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A cry ripped from my throat. “Don’t let him get me,” I rasped.
Grim scooped me up in his arms. “Shh, little fox. It’s going to be okay.”
Poe raced ahead of us as Grim sprinted up the stairs, cradling me to his chest. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
Within seconds I was being lowered into a warm scented bath. Soothing hands caressed me. And then I was out again and wrapped in a big fluffy towel. The three of them pressed into me, their body heat enveloping me like a cocoon.
“Deep breaths now. Good girl,” Poe murmured.
Grim gathered my hair off my neck, towel drying it as my pulse began to steady.
“I’m sorry…”
“You should be,” Saint growled. “You could have died out there, Bailey.”
A strange thing occurred to me. And not for the first time. “If I had… would I still be here with you? Would I be like you?”
The three of them stiffened. Poe wrapped another towel around my shoulders and tugged me in closer. “Is that what this is about? You want to die because you think that will keep us together forever?”
I didn’t know what I was thinking or feeling right now. Nothing made sense. I shook my head. “No. I mean, maybe. I don’t know… I wasn’t trying to kill myself. There was something…” Another shiver raced up my back as I remembered the whisper and the shadow.
“Something what, Bailey?” Grim asked.
“Enough,” Saint interjected before I could respond. “She needs to sleep. Everything will make more sense in the morning.”
Grim carried me to bed and the three of them climbed in around me. Their strong hands caressed my arms and face as I let myself surrender to the warmth and quiet. But I wasn’t sure that anything I saw and heard tonight would be any clearer by morning. I feared it would only make less sense.
Bailey
“There’s something seriously wrong with this town,” Maureen mumbled through a mouthful of sweet potato fries.
Growing up in Wickford Hollow had never been easy. I was used to the stares and the whispers. Used to being the girl whose parents died under mysterious circumstances. But even I had to admit that the people of this town had gotten more aggressive ever since I bought and renovated the Wickford Mansion.
I shrugged, pretending to ignore the icy glares from half of Ruby’s Diner. “It’s whatever, Maur. Small towns, you know?”
Maureen bared her teeth at Crazy Fred, sweet potato fries and all.
I stifled a laugh. “Oh, that’ll show him.”
“He’s supposed to be the town freak. Not you. Fuck him and everybody else.” She stuck her tongue out at him, clearly not done with taunting him.
I giggled. “Well, that’s what happens when you buy a condemned house that almost burned down. People talk.”
For years, Wickford Mansion incited superstition and stories of hauntings. That was the one thing they weren’t wrong about…
In the summer after graduation, a bunch of kids even set the Wickford Mansion on fire. They claimed it was an accident, but I always wondered if the town was just trying to get rid of it for good. As soon as word spread of my buying it and moving in, the people here distrusted me even more.
I started to take a sip of my iced tea when a glob of spit landed on my arm. I looked up, furious, to see Billy and his buddies snickering a few feet away—one of them being my ex-boyfriend. Ugh.
“Fucking witch,” Billy spat. “Hey, Chad, didn’t you fuck her back in high school? Hope she didn’t put a curse on your dick.” The lot of them burst out laughing.
My cheeks reddened as I wiped my arm with a crumpled napkin. “Assholes,” I muttered.
“Fuck this.” Maureen stood up from the table. “It’s kind of hard to curse a dick that didn’t work right to begin with. Maybe my girl here did you a favor, Chaaad.” she yelled back.
I grabbed her wrist as they started to come over. “It’s fine, Maur. Just let it go.” The last thing I needed was more attention.
Billy licked his fingers before shoving them into our bowl of fries. He crushed them between his fingers and flung them at my face. “That’s better. Now you look like the dirty whore you are.”
