“Damian,” she whispers, her voice filled with fear of the unknown. Her mind must be conjuring up all kinds of shit.
I can’t look at her as the words come. “He knows my name. When they have to pay me, I give them my name and bank details.” I shake my head again, knowing that it was my fault this time. They found her because of me. “They must have people in law enforcement, and when the search for Weston popped up, they went to check if it was you. I was stupid. I slipped up and you paid for it.” The words settle heavy in my gut. Cara got hurt because I led them straight to her.
“You said ‘he’ knows your name? Who?” She starts to fidget with the blanket and for some reason the piece of material pisses me off. I pull it away from her. I dig in my bag for one of my shirts and I don’t think as I slip the material over her head. I pull the hospital gown down her arms and then slip one arm at a time through the sleeves. I tug the material over her chest and for a split-second I get a glimpse of her breasts.
The first time I saw her she was naked and beaten. I saw her as a target I had to get out of a shitty situation, not a woman. Not once did I think of her as a woman … until that night she walked into the kitchen wearing that damn short skirt.
My eyes dart to her face and I’m not surprised when I see her eyes are huge and her lips parted with what looks like a mixture of shock and terror. I’ve crossed the line. Shit, I shouldn’t have done that!
I quickly grab a bandage and start to wrap it around her wound. When I’m done, I tug the shirt all the way down and then keep myself busy with getting rid of the dirty bandage and wipes.
When I walk back to the bed, I know I have to say something to break the tension that’s hanging so heavy in the room.
“Who?” she says again, but this time I can feel that she’s uncomfortable with me.
“Tom.” The name falls heavy between us.
My eyes dart around the room, and then to her face. I watch as the name sinks in and then a distraught look pulls tightly at her skin. She starts to shake her head but stops and then just looks down. She wraps her arms around her in a defensive move that makes me want to hide her from the world.
I sit down on the bed and this time I keep my distance. “I’m sorry, Cara. He thinks that by giving you up he can save his own ass.” I shake my head. “He’s as good as dead. As soon as you’re dead, they’ll kill him, too. They’re just using him to clean up the last of your family.”
“I still don’t understand any of it,” she whispers so softly I almost miss some of the words.
I can’t hide this from her. Knowledge is power. The more she knows, the better she’ll be able to protect herself.
I thrust a hand through my hair. “Tom and your father got mixed up with the wrong people. These people don’t fuck around.” I get up again and wipe my hands on the back of my jeans. “We’ll have to get new identities again. We can’t go home. Now that they know I’m helping you, they’ll be looking for both of us.”
Her head snaps up and she struggles to get up. Panic flashes over her face and then she rasps, “You need to leave. You need to … go. Go … right now!” She loses her voice and her movements grow more frantic. She manages to get to her feet and then she shoves my bag towards me with her foot. “Leave, Damian!” she begs as tears start to stream down her face.
“Cara,” I say loud and clear so she hears every word, “I’m not leaving you. There’s no fucking way I’m leaving you.”
“Please!” She crumbles to the floor and that’s about as much as I can take. I kneel in front of her and she grabs at my arm, pulling herself closer to me. Her arms go around my neck and she sputters into my chest, “They can’t get you, Damian. Please go. I can’t watch you die. Not you. Please go. Disappear. Just go.” Her breaths are way too fast as she stammers her plea.
I take her face in my hands and lean in closer to her. “They won’t kill me. They won’t find us. I’ve got you, Cara. You’re safe. I’m safe. We’re going to disappear. I’ll make sure they can’t find us.”
She tries to shake her head in my hands, her eyes wild with fear and somewhere deep inside of me it registers that the fear in her eyes is for me.
She doesn’t fear me, she fears losing me.
She cares what happens to me.
I stare hard at her as the thought sinks deep into my heart. She’s not as fucked up as I thought. She’s just in a world of pain, but we can deal with that, as long as she still cares about something.
“You won’t lose me, Cara.”
“I will,” she cries out, and her face crumbles under the weight of her emotions.
I sit flat on my ass and pull her body between my legs. I lean back against the bed and hold her to me. I pepper her head with kisses, and when she looks up, one of those kisses lands next to her eye. She doesn’t move and I feel her hair tickling my cheek. “You won’t lose me,” I whisper again.