In The Darkness (Project Artemis #1)(30)

Slowly, he turned around to look at her. His eyes focused on her face for a long moment, and then he said flatly, “We need to get out of here.”

Her attention moved from him to the body of one of the men who’d held her hostage for the past two weeks. Drist lay on the floor just inside the back door in a pool of blood.

“Are we just going to leave him there? He might still be alive,” she said, fighting every instinct she had as a nurse to attend to his injuries.

“He’s not alive, Persephone.”

“How do you know? If he’s still alive, we have to find him help. No matter how evil he is, we can’t leave him if he can be saved,” she said as she watched Drist’s chest for any sign he still lived.

“He can’t be saved. I shot to kill,” Nick said quietly without a hint of emotion in his voice.

Rushing around him, she ran over to where Drist lay. Crouching down, she pressed her fingers to his throat to check for a pulse. She felt nothing. The amount of blood and brain splatter on the door behind him told her Nick had been right.

“We have to go, Persephone. Leave him there.”

Torn between not caring at all that one of her captors lay dead next to her and her duty as a nurse to care for people who were hurt, she remained next to Drist. That Nick had killed him didn’t bother her, but leaving him there to rot felt wrong.

“We can’t just leave him there. Can’t we bury him, at least?” she asked, walking over to where Nick stood staring at her with a look of confusion on his face.

“Sure. You hang out here while I did a grave. It shouldn’t take me longer than an hour or two. Meanwhile, we can put the light in the window to let the rest of those bastards know you’re here for the taking.”

Sarcasm dripped off every word, but it didn’t seem right just leaving Drist’s dead body there on the floor. “We shouldn’t leave him like that.”

For a long moment, she watched as what she said filtered through his brain, but then something snapped inside him. He stormed over to where she stood and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“This guy would have happily killed me and then taken you back to that house so he and his buddies could take turns raping you. You want us to take precious time out of escaping from those guys, who are likely very close by, to respect his dead body?” he barked at her.

His use of the world raping stunned her. It came out of his mouth with such rage. That single word that held such a loaded meaning between them made her emotions spin out of control, and she couldn’t stop herself from crying suddenly.

Hanging her head, she sobbed as he took her by the arm and led her out of the cabin into the darkness outside. After everything that had happened, the way he said that single word broke her.

Nick held her wrist as he began running, and she struggled to keep up with him. A pain in her side stabbed at her with every step she took, but he didn’t slow down so she couldn’t either.

Persephone didn’t know if they were running away from Drist’s dead body, the truth of what happened between them, or the other men of the militia group that might be close by. All she knew was Nick seemed possessed by the devil himself to get away from that cabin as fast as possible.

Gasping for breath and barely able to run another yard, she begged him to stop. “I can’t go anymore. We need to slow down.”

He looked back at her and shook his head. “We can’t. I can’t let them find you.”

She tore her hand from his hold and stopped dead, unable to go another step. “No! I can’t keep up with you!”

Nick stopped running. “If they find you, they’re going to take you back there. I won’t let that happen.”

Looking around, she saw no one in the woods with them. “They’re not here. Maybe Drist came alone. I don’t know, but I can’t keep running like that.”

He hung his head and avoided her gaze. “I can’t let them find you. I can’t.”

“I know, but they’re not going to. You’re right here. They aren’t going to get me,” she said as she slowly walked toward him to take his hand.

They stood there together, their hands joined, and she knew what he was running from. But no matter how far they ran or how fast, the truth of what he did would always be there. She could forgive him for what he did, but he couldn’t forgive himself.

*

The black town car pulled up to the curb, and before it even fully stopped, her father opened the passenger side door and stepped out. Opening his arms wide, he smiled at Persephone.

“I’m so happy to see you again, honey.”

She ran to him, happier than he could ever imagine to be back in his arms. He hugged her tightly to him like he might not ever let her go again.

“Thank you for sending Nick to rescue me, Dad,” she said as she pressed her cheek to his chest and heard his heart racing just like hers was. “I wouldn’t be here with you if it wasn’t for him.”

Above her, he said, “Thank for bringing my daughter back to me. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you for this. Money just isn’t enough for what you’ve given back to me.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I did the job you hired me to do, Mr. Gilmore,” Nick said in a strangely distant voice that made her look back at him.

He avoided meeting her gaze and focused on her father instead. “She’s been through a rough time. I’d suggest putting a security guard or two on her and your other daughters for a while. The National Equality Militia is still out there.”