Page 154 of Perfect Liar

He gently gripped my arm.

“Ellie—”

But I couldn’t hear his words. My head shut him out, and torment twisted in my gut. An image of Will lying somewhere lifeless assaulted my mind, sending a shock wave of pain through me. I hugged my abdomen to hold myself together.

“What happened?” I finally asked.

Thomas moved his hand to my back to comfort me.

“It’s not as bad as it might look…he’s fine, I promise. His shoulder will heal quickly.”

Someone had hurt him. Those fuckers hurt him.

“Oh my god, you mean they shot him?”

“No…like I said, it’s a stab wound, and his physician patched him up earlier.”

I nodded and wiped at a single tear.

“I want to see him.”

Ben’s eyes jumped to the guest room door, and then he locked his gaze on me.

“I think you should give him some time, Ellie…he asked to be left alone.”

“What?”

No matter how many reasons my thoughts threw at me, I couldn’t wrap my head around why Will didn’t want to see me. Our bond was strong. We’d made commitments to put each other first.

Thomas interjected, his hand still on my back.

“Fuck this. We can’t stop her if she wants to see him.”

Ben’s words from his warning in the gym came back to me. Make sure you take him on from a position of strength, he’d said.

I took a deep breath, lifted my chin, straightened my back.

“Exactly. You can’t stop me. I’m going in to see him.”

Thomas dropped his hand from my back and nodded.

“You should know his mood is quite bad. I’ll go in with you.”

Shaking my head, I put my hand out against Thomas’s chest to stop him.

“No, we’ll be all right. You know he would never hurt me.”

Thomas held my gaze for a minute, then he walked away, signaling with a whistle for Ben to follow him.

I stepped into the guest room with Will.

He rested against a stack of pillows, wearing only a pair of sweatpants, drinking whisky from a lowball tumbler. One shoulder was bandaged, but the rest of him seemed okay.

He turned his face away and looked out the window.

A broken sob stuck in my chest, where I forced it to stay. No crying. I couldn’t let my emotions get the best of me. We had something to settle between us. I drew a long breath through my nose and straightened my shoulders.

Will had underestimated me.