Chapter 38
“Shh … baby, you’re going to be fine.”
Shade stood in the corner with Razer standing tensely by his side. He knew Razer had come to care a great deal for his sister-in-law.
Both of them were watching with grim expressions as Lily tried again to get out of the hospital bed. Beth prevented her with a soothing voice, murmuring words over and over again that neither men could hear over Lily’s cries. The trauma combined with the pain and medication had left her disoriented.
Every cry and whimper, which passed her lips, increased his resolve to take his vengeance out on the two men who were responsible for her injuries. Shade had every faith the judicial system would release them on parole, and he would be waiting for them, just like the biker who had dared to touch her and the deputy from Treepoint. Both had disappeared just as Joker and Dale would.
Lily finally slipped into a fitful sleep, tossing and turning on the hospital bed while Beth continued sitting by her side, holding her hand.
Shade stepped forward. “You should both go and get some sleep. I’ll stay until you get back.”
“I’m not leaving her,” Beth protested.#p#分页标题#e#
“Go and get a couple hours’ rest at Sex Piston’s parents’ house; it’s just a few blocks away. I’ll call as soon as she wakes.”
It was another hour before exhaustion had Beth leaving reluctantly with Razer.
After they left, Shade sat down in the chair by Lily’s bed.
After the night before, when Lily had coded, there wasn’t anyone who didn’t know he had reached his limit. He was done waiting. He had sworn that, if Lily survived, she would be his. No more waiting, no more fucking around. He planned to get Lily the way he would have taken on one of his missions in the SEALS. It was why, behind closed doors, he was known as the deadliest sniper in the US armed forces with over two-hundred twenty-six confirmed kills. Those were only the ones they knew about, not the privately contracted ones by the government he still carried out when the price or the reason was motivating enough. He had been given the nickname Shade because of his ability to blend into the shadows, hitting his targets with cold-blooded precision others considered impossible.
Part of what made him so successful in taking out his target was learning everything about them, knowing their strengths and weaknesses. Especially their weaknesses.
To gain Lily’s trust, he had to find out her weakness. He had always known she and her sister had secrets they hid from everyone, refusing to talk about Lily’s past. No woman had as many anxieties and fears as Lily without a reason. To reach her, he would have to overcome those fears.
Each time he had tried to find out about the cause of her panic attacks, he had been thwarted. Neither had she confided in Razer, Penni, or her therapist, who was shitty for a therapist, something else Shade intended to change. The only thing the woman had done was put that fucking rubber band on Lily’s wrist, teaching her to give herself pain as a way to relieve her anxieties. Shade had every intention of teaching Lily the same thing, except in a more enjoyable way.
He sat by the bed, watching Lily sleep as the day slipped into night. When the nurses checked on Lily and tried to get him to leave the room, his cold gaze intimidated them into silence, sending them scurrying.
When the outside had been completely swallowed by night, Shade got up from the chair, going to the door and closing it after the nurse. Determined to find out Lily’s secrets, he only had one option left.
Lily was beginning to wake; he had noticed she had begun to move about beneath the covers. He prayed the drugs would keep her disoriented enough that, when he was finished, she wouldn’t remember what he was about to do.
Shade’s fingers flipped the light switch, plunging the room into darkness. He knew from Razer that Lily always slept with a nightlight. Otherwise, her terrified screams could be heard throughout the house. Maybe those screams would give him the answers he was looking for.
At first, all he heard was her breathing.
“Beth!” Lily began shaking the rail of her hospital bed.
Shade immediately went to her, pressing her down onto the bed. He wasn’t about to let her damage herself. She began crying and whimpering. Then she began screaming.
“Sh…” He had meant to be reassuring; instead, her screams stopped immediately.
“Please don’t hurt me. Please … Please. I’ll do what you want, just don’t hurt me anymore.”
She was disoriented, not understanding why she was in so much pain; therefore, she had connected it to a time in her past when she had experienced the same helplessness.