Safe at Last (Slow Burn 3)

“It’s evident she truly is frightened. Whatever it is she thinks you did is very real to her.”

“Tell me about it,” he muttered. Then he cupped the back of his neck and dug his fingers into the aching muscle. “Can you do some looking? You know where I’m from. Where we’re from. Can you go back twelve years or around that time, before and after the last time I saw her, and see if anything pops up? Something major? If it happened in our pissant little town then you can be sure it was all over the bloody place.”

“I can try, though I did a fair bit more poking around after you left my apartment this morning. And so far, I’m hitting a brick wall.”

Which is exactly how he felt, only in his case, it felt as though he were beating his head repeatedly against that wall. And he was starting to feel the ache all the way to his soul.

“Oh, here she comes now,” Eliza said, hastily moving back from the doorway.

Zack surged to attention, scraping at the bristle of his unshaven face. He needed to get cleaned up. He looked—and smelled—like a goat. He was surprised the nursing staff hadn’t thrown him out or at least into a nearby shower.

The nurse quietly closed the door behind her as she stepped into the hall to join Eliza and Zack.

“How is she?” Zack asked urgently.

The nurse’s pretty face twisted into a grimace. “Exhausted. Hurting. Scared. At the end of her rope. Pretty much all apply here.”

Zack bit back a sharp curse.

“I gave her a sedative to help her relax. She should sleep soundly for the next several hours. You should go home. Get freshened up. There’s nothing more you can do here today.”

“I’m not leaving her,” Zack said emphatically.

The nurse hesitated and then blew out her breath in a long sigh. “She doesn’t want visitors. At least not today. So you should go. Let her rest. Get some rest yourself.”

Eliza nudged him in the ribs and stared pointedly at his unshaven jaw and his unkempt clothing.

“Let me make myself clear, ma’am,” Zack said, forcing calm he didn’t feel into his words. “Gracie has no one. And I mean no one. She is completely alone in the world apart from me. Now, do you really think it’s a good idea to leave a woman who just endured a horrific traumatic event completely alone? What if she wakes while I’m gone? Who the hell is going to be here to reassure her that those sons of bitches can’t hurt her anymore?”

The nurse’s entire face went soft and she reached out to squeeze his arm.

“She’s very lucky to have you then, if she has no one else. And she won’t be alone. I promise. We are monitoring her very closely and will continue to do so overnight. But you staying here at her bedside while she sleeps does neither of you any good. Go home. Grab a shower and something to eat. Try to sleep if you can, even if it’s only for a few hours. Then, when you come back tomorrow, everyone will be in a better frame of mind.”

Zack shook his head. “You aren’t getting this. Gracie was attacked and brutally beaten in a methodical, planned way. And you want me to leave her alone. Unguarded. Where anyone at all could walk into her room and kill her. Hell, they could kidnap her. Who on this floor would be able to stop them? And I can guaran-damn-tee you that they’ll be armed. They have absolutely no compunction about using violence to achieve their means. You see what they do to defenseless women. They tortured and killed another young woman who’d just given birth. So while I appreciate your concern for Gracie and her mental well-being, right now I am most concerned with her physical safety.”

The nurse went pale and she swallowed nervously. “Why weren’t we told this? No one told us!”

Her voice was rising, on the verge of hysteria. Zack put a hand out to ease her panic.

“I’m not going to allow them to hurt anyone here. The police are coming when Gracie wakes up next. In the meantime, someone from my security company will be here round the clock, and no one who isn’t medical staff or employed by DSS will be allowed access to her room. Someone will be stationed here at all times.”

“I understand your priorities, sir,” the nurse said, sincerity ringing in her voice. “But just as you have to take into consideration what is best for her in order for you to do your job effectively, so too must I prioritize her well-being, both emotional and physical, as long as she is a patient on my floor. And she was quite adamant that she wanted no further visitors today. So if someone is posted here—and they are more than welcome as the staff here would feel much better if there was tight security—then they must take position outside her room.”

“Ouch,” Eliza said, her lips twitching with humor. “I guess you’ve been schooled now.”

Zack shot her a glare. He was in no mood for her sharp wit. He needed about twenty-four hours of sleep, a hot shower, a pot of coffee and to get his hands on the bastards who’d hurt Gracie before he would be remotely mollified.

“It wasn’t my intention to be rude,” the nurse began.

“Oh no, you weren’t rude,” Eliza said, her eyes sparkling with laughter. “Not at all. It’s nice to see the men of DSS taken down a notch or two. It keeps their egos in check.”

The nurse smiled. “That bad, huh. Let me guess. And you’re the only female in the ranks.”

“Got it in one,” Eliza said with a grin.

“I’m Jacquie,” the nurse offered, extending her hand to Eliza.

“Hi, Jacquie,” Eliza returned. “I’m Eliza and this surly guy is Zack. We both work for Devereaux Security.”

Zack’s head was about to explode. He started to ask Eliza if she was high on something. How could she be out here, ribbing, teasing, joking when Gracie lay on the other side of the door, curled into a ball, having cried those silent silver streaks until the nurse had administered the medication, at which point her eyelids had fluttered slowly until her lashes finally came to rest against her cheeks.

Jacquie gave him a thorough assessment, staring intently enough to cause heat to flood his cheeks. He hated being the object of scrutiny.

“I tell you what, Zack,” she said, using the name Eliza had provided. “I just came on an hour ago, so I’ll be here for the next eleven hours. You and Eliza run home, change, grab something to eat. I’ll call down to security and have them post a guard outside her door and I’ll also stay on this end of the floor so I can eyeball her door until y’all get back.”