Page 93 of Hide From Me

Nothing else mattered. I would keep her safe. She would forever be safe. I would never let anything hurt her.

Except I paused when a warm, familiar hand rested on my cheek. I blinked through the blinding anger to see her tears streaking her face.

“Stop,” she was saying. I could see her lips moving, repeating the same words over and over.

She reached for me, and I let the guy go. The detective. I let her come to me, let her take my hands and pull me up.

“Are you okay?” I said. The only thing I could think about was her. Always her. Fuck.

“Yes. We need to go.”

I stepped over the body of the detective as I watched her grab her bag from the elevator. The sound of the alarm grew louder as I became aware of everything around me once again.

I grabbed her and pulled her. If she didn’t have the damn bag, I didn’t care.

“We are going. I’ll buy you whatever you have to leave behind.”

She didn’t protest and maybe she had what she needed, maybe not, but I didn’t care. I didn’t give a shit about the body. I didn’t care if he was still breathing. I didn’t care if the cops came. I just needed her safe.

“Cas, I can’t run that fast.”

We were finally in the stairwell and, indeed, I had dragged her this far.

I let her hand go and pulled her into my arms, lifting her legs and cradling her, unwilling to ever let her go again.

I got us down the flight of stairs, and I put her down.

“I just need you away from here,” I finally said.

She nodded. “Yeah. Same. Let’s just go.”

This time, she took my hand and guided me out of the stairwell. Sirens were close, but not here yet. I grabbed a pile of bills from my back pocket and threw them at the guard.

“Make it go away.”

He nodded and grabbed at the hundreds on the keyboard. Maybe he would, or maybe he wouldn’t. The odds were, the way he eyed the gun that I’d barely tried to conceal while Rylee had my jacket, he would do as I asked.

I don’t know how I’d never noticed just how much Rylee seemed to love the sunlight, but as we stepped outside, I watched as she took a deep breath.

“Okay. Where’s the car?” she asked.

I pointed across the street.

The traffic was picking up the later it got. How I had maneuvered through the cars earlier surprised me. I had been focused on only one thing, but now with her in tow? I took our time crossing with her, protecting her. I walked her to the passenger side as a firetruck fought to get to the front of the building. I was certain that this place hadn’t seen this much action in a very long time. One murder and possibly a second.

“Cas? The meter, you didn’t pay it?”

She probably didn’t catch as I rolled my eyes.

“Really? You were about to be raped and you’re worried I didn’t pay the meter?”

She was shaking.

“You’re in shock. Get in the car, Rylee. I need to get you far away from here.”

Her eyes looked me up and down.

“You’re covered in blood.”

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