Shane's Fall (The Escort Series Book 2) by Sloane Kennedy Read Free Book Online

Shane.
    Shane collected himself and went into the bathroom, steeling himself for whatever he was going to see.

Chapter 5
     
    Shock went through Shane when he finally saw her. She was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest. One hand was resting on top of her knees. A beautiful, slightly older woman with bright blonde hair and wearing a red silk dress was sitting on Savannah’s left side, her hand holding a towel over the inside of Savannah’s lower arm. He could see that a little bit of blood had dripped down her arm and onto the floor between the two women. Savannah was quiet and deathly pale. But worse, her eyes were empty, like she wasn’t even there. Her hand was limp in the other woman’s gentle hold.
    He dropped down in front of her. “Savannah, sweetheart, it’s me. It’s Shane.” No response. He gently placed his hand over the hand she had on her raised knees. When she still didn’t respond, he bit back his frustration and growing concern that maybe he wouldn’t be able to reach her. “Savannah, I need you to look at me now, okay?” His voice was firm and he stroked his thumb over her cheek. He saw her flinch and then her pale eyes seemed to focus on him. Her body drew up tight as she looked around in confusion.
    “Shane?” she said. She looked at him and then at the woman next to her, then finally at her arm and she let out a whimper as she covered her mouth with her free hand.
    “Hi Savannah, my name’s Sylvie. I’m going to let you and Shane talk, but I’ll be right outside if you need me.”
    Savannah nodded, but she seemed so confused that Shane wasn’t sure if she actually understood what the woman had said. Shane rose to help Sylvie stand and immediately noticed how frail she seemed, especially for a woman her age. When she was upright, she seemed to take a moment to steady herself and he saw pain flash through her eyes. He was about to ask her if she was okay, but then she patted him on the arm.
    “I’m okay, take care of your girl here,” she said softly. “Dom and I will be outside if you need anything.”
    The woman left and he took her place on the floor next to Savannah. He took her arm and carefully lifted the towel. There were three, almost perfectly matched cuts on the inside of her forearm. Each one was about an inch long and blood continued to well up on the ends of each wound. The first two were deeper than the others – he guessed that she’d been distracted on the third by the bathroom door being kicked in and hadn’t used the same level of force as on the first two. The man – Dom, his wife called him – had been right. They didn’t appear deep enough to need stitches but if he put some butterfly bandages on them, they’d be less likely to scar. Not that it mattered because he could see dozens of scars covering her lower arm, some with raised welts meaning they’d been deeper, others just fine lines that could have passed for skin imperfections if someone weren’t looking close.
    She was silent as he examined her arm, but tears of humiliation flowed down her cheeks. The long sleeve shirts she always wore, even in the summer, made sense now. He couldn’t even remember a time when he’d seen her in short sleeves. He carefully replaced the towel and dropped his head back against the tile. God, he wasn’t equipped to handle something like this. He needed to tell someone, her brother, a doctor – someone who was strong enough to help her fix whatever was destroying her on the inside. She had screamed for help every time she dragged a sharp blade over her delicate skin and no one had heard, no one had listened. He heard himself choke back a guttural sob and he covered his eyes with the hand that wasn’t holding her damaged arm.
    “I’m sorr-” she started but he shook his head violently and squeezed her hand.
    “No. No, you don’t ever say that to me again.” She flinched at his tone, but he straightened and gently