything. From my mom’s death to how Mike had been the lawyer that the firm she’d been a client at for years had sent.
As I explained my married life with Mike, outlining how he’d treated me, Cash’s hands clenched into fists so tightly that I could hear the joints of his fingers pop.
I hurried to tell all of it and it felt a little bit like I was vomiting out all of the bad things I was keeping inside. So when I finished telling him how Peep had broken down in that spot on the beach, I felt exhausted, but somehow lighter.
“So that’s it, that’s everything,” I said with a yawn.
In a flash, Cash had me scooped up into his arms. The same electric pop from earlier happened again, and I felt my heartbeat start to slow like it was trying to match with his for a second before it went back to normal.
“Where are we going?” I asked, nearly telling him I could walk, but being in his arms made me feel safe and I really needed to feel safe right now.
“You’re tired, so I’m putting you to bed,” he said gruffly, his expression still a storm cloud.
“So, we’re not going to discuss everything I just told you?”
Cash nudged the door to my bedroom open with his foot and set me on the paisley quilted bed.
“We will after you get some rest,” he replied, crossing his arms over his broad chest.
I sighed. “Well I can’t sleep in dirty farm clothes, Cash.”
Cash froze for a moment, looking panicked. “Right, just get some sleep for now and we can talk in the morning,” he said before turning on his heel and leaving the room.
In spite of everything that had happened in the last hour, I found myself laughing. Cash always seemed to know what to do or say, so seeing him flustered was new. I committed his new expression into my memory while I changed into my pajamas.
I felt better—or at least as much as I could feel with the information I’d just learned.
Nothing would happen in the next eight hours. Not with Cash in the house, not to mention Oscar and Saoirse who seemed hell bent on being with me every step of the day when we were home.
My hands stopped mid-button on my pajama shirt as I finished the thought.
