and she wasn’t ready. It was a crappy move, especially when I’d promised her that we could go at her pace.”
Carson let out a low whistle. “Definitely a dick move. But she’ll forgive you if she hasn’t already.”
It was more than that, though. “I’m worried she thinks I’m not happy with the way things are. But I am. Even amidst the hell of the past few months, it’s the happiest I’ve ever been. I just want to make sure she’s not living some half-life because she’s scared.”
“But that’s not your choice to make. It’s her life, Brody. Not yours. You have this protective streak that can mow down anything in its path. But you have to let Shay make her own way. All you can do is stand beside her and support her.”
Everything Carson said was true, but at the same time, it went against every instinct I had. But in trying to help, I’d ended up controlling the situation. “Hell,” I muttered. “When did you get so wise?”
Carson smirked. “Always have been. It’s about time you started listening to me.”
“I need to call Shay. Then what do you say you and I skip out and find a beer and some real food?” I’d always despised the hors d’oeuvres they served at these things. You needed to eat thirty of them to make a meal.
“Sounds like a plan.” He inclined his head down a pathway. “That leads to a back alley. Should have some privacy there. I’ll run and grab my stuff from the back room and meet you back here.”
I nodded and headed down the path as Carson disappeared inside. The alley was dark, only the glow of the light over the door to the gallery casting a muted glow. I paced back and forth in front of a dumpster, searching for the right words. Everything I came up with felt incredibly pathetic. I could always just throw myself on her mercy and grovel, beg. Whatever it took.
My finger hovered over Shay’s contact in my phone. “Stop being a pansy and call her,” I muttered.
The sound of the back door opening had me looking up from the phone number taunting me. But before I could turn around, something stung the back of my neck. I felt a bite of pain before every muscle in my body spasmed. As the world around me went blurry, I heard a shout. But it was too late. I was falling. I saw a flash of light, felt pain, and then nothing at all.
43
Shay
As I handed Caelyn the last dish from our sundae extravaganza, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was past eleven. My heart gave a casual flip in my chest as I pulled the phone out. Brody flashed across my screen.
Everything in me eased at just the sight of his name on my phone. That he was thinking about me. That instead of partying it up with his best friend, he was calling me. That silent knowledge gave me hope that everything might be okay.
I hit accept and put the phone to my ear. “Hey, Brody.”
A vaguely familiar voice filled the line, but it wasn’t the one I’d been expecting to hear. “Shay, it’s Carson. Something happened. Brody was attacked…”
The world around me went fuzzy as my grip on the phone loosened. It clattered to the floor, but even the sound of the device slamming into the tile wasn’t enough to break through the fog. I was slightly aware of Caelyn moving around me, picking up the phone. The muffled conversation.
“Shay, look at me.”
I blinked rapidly, Caelyn coming into focus. “Oh, God.”
“He’s going to be okay,” she assured.
“What happened?” Every image that popped into my mind was worse than the one before it. My stomach roiled as I considered the possibility of the killer returning to Washington and setting his sights on Brody.
Caelyn kept her tone even and calm. “They think it was a botched mugging. He’s got a concussion and needs stitches. They’re just waiting on a CT scan to make sure there’s no bleeding in his brain.”
I let out a muffled noise that sounded like an injured animal. “Bleeding in his brain?” This couldn’t be happening. After everything and everyone I’d lost in my life, I would’ve thought I’d be stronger in the face of someone else being torn from me. But I wasn’t. Not in the slightest. Brody had opened my world and shown me what it was like