Page 66 of Devil Inside: Green

“Didn’t see. But that’s kind of the point. Guarding without being in your face. This can’t get over soon enough.”

“Tell me about it. I feel safe enough, but I’m worried that I’ll slip up when Jack is around.”

“Same. It’s too much pressure,” she says while starting my exam.

Dusty wears her hair wild with all these beautiful, tiny corkscrew curls. Seeing all her abundant curls right up in my face makes me feel self-conscious because they had to shave my head when I went into the hospital. Rather than my long, thick blonde hair, I have a buzzcut like Sarge. It works on him, not so much on me. She’s so cool wearing boot-legged jeans and a loose-fitting pink top under her white jacket. She’s like hip and professional all in one.

“Your incisions are healing nicely,” she says, peeling back each bandage to check out every individual cut on my body. The ones from Jack and the ones from the hospital.

“They are,” I agree, then let out a slow breath.

She wrinkles her brow at me. “What’s up?”

And there’s my opening. “How long before we can have sex?” I ask. She’s a biker’s old lady, too. Out of anybody, she understands.

She pats my shoulder. “Unfortunately, they want you to meet with the physical therapist before you even think of going there.”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear, Dusty. Let’s rewind this conversation and you say, ‘Greet him at the door naked.’”

“The wife of Reaper wants to tell you to go for it. But the doctor says that’s a terrible idea for now. You may want to listen to Reaper’s wife, but I can tell you right now, there’s no way Green’s listening to anyone other than the doctor. That man loves you. He’d never do anything to risk your health.”

I grunt. “Trust me, I know.”

“It’s not forever.”

“Can I offer you a drink?”

“Sure—” Dusty’s pager goes off. Medical professionals are the only people I know who still use pagers. She pulls her phone out of the pocket of her white lab coat and pushes a contact. I wait, letting her listen because it must be important. “Crap,” Dusty says, hanging up. “Danni, I have to go. You have a guard outside. I’ll give a wave to let them know I’m leaving. I won’t see them, but whoever’s out there will see me.”

“Go,” I order. “I’ll stay in here like a good little girl and wait for my biker to get home.”

It’s chaos as she gathers her things, then she runs out my front door without a second look. I hope whoever has the emergency is okay. After locking my front door, I place a call to Green to find out who they have on guard duty, but I get a busy signal. Although it’s a little unsettling, maybe Green and Misty are passing through a low-service area. I try Vlad’s phone because he’s usually at the garage, but he doesn’t answer.

Shoot.I go down every contact on my phone. Not one of them answers. I look at my phone to make sure I still have bars. Full bars. I press Green’s number again. Nothing.

I try calling a second time. Still nothing. Busy signal for the garage, but I can’t get a cell signal now. It’s like my phone is dead, only it’s fully charged. That’s… strange.Okay, don’t panic, Danni. You’re just freaking yourself out.

It’s just the first time I’ve truly been alone since the woods. I roll myself to the bathroom and moving myself from the chair to the toilet is a son of a bitch, but I’ve gotten pretty good at it. When I’m done, I roll myself back into the living room and that’s when I catch a glimpse of the doorknob jiggling. My doorknob shouldnotbe jiggling. I grab up my phone and try yet again to place a call, but there’s still no signal.

What do I do? I roll over to the patio door, but Green has it secured and I can’t reach it from my chair. I manage to push myself up to stand, but I’m too short to reach the bar he’s secured it with. Whoever’s outside my apartment is getting damn close to getting in. I hear them manipulating the lock.

Okay, think… I lower myself back into the chair and roll into my bedroom. I close and lock the door then I wheel myself into the bathroom, closing and locking that door. The only thing I find to use as a weapon is the plunger under the sink.

“Danni,” I hear Jack call. “You’re being rude. Come out and greet your guest.”

I want to cry. I want to whimper. But I don’t even breathe. Then what sounds like a boot to my bedroom door, I hear it crack.

“Sinners have to die,” he says. “And you’re the worst sinner of them all. You should have repented, but you ran. Unrepentant whore.”

My chokehold tightens on the wooden handle of the plunger as the first boot strike hits the bathroom door. On the second hit, the wood splinters and the door pops open. I strike out with the object but connect with the force of a mosquito biting a T. rex.

He rips the handle from my hands and pulls my chair from the bathroom. I scream for anybody who could be close enough to hear me—hopefully, one of my neighbors is home. The walls aren’t thin, but we can still hear things from time to time. He backhands me to shut me up before tearing me from the chair and tossing me onto my bed like a ragdoll. My whole face hurts, my mouth fills with blood from where my teeth caught the inside of my cheek, but I keep screaming. I submit, I die.

He picks up Green’s pillow, pressing it down over my face while I claw at him and try to turn my head. “Got tired of waiting,” he says, continuing to press. “Never leaves you alone…” Rather than claw at him, I swipe at the pillow, moving it enough to give me a bit of air. Jack punches me. “Brought the doctor today…” He presses harder. “She carries… Knows her shit… Good aim… Had to get her out…”

Had to get her out? Did he hurt one of Dusty’s patients to get to me? The man is truly unhinged. Where is my bodyguard?

The fight begins to wane from my body. I didn’t want it to end like this. God, Green will be ravaged when he finds me. My lungs burn from lack of oxygen. My head begins to feel fuzzy. No one can save me this time. I swear I hear my mom whisper, “Hang on, baby… Just a little longer.” Tears prick my eyes—they’d fall, but the wetness gets absorbed by the pillow. If I’m hearing my mom’s voice, that means I’m actually dying. This is…

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