Not wanting to open her artery more by removing the glass, he carefully worked around it to hold it in place. He sent an urgent text to Mitch for assistance.
Instead of a reply, Mitch beat feet to the room E informed him Tar would be in. He slammed the door open and let out a, “Holy Fuck,” as he knelt beside his friend cradling a pale as death Keeley. No need to ask the cause, evidence surrounded him, drawing his trained eye to her arm. He noted Tar did well to tie off the area without budging the glass blade protruding. Mitch sidled closer, examining.
Tar’s voice gave away how scared shitless he was. “You can help, right?”
“Affirmative.” He shot a level gaze at him. “You should take her to the hospital.”
“They’ll commit her for observations,” Tar pointed out.
“Most likely. But you have to ask yourself, isn’t that in her best interest?”
Keeley murmured something unintelligible, bringing Tar’s ear directly to her mouth. “Say it again, baby.”
She licked her lips. “I-I,” she stammered, “d-d-didn’t tr-try to kill myself.”
Perplexed by her confession, when everything around him begged to differ, he inquired, “Someone else slit your wrist?” Okay, even to him that sounded ridiculous.
Mitch confirmed that with a, “So what, a ghost did it?”
But Keeley was not finding this funny at all. She growled out, “He’s after me again.”
“Who?” Mitch shot out as he continued to work on her arm.
Her face was terror-stricken as she breathed harshly.
“Calm her down,” Mitch rumbled, working frantically.
“No one is going to hurt you, Keeley.” Tar whispered fiercely against her lips, “I love you. And I’ll always protect you.” Yet he hadn’t. Here she was in danger of bleeding to death, and he wasn’t anywhere to be found. She hissed. From his lie or the pain? Mitch began to stitch the wound. Somehow Tar had missed when he grabbed a med kit. Talk about being nonobservant and so not like him. He shook his head, silencing the dark thoughts, feeling the need to rectify the lie he just told her. “I’m here now. Nothing is going to harm you while I’m on guard.”
Those words brought a smile ghosting across her lips. He’d said them to her before in Italy when her fears were wreaking havoc during rehab. Her mind drifted back to that time in the garden with him as she screamed out all that frightened her.
Tar had held her firmly as she’d beaten his chest, confessing how scared she’d felt. How utterly petrified that she would become the very nightmare she’d lived through.
Tears began to flow at the realization—she was well on her way. “You have to let me go,” she choked on the words, “before you can’t escape this hell.” Keeley gasped on a sob and lost consciousness.
Mitch angled a hard gaze at Tar. “Tell me again why she shouldn’t be where there’s help?”
“I’ve got her,” Tar grit out. “I’ll help her get through this. You’ll see,” he said with a fierce determination in his voice.
Mitch shook his head. “You’re fuckin’ crazy, man. This is so far beyond you it’s not even a little funny.” He finished wrapping Keeley’s arm and removed his rubber gloves. “What you’re going to do is find yourself in a cemetery mourning this beautifully damaged woman, and then I’m going to have to put your ass on suicide watch,” he growled. “And fuck you. Been there done that with your sorry ass once before.” Mitch stood and marched straight out of the room without another word.
Tar buried his face in Keeley’s hair and confessed, “I get where you’re at, Angel. He’s wrong. I can help you. I know I can.” But he wondered desperately if this really was the right course of action.
Keeley woke up in the guestroom she and Tar were staying in. Her sister was on one side of the bed, holding her hand, and Tar on the other. She noticed E was standing behind Lacey, rubbing her shoulders. “How,” she croaked out, swallowing several times, “long have I been out?”
Lacey stood immediately, pouring a glass of water and giving Keeley some through a straw. Keeley pulled greedily, gulping. Tar caressed her jaw. “Easy there, Tigress. You’ll make yourself sick.”
She fought the frown as Lacey took the straw from her. “He’s right. You gave us quite a scare.”
E answered her question. “Almost three days. But you’ve been in and out.”
She slowly remembered Lacey helping her take a bath, but thought it was a dream. Apparently not. But when she glanced down and caught the bandaging on her arm, her wide-eyed gaze met Tar’s. “What happened?”