Ink kissed the top of her head. “Hack is right, you were very brave.”
“You might want to give her a quick shower. Get in there with her, though. And not for too long. Don’t want her getting light-headed. Right, I best go. Places to go, people to poke with more terrifying needles. Call me if you need me,” he said to Ink.
Ink nodded then Hack lightly squeezed Betsy’s hand. “Wish all my patients were as cute as you, Miss Betsy.”
“Bye,” she said shyly.
“You want a shower, brown eyes?” he asked. “Or I could just wash you down with a cloth?”
“A shower, please?”
“All right. But you heard what Hack said. A quick one and I’m helping you.”
He quickly showered her, then got her dressed in a short-sleeved nightie and back into bed. He was brushing her hair for her when a knock sounded on the door.
“Come in,” he called out.
Spike walked in carrying a bowl filled with ice cream and covered in sprinkles.
“Jesus, fuck, man, did you put the whole tub in there?” Ink asked as he carefully climbed off the bed and helped her rest back against the pillows.
Spike shrugged. Then he winked at Betsy. “Two shots means two servings of ice cream.”
There looked to be about ten servings in the huge bowl, but with the way that Betsy’s face lit up, he decided not to say anything more. She could use the calories.
The others all filed in, except for Baron and Royal.
“I managed to convince them to stay downstairs and watch a movie with Stone,” Spike told him, obviously seeing the questioning look on his face. “They weren’t happy. Pretty sure Baron is plotting my murder as we speak.”
Ink nodded. “Best they don’t hear this part.”
Ink held the bowl steady as Betsy grabbed the spoon. But her hand shook too much and the ice cream slid off the spoon. She let out a frustrated noise.
“I’ll help you, button,” he told her. He sat on the bed, half-facing her and spooned some up and feeding it to her.
They all waited as Betsy ate a few bites of ice cream. Finally, she shook her head. “I can’t eat anymore.”
Spike took the bowl away and they all crowded around. Razor and Spike leaned against the back wall, facing them. Reyes was sitting on the bed. Duke was sitting in the armchair again, Sunny on his lap. Jason stood in front of the door.
Betsy looked around at all of them then let out a shuddering breath. “Guess it’s storytime, huh?”
“We need to hear all of it, brown eyes.”
Betsy took in a deep breath. She shouldn’t have eaten that ice cream; it was threatening to come back up.
“Soon after you left with the boys, the buzzer rang. I was going to ignore it but then I thought it might be Stone so I got up to check the camera. I recognized them immediately. They were two of Forrest’s goons. I called them Thing One and Thing Two. They were dumb, but blindly loyal to Forrest. I had to let them in when I saw they had a gun to Sunny’s head. I called you,” she looked at Ink and he nodded, his jaw tight, “then Thing Two walked out of the elevator and shot me. I must have fallen and hit my head. When I woke up,” she sucked in a breath, this was the part that was going to be hard to tell them, “I was in a hole in the ground in the middle of the woods.”
There was silence.
Everyone had stiffened. They were staring at her with different versions of disbelief and horror.
“A hole in the ground?” Surprisingly, it was Sunny who asked the question. “What do you mean? How did you get there?”
“I guess Thing One and Two drove me out to the woods and then dug the hole and that they were going to…to…”
“Bury you,” Reyes said in a low voice.
“Fuck,” Razor said, his eyes wide, skin growing pale. “They dug a grave for you?”