Dead Man Walking (The Fallen Men #6) - Giana Darling Page 0,157
Linley.
She was passed out on the ground with a large gash in her head, dried blood flaking off the skin of her left cheek and neck where it had spilled to pool on the ground beneath her.
I choked on a gasp. “Oh my gosh, Tabby.”
She didn’t stir.
I shuffled forward, desperate to get my hands free so I could check her breathing and perform CPR if need be. One of the lights was burning just behind me, prompting an idea.
I rocked to my feet awkwardly and backed up to the fixture. A hiss seared through my lips as I held my bound wrists to the exposed bulb and started to work the rope back and forth over the hot wire encasing it. Sweat popped along my brow and rolled into my eyes. The delicate skin of my hands burned and blistered, but I continued.
Finally, the rope splintered enough that I could snap it open with a jerk of my wrists.
“Tabby,” I called immediately, rushing back to her prone form. I kneeled at her side, lightly shaking her, then gently slapping at her cheeks to revive her. “Tabitha!”
She was breathing, which gave me hope, but it took a long minute for her to stir. First, a little groan worked past her chapped lips, then a harsher whimper. Her bruised face contracted in a pained frown as her eyes fluttered open.
“B-Bea?” she whispered hoarsely as she tried to sit up, but then collapsed back to the ground. “Oh my gosh, what’s going on?”
“We’re in some kind of ramshackle church,” I told her softly, worried she might have a concussion. I helped her sit up with her back against the pew, then wet the edge of my sweater with spit so I could wipe away some of the blood flaking over her brow. “I’m so sorry. We tried to make a switch for you with the serial killer, but he tricked us. Are you okay? Have you seen him? Has he hurt you?”
Seeing her bleeding on the floor made my heart clench with guilt. I’d known she was in pain, suffering some kind of horrible fate at the hands of the killer, taken because he wanted me and he knew I loved Tabby.
Tabby blinked owlishly. “What? I haven’t seen anyone. One minute, I was getting into my car, and the next, I’m here with you. But why would he take us? I thought he only took sinners.”
“Well, I’ve been dating a man in The Fallen MC. At this point, it’s fairly obvious they’re antithesis to the killer’s beliefs, so he probably thinks it was a sin for me to sleep with him. He’s obsessed with this idea of making me his spiritual wife…. He’s clearly delusional. He took you to get to me.”
Tabby blinked again. She had wide eyes the colour of soft clay, malleable, I’d always thought, very much like her people-pleasing personality. She ducked her head, tucking a lock of bloody hair behind her ear with a shaky hand. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it. I-I was just leaving church when someone jumped on me from the shadows. I was so scared, but then everything went black. I remember thinking Seth would be so worried when I didn’t come home.”
“I only spoke to him on the phone briefly,” I told her, remembering the quick call I’d made to him while Priest and I drove to the scene of the exchange. “But he’s strong. He’ll pray for you.”
Tabby sucked in a ragged breath and turned her teary eyes to me. “He’s so much better than I am. I never deserved to be with someone like him.”
I frowned. “I didn’t know you felt that way about him. To me, you always seemed so perfectly matched.”
A little grin curled her mouth, but there was a manic light in her eyes that set my teeth on edge. “Oh well, thanks. I definitely try to be good for him. Better for him.”
“Okay… Well, why don’t we see if we can get the hell out of here?” I suggested as I stood, moving to offer her my hand before I remembered how badly burned it was. “I don’t know how long we’ve been here for, and that lunatic could come back any minute.”
“Did you say you’ve been sleeping with a man from The Fallen?” Tabby asked as she worked her way slowly to her knees. “They’re all completely uncivilized, Bea. I know your sister made the decision to marry one, but I thought you knew them for