helped her ease down to sit on the edge. “Stay here. I’ll run the bath. I think there are some Epsom salts in here.”
“They’re under the sink. And scalding hot, please.”
I grimaced as I ran the water at least ten degrees warmer than I would’ve liked, pouring in a healthy dose of the salts. I searched the medicine cabinet and came away with a bottle of Tylenol. Filling a glass with water, I headed back out into the guest room. “Take these.”
“Thank you. Sorry you’re stuck playing nursemaid.”
“If I would’ve known, I’d have picked up the sexy outfit.”
Shay grinned. “Now that would be a sight.”
She took the pills and then stood, already having toed off her boots and stripped out of her jacket and fleece. I took her elbow as we headed for the bathroom. “I’ll be right outside if you need me. Holler once you’ve pulled the curtain.”
“I’ll be fine. Promise. I’ve already got some of my sea legs back.”
“I’m still sitting with you.”
Shay huffed. “Pervert.”
“Troublemaker.”
She stuck out her tongue at me. “Takes one to know one.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” Some of the tension that had overtaken my muscles since I’d first heard those raised voices eased as I headed out of the bathroom to give Shay some privacy. She was okay. Or she would be. But even as I thought that, I wondered if it was actually true. The image of her pale face and unfocused eyes filled my mind. She’d been lost in another world. And Sam had sent her there.
I cracked the knuckles of one hand and then the other. It was killing me that we couldn’t have him arrested. That I didn’t have a chance to put the fear of God into him, instead of him doing that to another woman.
“You can come in.”
Shay’s voice broke me out of my stupor and pulled me back to the here and now. I eased the door open and entered what felt like a steam room. I quickly shut the door behind me so I didn’t let any heat out. “How’s it feel?”
“Like heaven.”
I grinned as I eased onto the tile floor next to the bath. “Glad to hear it.”
“If you’re not careful, you’re going to have me breaking in to use this tub every evening. I only have a shower in the guest house.”
I leaned against the wall, crossing my legs. “You know you’re welcome anytime.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, the water sloshing against the ceramic.
“You scared the hell out of me today.” I didn’t think I’d ever forget the panic creeping up my throat when Shay wouldn’t answer me. Wouldn’t even look at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“Where were you? You were lost somewhere, and I couldn’t bring you back.” I was bolder with my questions than I had been before. Maybe because a curtain hung between us, or because I was desperate for answers. I didn’t know.
Shay was quiet for a moment, the only sound a trickle of water here and there. “I don’t do well with feeling boxed in. Sam triggered a memory, and I couldn’t stop it. They used to take over a lot more. But it’s been a while since I’ve had one that bad.”
“What was the memory?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, yet I couldn’t resist asking. I needed to know every sore spot and trigger so I didn’t accidentally send her spiraling like today.
“Michael locked me in a trunk. We’d been looking for hide and seek spots for when our friends came over to play. He told me he didn’t think I’d fit, but I said I would. When I climbed in, he locked the latch. I was in there for almost eight hours before my parents found me.”
My breathing picked up, going a little ragged around the edges. Eight hours in the dark with no way out. “How old were you?”
“I was nine. Michael was seven.”
It seemed impossible that a seven-year-old boy was capable of something so insensitive and cruel. That he could simply walk away in the face of his sister’s terror. “What did your parents do?”
What sounded like a washcloth plopped into the water. “That was the first time they sent him to a treatment program. He’d been hospitalized before, but he’d never been to a residential treatment program. Michael was gone for six months. It was the best six months of my childhood. I could finally breathe. I wasn’t constantly looking over my shoulder. I wasn’t worried that something I did or didn’t do might set him off.