Page 93 of The Hangman's Rope

Tor gripped my wrist and said, “Open up, sweetheart, let’s see how bad the damage is.”

I blinked, looked down, and startled when I realized my hand wascoveredin blood. As soon as I saw it, the smell hit my nose, copper and sweet, blood and champagne.

I made an involuntary panicked noise and unfurled my clenched hand, letting my teeth clench as bits of broken glass ground together and tinkled to the floor andoh shit –how the bloodpoured.

Corvus swiped at my palm, knocking sticking bits of glass to the floor and Tor wrenched me to my feet.

“Come on, over to the sink, baby. We gotta rinse this and see how bad it is.”

“Bad,” I said through clenched teeth, the stinging pain setting in and finally registering. I moved with him and let him, Corvus, and Lainey fuss over me until, feeling crowded, Corvus finally barked at Lainey, “Go find Syn!” He gentled his tone and said, “Let him know what’s going on.”

“Got it,” Lainey declared, and her heels clicked sharply and smartly against the stone tiles of the kitchen floor as she went to fulfill her mission.

“Deep breath, sugar,” Torment said, and he thrust my hand under the running faucet of the kitchen sink.

I wasn’t ready, and I yelped, squeezing my eyes shut so I didn’t have to see.

“Yeah, it’s bad,” Corvus agreed.

“Not bad enough to need stitches, I don’t think, but yeah – grab the first aid kit. She’s got some glass stuck in there.”

“I got you.” Corvus’ voice was already moving away.

“Breathe, just breathe, Lorelai. We’ve got you,” Tor said evenly and the steady calm to his voice seemed to help mefind my center a bit. “You did good,” he told me. “Sounds like nobody’s the wiser out there and you didn’t make a scene.”

“Unintentional,” I breathed.

“Take the win anyway,” he ordered, and I felt it crack my stone exterior and a smile slipped through, bitter and weighted but a smile none the less.

He washed my hand, wrapped it in the cloth napkin Corvus had had the moment before and led me over to the high chair Lainey had put me in when we’d first come back here. I climbed up onto it and he raised my injured hand over my head and said, “Hold it up high like that, makes the blood work harder to get to it and slows the bleeding.”

“Okay,” I said, and Corvus appeared with what looked like a big black tool case in one hand.

“How’s she doing?” he asked.

“Taking it all like a champ,” Torment answered.

“Good deal.” Corvus flashed a smile at me as Torment opened the toolbox on the counter and started rummaging through the medical supplies in it.

“I’m going to go connect with Syn and the boys, get this sorted. I’ll send someone down to take you home as soon as I can,” Corvus said, and he put a hand to my shoulder and gave it a light squeeze before striding away.

“Thank you,” I said, but it came out too late.

“You belong to Hangman. It’s what we do,” Torment said distractedly as he laid things out on one of those half-plastic half-paper blue-and-white rectangles of sterile cloth on the counter.

I didn’t really know what to make of what he said. I sort of felt like I was here but wasn’t here at the same time. Like my body was front and center but my mind and my heart were a million miles away.

Well… my mind.

My heart was in the mansion somewhere, wherever Hangman was at the moment. That most assuredly belonged to him.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Hangman…

“She’s okay,” Corvus said, coming up to me and touching my elbow. I had wandered away from the conversation with the little puke and nodded, still keeping my eye on him.

“What’s the play?” I asked.

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