Page 61 of A Light in the Darkness
“Yes.”
“Okay,” she nods. “But you came in without clothes on, and given the nature of your injuries, I have to ask if something else happened? Did somebody assault you?”
Again, I’m not sure how to answer that. I guess it depends on what sort of assault we mean. Seeing my hesitation, she nods. “I want to do a rape kit to make sure we get any evidence we might need.”
Rape kit.
The words make my heart speed up, my stomach clench. I shake my head, trying to tell her it won’t be necessary, but she tries again. “If someone hurt you like that, we need to get the—”
“No.” My voice is a croak, cracking over the weight of the single syllable. “They didn’t.”
I watch her swallow, looking like she wants to fight me on the matter again. “Are you sure? During my initial exam, I noticed bruising on your thighs… what little clothing you were wearing is torn. Maybe you just don’t remember it?”
“No.” It comes out unbroken this time. “I wasn’t… I just want to go home.”
The nurse manages a smile, nodding sympathetically.
But it doesn’t do anything to ease me into complacency or peace, because I suddenly realize…
I don’t even know where home is.
Chapter thirty-six
Remy
I rush through the doors while the world blurs around me, everyone turning into streaks of motion that look like strokes from a paint brush. A woman at the desk is speaking to me, and someone else is yelling somewhere, but I can’t focus on any of them, can’t hear what they’re saying.
Kent told me she wasfine.
He told me she was with the senator.
And then they brought me here.
I fucking hate hospitals, and I hate Kent for lying to me. My eyes snap from face to face, looking for one I recognize, looking for her. The waiting room is full of people, but none of them are Claire, so I push toward the desk, lifting the latch that will let me behind it. The angry voices start telling me I can’t go back there, but then I see Dimitri standing there through the glass window ahead of me.
He runs to me, pushing the door from the inside so that it opens to allow me in. Except it doesn’t open, and a man comes from nowhere, barring my path as he pushes me back by the shoulder. “You’ve got to sign in.”
“Fuck you!” I snap. “Let me back there.”
“Sign in.” He snaps back, gesturing to the woman sitting at the desk watching me with wide eyes.
“I need your ID.” She says, glancing nervously from me to the guard. “I can get you checked in while you go back there to visit your friend, but I need your ID.”
“Take it!” I say, slipping my wallet from my pocket and tossing it across the distance to her. “Take the whole thing, just let me through!”
The man in my path is starting to say something, but then I hear the click of the lock giving way, so I rush past him.
“What the fuck happened?” I shout at Dimitri, who is already turning his back to me so he can lead me to her. I had security on her for months— her every move has been watched since she left Costa Rica. Is it really a coincidence that the minute her guard had to dip, she got taken?
“Carrington Hardin,” Dimitri explains, rounding a corner and picking up his pace. I see the senator standing outside a closed door, raking his hands through his hair. It does nothing to ease the tension in every part of me, so I run the rest of the way.
The senator is trying to speak to me when I throw the door open, and there’s a series of objections from various faceless people, but I don’t let any of it stop me. I sprint across the distance to her, barely getting a glance at her sitting up staring at me before I wrap her in my arms.
The minute she’s against me, it’s like fitting a puzzle piece into the last spot. My entire body sags in relief as I press kisses against the top of her head, the relief in my chest so violent that I think it may burst outward. “Claire.” Her name is sweet on my tongue, muffled against her skin. “Fuck, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I let you go. I never should have let you leave. I should have owned up to my feelings instead of pushing you away. I—”
The aggressive throat clearing behind me alerts me to the fact that someone is trying to get my attention, but I don’t fucking care. They can go to hell.
I pull away from her just enough to slide my palms under her chin so I can look her in the eye and tell her that I am in love with her, but I stop cold when the shift lets me see the purple marks around her neck, bruising covered in blood.
