form in her head. “I might be able to speed things up.”
“I’ll leave you to it then.” Dulcinea started for the door, stopping a moment later. “One small bit of bad news I forgot to mention.”
Harlow looked up. “And that is?”
“The senator has yet to be located, so there’s a pretty good chance she left before we got here.”
“That sucks.”
Dulcinea frowned. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll return before we leave; otherwise…” She shrugged.
“We’ll figure something out.”
“Yep.” With that Dulcinea spun on her heels and took off with the merc. She closed the bedroom door behind her.
“Hi.” Augustine’s raspy whisper caught Harlow by surprise.
She glanced down at him. His left eye was swollen shut, but his right eye was open a slit. The white was bloodshot and glassy. Her heart clenched but it was good to hear his voice. “Hi. I’d ask you how you’re feeling but I think I can guess.”
He tried to smile but only got halfway before it turned into a grimace. That’s when she saw his broken tooth.
She looked toward the wall, taking a moment to rid her face of the bitter desire to kill someone on his behalf.
“Yeah,” he said, the word whistling over the jagged edge of his incisor. “I’m not great.”
She forced herself to smile. “But you will be. The iron cuffs are off, so you should be able to heal now.” That and the fact that she was about to try something she never had. “The suite is secure but we’re not ready to move you yet, so close your eyes and rest. You’re going to need your strength.”
He did as she asked. Or perhaps he’d passed out again, she wasn’t sure. Either way, she had to help him in any way she could.
Gently, she placed her damaged hands on top of his, careful not to touch his wrists where the skin still looked like it had been scrubbed with a wire brush dipped in acid. She took a breath and opened herself to him.
Pain flooded her system so hard she jerked back, breaking the contact. What she’d felt touching the iron had been nothing compared to what he was still enduring. Fighting her natural instinct to avoid pain, she put her hands on his again and with a little more control this time, allowed his pain into her body.
She closed her eyes and rocked back on her heels as it hit, but managed to hang on. Bit by bit, she took on more of his agony. New feelings layered over the pain. His fear of dying without seeing her again almost undid her. His anger at being helpless made her want to rip Sutter’s heart out. His grief at Grantham’s death tore at her. She moved her hands so she could gently curl her fingers under his as she opened her eyes and found her voice. “Augie, if you can hear me, move your fingers against mine.”
His fingers pressed against hers. She inhaled as the touch caused her new pain, but this time she was able to smile without effort. “Grantham isn’t dead. He’s in the hospital with some cracked ribs and a pretty nasty bruise, but he’s going to be just fine. He had a vest on. And Jewelia’s gris gris.”
Augie’s grief disappeared like a shot and a sense of joy spilled into her.
“Now stay still,” she reminded him. Then she went back to work, pulling as much of his pain and suffering into her as she could handle. Some she was able to disperse but the bulk of it stayed with her. Still, she continued absorbing what she could, eyes closed, head lowered in concentration, until she finally had to sit back and take a breather. The hurt was intense, but her pride at being able to help him with her gift, something she’d always considered a curse until these past few weeks, helped take the edge off her distress.
“What did you do to me?”
She glanced up to see him looking at her. “Just siphoned off some of your excess pain.” She shrugged, then wished she hadn’t. With every breath, she felt his broken ribs; with every facial movement her body knew his bruises; with every bend of her wrists her skin burned. She tried to hold on to her smile but the pain was ebbing slower than she expected.
“I feel a lot better.” He blinked hard, finally able to open his other eye. Suspicion filled his gaze. “You feel it, don’t you? The pain you took off me.”
She