He reached a dark sedan parked halfway down the block. Then he shifted her weight to one arm, opened the passenger door, and lowered her into the seat. The gentleness of it was almost as devastating as the pain.
He buckled her in. His hands were shaking. He stood in the open door for a moment, his hand on the frame, and looked at her.
Her voice was barely there. “How did you find me?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he closed the door gently and walked around the car. He got in the driver’s side and put both hands on the wheel, staring through the windshield at the empty street.
“I know, Fallon.” His voice was quiet. Stripped of everything—the charm, the humor, the easy warmth that made him Isaac.What was left was raw, and close to the surface, and barely held. “I know about all of it.”
Heknew. She had no idea how to wrap her head around that.
She had so many questions. So many things she wanted to explain.
The pain wouldn’t let her. It had swallowed her whole body—her wrist, her knee, her shoulders, her spine, all of it fused into a single roaring frequency that drowned out language and thought and everything except the animal need to stop moving and stop being touched and stop existing in a body that had turned on her completely.
He looked over at her. “I’m taking you to a hospital.”
“No, not a hospital,” she said. The words came out slurred, her teeth clenched against the pain. “I’ll be okay, I promise. Plus, there isn’t much they can do.”
His eyes closed for one second. Two. When they opened, whatever argument he wanted to make stayed behind his teeth.
“Okay.” He started the car.
He pulled away from the curb. His left hand was on the wheel. His other hand found hers but his fingers barely closed around her hand. Hovering. Afraid of hurting her. She gripped him first. Held on hard enough that he’d know it was okay.
She watched the city lights slide past the window. She had no idea where he was taking her. She wasn’t capable of remembering her new address anyway, so it didn’t matter.
The car moved through the streets. The lights kept sliding. His hand stayed on her.
Then the dark came in, and she let it.
