“Your hair has blood in it. I wish—” she says quietly.
“No talking,” Taz shouts.
His loud voice sends a pain through my head, and I wince.
“Do you have any ibuprofen?” Ava is
no longer demure with Blix’s chief thug. “Different pants she can wear?”
“What the fuck do I look like? The corner drugstore?”
God, I hate his sarcastic mouth. Taz and I have never gotten along, but we’ve always co-existed because we had to. Now that I’m on the way out, he’s lost even the smallest traces of human decency.
“So I clean her up, and she puts bloody clothes back on? I don’t think that’s what your boss had in mind.”
He takes a step forward, and my insides cower. “You think you know what the boss has in mind? You have no fucking idea, queenie.”
A knot is in my throat, but I feel Ava turn into a rod of iron at his sickening threats. It’s as if his nastiness makes her stronger.
“Shall I ask him? Or shall I tell him you’re trying to intimidate your queen.”
“You think that means anything here?”
Her shoulders drop, and I’m growing weary of standing on my injured hip. Just as I’m about to say forget about it, the unexpected happens.
“Wait.” Taz leaves us alone in the tiny bathroom.
Ava inhales a sharp breath and turns to me. My heart is beating faster. I can’t see if we’re alone, but I can tell by her enthusiasm we must be.
“You still with me?” She says in a voice one notch above a whisper. “I need you Kass. You have to help me.”
Tears flood my eyes, and I shake my head. “We’ve got to go back there. Can you find the way back?”
“Where?” She pulls away to glance out the door.
“The mill… we’ve got to get back to the mill. Cameron—”
“Put these on her,” Taz tosses something to her.
“They’re huge.” Ava takes my hand and puts it on what feels like cotton. “Sweatpants,” she tells me.
“She can fucking go naked for all I care.”
“Thanks.” Her tone is sarcastic, but Ava takes my hand and moves me around to the opposite wall.
“What are you doing?”
“Don’t look,” she snaps. “Pervert.”
“You think I want to see that?” Still, he shuffles out of our space.
Ava leans close to my face, and I see her eyes wide. “We’ll go back, but I need you now. Are you with me?”
Even though pain floods my chest with each heartbeat, I nod in response. I’m still with her.
Searching
Logan