Redemptive (Combative, #2)(21)

14




Bailey


I was two steps away from his doorway when my legs gave out, along with the rest of me. I collapsed on the floor of the hallway with a loud thud, and I blinked back the fog, my fingers gripping the carpet as I tried to move forward. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything.

I was too weak to stand, so I did my best to crawl while my entire body suffered an ache I’d never felt before. My head dropped forward while the walls spun around me. “Nate,” I tried to yell, but nothing came out. My mouth was dry, though my body was covered in sweat. “Nate,” I choked out.

His bedroom door swung open, and it took all my energy to lift my gaze.

His gun was pointed at me.

I squealed.

Right before I lost all my strength, all my will, and all my fight.

And I succumbed to the darkness.

Nate

A loud thud startled me awake. My first thought was Bailey. My only thought was Bailey. Without hesitation, I reached for the gun under my pillow and tried to settle my heart, just long enough to be able to hear what was happening on the other side of my bedroom door.

I thought about Bailey and what she was like when I’d taken her; her silence was deafening. Would she scream for help?

It was silent.

No footsteps.

No whispers.

Nothing.

I opened my door; my gun held firmly in my hands.

I looked toward her open bedroom door, and then down the hall.

Nothing.

But then I heard it, a small whimper that elevated my fear, and my eyes snapped to the sound, to the girl lying on the floor, her shallow breaths amplified in my eardrums. “Bailey!” I dropped to my knees and moved her hair, trying to see her face. She was pale, her entire body covered in sweat. “Bailey!” I shook her gently, but she didn’t respond. “Bailey!”

My heart raced, aching with every beat.

Then she inhaled sharply, gasping for air. “Nate,” she whispered.

She hadn’t even seen me, but she was saying my name… calling out to me.

“I’m here. Just hang on, okay?”

I ran back to my room and dialed Tiny’s number. “Get Doctor Polizi here. Now!”

“Are you okay?” he asked, panic clear in his voice.

“It’s Bailey.”

I hung up and dashed back out to Bailey. She hadn’t moved. Without speaking, I picked her up, just like I did the first night I found her and carried her to her room. “What happened?”

She groaned in response, her head resting on my shoulder with one arm around my neck. I held her in my arms as I sat down on the bed. She leaned into me, a single, almost silent sob escaping her.

My phone rang. “We’ll be there in ten,” Tiny said when I answered. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

“But she’s safe, right?”

“Yes,” I rushed out, forgetting how this must’ve seemed to Tiny. “She’s safe.”

I hung up and shuffled back on the bed until I was leaning against the wall. Placing my hand on her forehead, I asked, “Can you open your eyes?”

She struggled, but she managed to do it. And it was in that split second, when I saw the honey brown of her eyes, that I finally let myself breathe. “You’re okay,” I assured her, my dry lips finding her warm temple. I tasted her sweat on my lips and kissed her again.

“Nate,” she whispered, her head lolling back as she attempted to look at me. Her eyes opened fully just long enough so she could see me watching her. “Thank you.”

*

Tiny and Polizi showed up in under ten minutes. Tiny let them both in with his key and deactivated the alarm at the front door. He called out my name. I kept my eyes on her when I told him where to find us.

“What happened?” Polizi asked as he walked into the room, dropping his bag and rushing toward us.

I shook my head, wishing to hell I f*cking knew. “I don’t know. I found her like this.”

“Where did you find her?”

“In the hallway… she was trying to get to me. I didn’t know and—”

“Nate,” Tiny cut in. “This isn’t your fault.”

“What’s her name?” Polizi asked.

“Bailey.”

He sat on the edge of the bed and checked her pulse on her wrist.

“Bailey,” I whispered in her ear. She reacted by opening her eyes, just slightly. “This is Doctor Polizi. He’s here to check on you, okay?”

She nodded slowly and attempted to sit up a little, her arm curling tighter around my neck.

Polizi’s eyes moved to mine for a second, and I could see the confusion, the list of questions he wanted to ask. But he wouldn’t. Not yet. Polizi was The Family’s doctor. He kept our secrets and in return, he got paid more than any doctor in the entire state. Gunshots, stab wounds, overdoses, anything we needed from him, he was there. Like the rest of us, he kept this side of him private, away from his home, and away from his wife and kids. I’d known him my entire life, and I trusted him with it, so it surprised me that I was questioning whether I trusted him with hers. “I’m going to need you to try to speak to me, okay, Bailey?” he said.

Bailey nodded and tried to form a “Yes,” but her voice cracked and she looked down at her lap. “Water,” she whispered.