Resist

“She doesn’t need anyone else. She has me,” I said through my teeth. “Tell me what I need to know before I walk in that room.”

“All right. The doc says she’s going to need care for a few days as she recovers, but he can give you more information once you’re back there. From what I can tell, her wrist is sprained pretty bad, and she has a minor fissure in her bone that requires a splint, so she’ll need help with daily things at first, as she heals. Washing. Cleaning. Cooking…” He glanced at his phone. “And there’s the beating she took before her boss heard her crying out. She wouldn’t talk to the officers, but we think he might have tried to force himself on her.”

Rape. Someone tried to rape her.

And I hadn’t been there to help her.

I’d kill him. Rip the man’s heart out and force him to eat it, then rip it out all over again. “Did they get the guy?”

“No.” The officer had the decency to lower his head in shame. “He got away, but we’ve got an APB out on him. We’ll get him. We always do.”

I nodded once, sick to my stomach at the thought of how much pain she must be in, how scared she must be. And despite my fear for her, my sympathy—I was angry.

So angry.

The officer cleared his throat. “Can you take care of her for a few days, or not?”

“Yeah.” Why hadn’t she told me she was working at Kitty Kat’s? Or better yet, why hadn’t she told me she needed help before she accepted a job at a place like that? I could have done something. Anything. “I’ve got her.”

“Will you be able to provide a place for her to stay? She was staying at the building the owner of the club keeps for the girls, but with a sprained wrist and a bruised face, she won’t be dancing anytime soon, so the owner—”

“She won’t be dancing ever again,” I snapped, clenching my jaw. “Not if I have a say.”

The officer shrugged. “Okay. But I have to ask again, are you able to take care of her? Or should I see if there is someone else who could—?”

“No.” I frowned, because I should have been the one taking care of her all along. If I’d been there in the first place…“Like I said, I’ve got her.”

“All right.” He gave me one last once-over and started for the door. “I’ll take you to her then. She looks a little rough, just so you know. Prepare yourself.”

My stomach rolled. “I will. Thank you.”

I followed the officer down the narrow white hallways, my heart picking up speed with each step I took. Last time I’d been in the hospital had been after the car accident that changed everything. Rose had clung to my hand, face pale, eyes dry. The familiar guilt over what happened that night choked me, and I swallowed hard.

We passed beeping machines, IVs, and nurses in scrubs who looked so overworked that they moved as if they were more dead than alive, and we finally turned into a room at the back of the hallway that was smaller than my dorm back at school. The second we stepped inside the doorway—

I froze.

Rose did, too.

She lay in bed, looking frailer than ever before. Her face was pale, with big dark shadows under her eyes, and despite her normal bravado, she looked terrified. Bruises formed on her cheekbones and around her neck, where the man had apparently wrapped his hands and tried to kill her.

I’d never felt so murderous before in my life.

“Who was he? Give me his name.”

The cop stepped back. “We don’t know his name yet.”

“Thorn…”

I turned back to her, not speaking, chest rising and falling rapidly. “What?”

Her eyes were dulled, and her soft, wavy hair that sometimes haunted my dreams was messy. She was still stunning, gorgeous in an awe-inspiring way that never failed to punch me in the chest, but tonight she seemed…broken. There was another bruise forming under her left eye, her lip was swollen, and she had a splint on her left arm that went from her wrist to her elbow. She wore one of those generic blue hospital gowns, and it only made her look paler. She had an emptiness to her that I’d hoped never to see on her. Like she saw and did too much.

“It’s not as bad as it looks.” She licked her lips, avoiding my eyes as she ran her tongue over her silver lip ring. “I’m okay. I promise.”

I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t capable of words.

“Are we all good here?” Officer Forkes asked.