Page 98 of My Revenant
Alarm bells tolled in the back of my mind as I hit the light switch, the old bulb flickering in the ceiling before staying on, yellow-white light illuminating the tile and the clothes strewn over the floor covered in blood. My heart stopped as I approached the shower, yanking the curtain back to find Jonah sitting on the floor, hugging his knees. His cheek was bruised, but the water running off him was clear.
“Are you hurt?” I asked the most important question first.
He shook his head in response.
“Whose blood is that, baby?” I asked, speaking softly because he still wasn’t looking at me, and he needed me to be gentle with him despite the panic clawing up my ribcage.
Jonah turned slowly, brown eyes dulled of their usual flame until they locked with mine and life sparked once more in their empty depths. He smiled. “I got it back for you.”
My breathing came a little faster, the panic scratching, gnawing, clawing. “What did you get back?”
“All of it. It’s in the pocket.”
I turned slowly from him to my bloodied leather jacket on the bathroom floor. Reaching for it without leaving Jonah’s side, Ipulled it over to us, my heart thumping rapidly as my fingers dipped into the pocket.
Heat prickled behind my eyes, blurring my vision even before I pulled the familiar-shaped items free from the leather. My keys, phone, wallet… and my father’s lighter.
“You got it back for me,” I whispered, words pulled from my weeping soul, from the wound that losing this piece of my father had left. I’d lost it, and my rabbit had brought it back to me.
I placed the items down, uncaring about my clothing getting wet as I stepped into the shower and sank to my knees in front of him. My arms held him as if I could pull him into me, into my core, so he could feel the way he soothed me without words. He held me back the same way.
Long minutes later, I reluctantly pulled back from him, smoothing his wet hair back from his face as I examined the bruise on his cheek. He didn’t have any other injuries that I could see. “You need to tell me what you did, Rabbit,” I told him, because if it was what I thought, then there was another body that I needed to stash away somewhere no one would ever find it.
“I stabbed him,” Jonah answered, eyes searching mine like he was lost at sea, drifting without an anchor, without a way back to solid ground.
“Okay,” I said simply, reaching for him, my soul seeking his in the darkness, trying to guide him back to me. I’d be the strength he needed. The lighthouse. The anchor. I’d be whatever he needed me to be. “Okay. Is he dead?”
Jonah nodded. “They all are.”
“Okay. How many of them, baby?”
“Three.”
I stroked his bruised cheek gently. Three bodies. More than I’d dealt with at one time before, but it didn’t matter. I’d make it work.I’d do whatever I had to in order to protect him from this. “Where are they?”
“In the warehouse. Henrik said he’d take care of them.”
I let out a long breath. “Henrik was with you?” Relief mixed with other emotions, and I tamped down the anger that rose with knowing that psychopath had taken my rabbit into danger. There’d be a time for it later, but right now, Jonah needed me calm.
“He killed them. I didn’t kill anyone.”
“It’s okay if you did. You were just protecting yourself—protecting me—weren’t you?”
He nodded, more life filling his eyes. “He can’t hurt you again.”
“Yeah. I’m safe. You’re safe too. I’ll make sure of it. Okay?”
Another nod, and then Jonah was wrapping his arms around me again. His lips found my neck, trailing kisses there. His hands made their way under the wet fabric clinging to my body. “I want to feel you.”
I helped Jonah get my wet clothes off, tossing them to the bathroom floor to deal with later. Each layer, until we were both naked, hands gripping skin. Jonah was frantic in the way he touched me, grabbed at me, refusing to let any space pass between us.
I turned the water off. “Bedroom,” I said when he finally released my lips long enough for me to speak. He frowned, trying to capture them again, but I pulled back just out of reach. “Bedroom,” I repeated, a little firmer this time.
Jonah pouted, but he stepped out of the shower, over the bloodied clothes on the ground, dragging me along with him, not even stopping to dry off. Then he was spreading himself out on my bed and pulling me down with him.
I pulled away, enough to take in the perfect image of him in the moonlight. “Where were you hurt?”
“Nowhere.”
