“As long as you’re doing your job and she’s safe, I don’t care how you do it,” I say, and I mean it. This isn’t about controlling Mason—it’s about protecting Grace—and I trust he knows how to do that. “So, you’ll do it?”
Mason sighs, but then he says, “As much as I like you, Sebastian, even though I’ve questioned that several times tonight…” He levels me with a stare, “… I’m only doing this for her.”
My chest relaxes a fraction more. What happened tonight is never going to fucking happen again. I still need to deal with Easton, but I’m completely wrecked after everything, so it will have to wait.
“You start tomorrow,” I say, and I almost expect him to argue, but he merely nods. A glance at my watch tells me it’s after bloody one in the morning. “Shit, can you do me a favour?” I ask, and he raises a brow at me, waiting to hear what it is. “Can you go back to the city and get Shadow. I’d go myself, but I… I don’t want to leave her. You can crash here if you like. There’s already a guest bedroom set up.”
Mason clears his throat before answering. “I’ll take him back to my place and bring him here in the morning. I have some things I need to take care of first, so it’ll be easier for me to stay in the city.”
I don’t know what things he needs to take care of at this time of night, though I suppose there’s the job he won’t be returning to, so I nod in response. “Take what you need for Shadow. You know where his food is, but don’t worry about the rest. I’ll sort it out.”
“How long will you be staying here?” he asks, glancing around.
“I don’t know,” I say.
The penthouse is convenient. Though, not because it’s close to the office, but because it lacks anything personal. It’s safe. This house is the opposite of that. Everywhere I look, my mind tries to suck me into a different memory as the pain of being here trickles in—coming here for the first time since they died on the night I murdered the person who took them from me.Fuck.I can’t walk around here without seeing them, hearing them. The pressure around my chest is pulled so tight, the layers of ice I built around myself to stop the pain threaten to crack. And I’m not sure what will be there when it does.
I see Mason out before returning to the bedroom I left Grace in. It wasn’t the room I’d had growing up, but it was the second largest room beside the master. A dim glow from the half-open bathroom door dusts the room with just enough light I can make out Grace’s sleeping form. She looks tiny in the large bed by herself.
Making my way towards the bathroom to shower, I strip out of my shirt. I might have wiped most of the evidence from tonight off my hands and forearms, but it was a half- haphazard job.
After finishing my shower, I return to the room and climb into bed beside Grace. She stirs a little as I adjust the covers, but her breathing evens out again. As much as I want to pull her into my arms and feel her heartbeat against my chest, I don’t. Even though she agreed to come with me, I don’t want to push her, and as my eyes start to close under the heavy weight of exhaustion, I decide her being here will have to be enough for now.
Under the thin veil of sleep, something stirs me awake. Though still in that state between conscious and unconscious, I can’t concentrate enough to pinpoint what it is. Then, just as I’m falling back into the darkness of sleep, a deafening scream cuts through the air, sending chills to my core, and I shoot up from the bed.
Grace!
Immediately my eyes find her beside me, except she appears to still be asleep. Her rapid breaths fill the room, and the glow from the bathroom shows her creased brows and sweat-slicked skin.Fuck.
“Grace, wake up,” I say, touching my hand to her cheek, except instead of soothing her, it seems to have the opposite effect. She flinches away from my touch, and not for the first time tonight, I feel the sting of rejection. None of that matters right now. Her head thrashes against the pillow as she mumbles under her breath, and the look of pure terror on her pale face breaks my heart in two.
“Grace,” I say, louder this time.
“No…” she whispers, her words audible this time. “No, stop. P-please don’t.” Her voice cracks.What the fuck do I do?Touching her only made it worse, but I can’t just leave her stuck in a fucking nightmare, especially since she told me what happened to her. My stomach sours imagining what fucked-up shit she’s trapped in right now, and I’ve never felt so helpless before.
“Grace, you need to wake up!”
“NO!” she yells, followed by another blood-curdling scream so loud her voice breaks into a sound I never want to fucking hear again.Fuck, fuck, fuck!She starts thrashing wildly. I can’t watch her like this anymore. Reaching for her arms, I try to restrain her before she fucking hurts herself, but it only sends her further into whatever has a hold of her mind.
She kicks her legs out, and I grunt when her foot connects with my thigh, awfully close to my dick. Way too close.
“Grace! Wake up!” I manage to restrain one of her arms whilst avoiding the blows that could well and truly put me out of action for a moment, but trying to hold her down without wanting to hurt her is proving more difficult than I thought it would be. I straddle her hips in one move, using my weight to hold her lower half down, but before I can grab her other arm, her hand makes contact with the side of my neck. I hiss as she claws at me—her nails digging into my skin, tearing through the flesh
With a growl, I get a hold of her wrist before she can do any more damage and bring both of her hands to her chest. I pull Grace against me, locking her hands against my chest with my arms firmly around her. Once I have a good hold on her, my strength is too great for her to break free.
Her heart beats a torturous pattern against me, and her breath comes in rapid puffs against my neck—stinging the scratches she left behind.
Just when I think she’s calmed down, she jolts in my arms, pulling against my hold. “L-let me… let me g-go,” she says, her panic rising along with her pulse and rapid breathing. It’s then I realise she’s awake.
“Shh, I got you. You were having a nightmare,” I say, and she takes gulping breaths. “I have you. No one is going to hurt you. You’re safe here.” I keep whispering reassuring words into her ear, and after a moment, she stops fighting me—her body sinking into mine as her shoulders start to wrack with sobs.
When her cries start to slow, I reposition us so I’m no longer half sitting on her legs, and she wraps her arms around my waist in a bruising hold as if I could disappear at any second.
“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere,” I say, pressing a long kiss to Grace’s temple.
It’s a while before she calms down enough to drift back to sleep, but I know there’s not a chance I’m getting any more sleep tonight.