Safe at Last

He had to be strong for Gracie. He did her no good if he were an irrational, pissed-off ball of fury. Not to mention he’d scare the shit out of her when she was already frightened out of her mind by him.

His chest ached. His heart hurt. He wanted to be alone so he could grieve over all he’d discovered—and lost—in the last twenty-four hours. But he could do none of those things because time was of the essence and he didn’t dare give Gracie the chance to slip away or else he may never see her again. It was obvious enough that she’d planned to never cross paths with him. He would have spent the rest of his life never knowing her fate, if not for the happenstance of him recognizing the scenery in her painting.

“What if she hates me forever?” Zack whispered, confiding his deepest, most devastating fear.

Eliza squeezed him in a comforting hug. “Shhh, don’t do that to yourself. There’s no sense torturing yourself with the worst-case scenario. You’re going to have to be patient and take it one minute, one hour, one day at a time. She’s fragile. Not only are the events of the past alive and well in her mind, but now she has to contend with what happened to her now. Once is enough to break a woman. But two instances of her being attacked, being completely helpless?” She broke off, shaking her head.

“Yeah, I know,” he said in a low voice. “Damn it, Lizzie. I don’t know what to do! How am I going to convince her that I had nothing to do with her being raped?” He dragged a hand through his hair in agitation. “I don’t even know which so called friends did this to her and why. Why, for God’s sake? She never did anything to anyone. She was nothing but sweet and caring and gentle. God, it makes me sick to think of what happened to her. And I wasn’t there,” he said brokenly. “I wasn’t there to protect her. I swore I’d never let anything hurt her. And I failed her, goddamn it!”

“You couldn’t have known, Zack. Especially if they were your friends. How could you have known? You don’t think people, much less people who were your friends, have the capacity for such evil. You can’t blame yourself for what happened.”

Zack went still and straightened, homing in on Gracie’s bed as Sterling leaned over and gently began shaking her awake. The two policemen stood on Gracie’s other side, their expressions grim as they surveyed her bruised and battered face.

Gracie’s world was a haze of confusion and unease. She’d retreated into a drug-induced fog where pain and fear faded away, replaced by a false sense of security. Here she was able to block out her reality and avoid it. Things she’d sworn she’d put behind her had come storming to life the moment she’d seen him again.

She hadn’t thought she could feel such pain ever again. That she’d become immune to anything regarding Zack Covington. She’d thought she’d put his betrayal behind her, that he couldn’t possibly hurt her anymore. But some wounds simply didn’t heal. Some wounds continued to bleed, no matter how much time had passed. Worst of all, she now realized she’d merely been in denial all these years. Now it was as if the bandage had been ripped from a wound, causing it to bleed fresh all over again.

She’d been wrong. She hadn’t been remotely prepared for the wave of anguish that had consumed her when coming face-to-face with the man she’d loved with every part of her heart and soul. The man who’d betrayed her so horribly that she still couldn’t fathom it.

It had been crippling, robbing her of breath. It had shamed her, that she was so weak. That the day he’d shown up in her studio she had been completely helpless, unable to say or do anything in her fear-induced paralysis. If Wade hadn’t appeared when he had she didn’t know what she would have done. What Zack would have done. A man she would have never dreamed she needed to fear. A man she’d never imagined being capable of such . . . evil.

And now? The past had repeated itself. What did the two events have in common?

Zack.

Why did he hate her so much? What had she done to make him despise her? What kind of person went to the lengths he did just to get his message across? And what message? If he hadn’t wanted her any longer, if he hadn’t loved her anymore, then why not just break things off with her? Why punish her for sins she knew nothing about? That she hadn’t committed!

Please, please God, let him be gone when she awakened again. She couldn’t do this again. She couldn’t face him, not after twelve years. She’d worked so hard to put the past behind her, to recover from something she hadn’t been sure she would survive. But she had survived. It had taken her years, but she’d put the pieces back together. She had a life now. And the moment her past caught up to her, she was thrown into a world of pain and violence and . . . heartbreak. Again.

“Anna-Grace. Come on, honey. I need you to wake up for me. There are people who need to talk to you.”

Her brow furrowed in confusion. She didn’t want to leave the warm cocoon formed by the pain medication. It was safe here. She felt nothing here. Just a blank, empty void filled with warmth and soothing light.

She drifted away once more, shutting out the voice that had infiltrated the fog surrounding her.

But it was persistent. Someone called her name again. Louder this time. She frowned and shook her head, wincing when the motion sent shards of pain through her skull. Why wouldn’t they just leave her alone? That’s all she wanted. Just to be left alone. She’d been alone for so very long. It was the only way she knew. The only life she knew. She didn’t dare trust anyone. Not after Zack’s betrayal.

Zack had been her entire world. Her love, hope and trust had been solidly wrapped up in him. If she couldn’t trust him, then whom else could she trust? No one. And that’s a policy she’d adhered strictly to for the last decade. Except . . .

Wade had befriended her despite her best attempts at holding him at arm’s length. He’d been persistent, not allowing her to remain indifferent to him. But the sad part was she was just waiting for him to betray her as well. Even in their easy friendship, she was wary, convinced—having been taught the hard way—that betrayal was inevitable.

“Anna-Grace, you have to wake up. You’ve been sleeping long enough.”

Wade?

A surge of relief overwhelmed her. Oh thank God. Wade was here. He wouldn’t hurt her, would he? Was she a fool for putting her trust in any man?