Page 149 of The Night Shift
More silence. Her eyes are still on my hand.
When she speaks again, her voice is quieter than ever. “Do you have any idea who it could have been?”
I shake my head.
Holly exhales, a soft sound of frustration.
“Do you?” I ask.
She pulls out her phone, tapping the screen quickly before showing it to me.
I blink and try to focus. The screen shows a photo of my bathroom mirror. Three words scrawled across in red. In blood.
told u so
What the fuck? Wait a second. “Could you grab my phone from my back pocket?” I say.
Holly frowns. “What?”
“My phone, Holly.”
“If this is some twisted ruse to get me to feel your ass, I swear to God, I will break your other hand.”
“It’s not. I promise.”
She hesitates, then relents. She bends forward on all fours. Her hair brushes against my cheek, and I close my eyes, breathing her in. It calms me for a second, the familiar scent of home.
She sits back with my phone in hand and unlocks it.
“Open my messages. There should be one from an unsaved number.”
“‘You should’ve listened to me.’” she recites, then looks at me. “What the hell is this?”
“I’ve been getting these for some time now. I showed you one at the bachelorette too, remember?”
Holly’s face drains of color in a way that tells me that she did not, in fact, remember until right now. “So, you’re saying whoever did this…whoever broke your hand, and killed Parker’s cat…it was because of…me?”
“I think so.”
Holly looks mortified. A sting of guilt burns in my heart.
“Whothe fuck could be behind all this?”
“Someone with an obvious motive to hurt you.” There’s a fleck of wool from my sweater stuck on her eyelash. Without thinking, my hand reaches to swipe it away, but the instant I move, pain explodes in my palm. “Fuck!” I wince, clenching my eyes shut.
Holly immediately takes my hand and gently presses it against my abdomen. “Is that better?”
I breathe, keeping my eyes on her. “Yeah.”
“Is there anywhere on your body that doesn’t hurt?”
I lift my good hand and point to a spot on my chest.
Holly studies me for a moment, then nods. “Good.” She smacks me there three times. “What. The.Fuck.Is wrong with you?!”
“Ow, ow,ow! What the hell, love?”
“I sent you over ten messages, Theo!” She smacks me again. “Why didn’t you fucking text me back? What if I hadn’t come over to check?”
