It didn’t take long.
At least, it didn’t feel like a very long time. I w
oke sweating with the taste of sand in my mouth and dryness in my throat that kept me from screaming out loud. My heart raced, but before I could move, I felt Lia’s warm hand against the side of my face and heard her voice.
“I’m right here,” she whispered. “I promise—I’m not going anywhere.”
My grip on her tightened a bit, as did hers on me, and my fingers found their way against the skin of her back again. With my eyes closed and my forehead pressed against her shirt, I slipped back into slumber.
This time, whatever dreams I had weren’t enough to wake me. As I regained consciousness, I could immediately feel the difference even before opening my eyes. The fog was gone and so was the dizziness. My head still throbbed, but the beat was slower and the intensity less.
I could think again.
More importantly, I could feel Lia all around me.
Her scent covered me—relaxed me. I could hear her slow breaths, which further calmed me. Her fingers tugged gently through the strands of hair just behind my right ear, and it was as if each stroke over my scalp was removing pieces of the pain, the guilt, and the damage inside my brain.
I could have stayed right there—cold floor be damned—for the rest of my life. The scent of her electrified me. The touch of her fingers soothed me. The length of her body pressed against mine excited me.
I moved my hand a little farther up her back and caressed her skin with my fingers before I turned my head and looked up at her. Her dark eyes met mine, and I pulled air into my lungs to speak.
“Hey.” It wasn’t much, but it was probably better than I had managed before sleeping.
“Hey, yourself,” Lia replied. “You’ve been out a while now. I was afraid I’d have to move in here.”
“Fuck no,” I said. “No way would I let anyone put you in here.”
There must have been a little more venom in my voice than I had intended because Lia shrank back a bit.
“Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “It’s just…this place is…well, it sucks. Let’s leave it at that.”
“I think that’s part of the deal, yes.”
The door clicked as it opened, and Mark Duncan peered around the corner of the frame to look at us.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
I fought the urge to give him a flippant, obnoxious reply. As my mind focused and understood better where I was and what was going on around me, I knew Mark was going to be my key to getting out of here. Moretti’s lawyer could only do so much without my shrink saying I was safe enough to be out on the streets. Without his recommendation, I wasn’t going anywhere.
“I feel a lot better.” It was easier when I didn’t have to lie. “I feel like I can think straight again.”
I glanced back and forth between Lia and Mark a few times and let my eyes widen.
“I really fucked up,” I said. I shook my head a little before glancing back to Mark. “Shit—did I hurt anybody?”
Mark let out a long breath.
“No, Evan. You didn’t hurt anybody.”
I nodded slowly, internally pleased that he was none the wiser about my actual activities. All I had to do now was keep myself in check—calm and collected—until Rinaldo and his resources could get me out of here.
That didn’t end up working out so well.
Mark Duncan left us with the guard so he could go to the warden and discuss some paperwork. I sat up and leaned against the wall of the room with Lia sitting next to me, rubbed at my eyes, which were thick with sleep, and tried not to let the grit remind me of sand.
“How are you really feeling?” Lia asked quietly. She glanced up at the guard and then back to me before she reached over and placed her hand on my thigh.
“Better,” I said honestly. “My head’s a little clearer, anyway.”