Page 56 of Devil's Work: Dark

“Be right behind you. Promise. You won’t be out of my sight.” Then he bends down to kiss me and jumps out of the back. One medic closes the door. I take it he’s the driver because he doesn’t climb back in with us and I feel the rig begin to move.

I close my eyes, sighing. The woman with me does her job while I think about the phone call from Joyce Rostenkowski, the fact that two rich men have been indicted and someone tried to kill me. It’s certainly not a coincidence.

Stupid tears sting the backs of my eyes. I hate tears. They don’t help.

15

DARK

Rae got a phone call at 7:30 in the morning. Who the fuck would’ve been calling? She told me to call Green. I called Green. It wasn’t her sister, so who was it? Then the bastard tries running her down after dropping off the kid. What was I supposed to do? It was either chase after the truck or get to Rae. I had to get to Rae. The thought of someone hurting her, trying to take her away from me, makes me want to kill in a very real, visceral way.

We make the drive to Middleboro’s hospital. The hospital has special emergency room parking for people like me, whereas the ambulance turns into a circle drive. After parking, I jog up to the rig to wait. They unload Rae. Her eyes are closed.

“Here, baby,” I say. Her eyes blink open and she tries to smile in response. It’s wobbly and appears to hurt her to do it.

Because she’s arrived in an ambulance, they have a room waiting on her, rolling her back, past the seating area where people who came on their own watch us wearing wary, sick, or hurting faces.Fuck.I hate hospitals. I hate the look. I hate the smell.

She reaches out to lace her fingers through mine resting on top of the blanket covering her. The room they park her in is small, claustrophobic. They hook her up to monitors and shit. Someone in a white coat said something about a CT scan. Whatever the hell that is. I assume it’s to check her head.

My phone vibrates. I put it on silent on the drive over because I didn’t know if the ring might hurt her head.

It’s Reap.

“Talk to me,” I answer.

“Cut and Rough IDed the truck. Ran it off the road.”

“Stupid local or…” I let the rest trail off. Don’t want to get into her business here, when anyone could just walk in.

“Or,” he answers.

“Shit.”

“Shit’s right, brother. We got him in the house out back. Want us to wait?”

“Can’t leave Rae.”

“Glad you said that,” Reaper replies. “Was preparing to kick your ass if you didn’t.”

I snicker, rubbing my hand down my face. “Who would’ve fucking thought?”

“Certainly not me,” he teases.

“Yeah—me, either. But I trust you to get it done.”

“On it,” he says. “Tell Rae I said hey. I’ll be down to visit as soon as I can.” Then he hangs up.

She’s watching me when I turn back around. Those dark, beautiful, pain-filled eyes are locked right on mine. “Reap,” I tell her.

She halfheartedly smiles… and winces.

“Caught him, baby. Men are going after answers.”

“Okay,” she whispers.

“You good with that? I can keep you out of all this.”

“I’m in it, Dark. Don’t leave me out.” She closes her eyes and takes in a breath. Her head must hurt. They aren’t giving her pain meds until they do the scan. “These are bad guys,” she finally finishes. “Get what you need. I won’t object.”

---