The blows hit me like a one-two punch.
One, in the chest. Two, in the stomach.
I couldn’t breathe.
Why couldn’t I breathe?
Because the look on Sabrina’s face went from devastation to… nothing. Every single emotion that’d been written on her face seconds before was no more.
She was like a shell of her former self.
Her dad squeezed her tight into his arms and said, “I’m fighting, baby. I’m fighting.”
I swallowed past the lump that’d formed in my throat and said, “Let’s get out of here. Go somewhere more comfortable to talk about what’s going on.”
The truck ride was absolutely silent as I drove us away from the curb once everyone was settled.
Daniel had taken the front seat, so I could see Sabrina in my rearview mirror.
And what I saw gave me chills.
“Tell me what’s been going on here,” Daniel ordered.
There sounded like there was a small plea in his voice.
He didn’t like the look on Sabrina’s face, either.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as DS reached out and took her hand.
“This man is going to marry you,” DS said to Sabrina. “You won’t be alone when we’re gone.”
Sabrina turned her face to look at her grandfather and said, “I would give him up in a heartbeat to know that y’all would never leave me.”
That blow to the chest hurt.
But I understood it.
To save the people I love, I would do the same.
But that wasn’t how life worked.
I reached back behind me and caught her calf in my hand, holding on to it even though it was an awkward angle.
All the way to the restaurant that DS had requested shortly after getting into the truck, I thought about what I could help her with to make this situation any better.
In the end, there really wasn’t anything more I could do or say to make her feel better about what was happening.
I had to just be there for her and catch her when she broke.
The last thing that I expected to hear when I pulled up to the curb and rounded the hood of the truck was what came out of Daniel’s mouth.
“So let me get this straight.” Daniel looked from Sabrina to me and back. “Y’all are technically married?”
Had she told him in the three seconds it’d taken me to round the hood of the truck?
She shrugged, looking absolutely lifeless. “I mean, if you want to be technical about it? Yes. We are. The only problem is that I just know he’s going to cause trouble, so you’re going to have to be our backup. You’re going to have to say that we are. And possibly lie under oath.”
My dad was a stickler for the rules.
According to Sabrina, Daniel had been career Navy for most of his adult life. If anyone stuck by the rules, it would be him.
“I think that, in this instance, it won’t matter if I tell one small lie.” Daniel shrugged. “Not if I know that it’ll protect my girl.”
Same.
Fucking same.
I walked up and curled my arm around Sabrina’s waist, pulling her into me.
She came, but again, there was no animation to her at all.
She was just… there.
“I—” Daniel said, but he was cut off by the chirping of my phone.
I wouldn’t have gotten it but DS said, “Answer it. Give this one time to get her head out of her ass.”
I squeezed Sabrina’s waist when I felt her stiffen beside me.
I answered, even though I could sense her anger.
“Yo.” Shine’s voice sounded rough and edged with annoyance. “Someone’s at our hotel.”
Our hotel wasn’t actually our hotel. Our hotel was where we liked to keep our prisoners. Or people we needed to question, and we needed a place to do it that wouldn’t be screaming our sins to the neighbors. And, as of right now, there was only one prisoner in particular at our hotel.
“Someone that shouldn’t be there?” I questioned, tensing slightly at the implications of someone being there that shouldn’t be. “Or someone that should?”
“Someone that should, and someone that shouldn’t.” He hesitated. “Video cameras are showing movement, popping on every fifteen seconds. But we’re not getting anything on the feed. Whoever is there knew the code to not only get in the gate, but also get into the building. Though, the final hold hasn’t been breached.”
Well, fuck.
“Where’s Tide?” I asked, not wanting to leave, seeing as I had Sabrina with me, and there was no way in hell I could take her with me. Or leave her behind. Not right now. Not after what Daniel had just told us. “Can he…”
“He’s in the middle of an emergency at the hospital. It’s only you and Easton,” Shine said. “And I would go myself, but I’m at the hospital with Iris. She shut her hand in the car door.”
I grimaced at the thought.
“Fuck,” I grumbled, squeezing my eyes tightly shut and pinching the bridge of my nose. “I’ll get there as soon as I can.”