The sound of the back door opening had me looking up from the phone number taunting me. But before I could turn around, something stung the back of my neck. I felt a bite of pain before every muscle in my body spasmed. As the world around me went blurry, I heard a shout. But it was too late. I was falling. I saw a flash of light, felt pain, and then nothing at all.

43

Shay

As I handed Caelyn the last dish from our sundae extravaganza, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was past eleven. My heart gave a casual flip in my chest as I pulled the phone out. Brody flashed across my screen.

Everything in me eased at just the sight of his name on my phone. That he was thinking about me. That instead of partying it up with his best friend, he was calling me. That silent knowledge gave me hope that everything might be okay.

I hit accept and put the phone to my ear. “Hey, Brody.”

A vaguely familiar voice filled the line, but it wasn’t the one I’d been expecting to hear. “Shay, it’s Carson. Something happened. Brody was attacked…”

The world around me went fuzzy as my grip on the phone loosened. It clattered to the floor, but even the sound of the device slamming into the tile wasn’t enough to break through the fog. I was slightly aware of Caelyn moving around me, picking up the phone. The muffled conversation.

“Shay, look at me.”

I blinked rapidly, Caelyn coming into focus. “Oh, God.”

“He’s going to be okay,” she assured.

“What happened?” Every image that popped into my mind was worse than the one before it. My stomach roiled as I considered the possibility of the killer returning to Washington and setting his sights on Brody.

Caelyn kept her tone even and calm. “They think it was a botched mugging. He’s got a concussion and needs stitches. They’re just waiting on a CT scan to make sure there’s no bleeding in his brain.”

I let out a muffled noise that sounded like an injured animal. “Bleeding in his brain?” This couldn’t be happening. After everything and everyone I’d lost in my life, I would’ve thought I’d be stronger in the face of someone else being torn from me. But I wasn’t. Not in the slightest. Brody had opened my world and shown me what it was like to live again. He understood me in ways no one else ever had. And his heart…God, it was everything good. A heart like that couldn’t leave this world.

“Doctors are treating him now. If he needs surgery, he’s in the best possible place. Seattle Memorial has wonderful doctors.”