Chapter Eight
Hudson
Hudson didn’t know which demon Eric sold his soul to in order to get him and Ian in to see Cosy for an hour today but frankly he didn’t care. He’d do the man any favor he ever asked in gratitude.
He’d come in first by himself to chat and snuggle with Cosy for a bit before Ian joined them. He didn’t want to overwhelm her and Ian could be overwhelming. Also, he wanted to see if he could get any information out of her about her top since everything they’d been able to dig up had led to dead ends. The police hadn’t had any luck either.
While he’d love to just shower her with presents and cuddle her, he needed to bring up some things she wasn’t going to like. It wasn’t that he wanted to hurt her—he’d cut off his right arm if he could make that trade—but it had to be done and he was the one with the best shot. Besides, Ian was waiting outside with some clothes they’d brought for her and a tablet loaded with episodes of a cartoon based off those books she liked so at least she’d have presents to cheer her up. Nora had told Eric she never let go of her bunny if she could help it.
“Hey teapot, I don’t want to upset you, but…”
She looked up at him, wariness shaping her delicate features underneath all that mottled skin.
“But what? Can you not come see me anymore?”
“Oh, no, I’ll be here as often and for as long as I’m allowed as long as it’s okay with you.”
“Then it can’t be that bad,” she said softly, stroking the inside of the bunny’s ear with her fingertips.
If only that were true.
“I know you don’t like talking about your top—”
Her sharp intake of breath and the way the beep of the heart monitor sped up confirmed what he already knew.
“But listen. You’re safe here, he can’t hurt you. And I know because you’re a very kind and sweet girl that you would never want what happened to you to happen to anyone else. Right?”
What little color she had drained out of her cheeks and she shook her head. “No, of course not.”
“I know it hurts so bad to talk about it but anything you can tell me about him or where you came from might help the police find him and make sure he can never hurt anyone else.”
Cosy pursed her lips and shook her head again. It didn’t seem as though she was refusing him, just expressing her protest. That was fine. He wouldn’t want to talk if their positions were reversed.
“Here, let’s start with an easier question. How did you get to Hive?”
Her chin wrinkled as she pushed her lower lip into a frown. “I walked.”
Hudson huffed a laugh because he couldn’t cry. “I know you did, Cosy. I know.”
You had the torn up feet to prove it, he wanted to add, but didn’t.
“But where did you walk from?”
Cosima looked at him as if considering how much it was going to cost her to answer him. He wished he could promise her something more concrete in the way of her safety, wished he could sleep next to her on the floor or in front of the door to her room. Nora had told Eric she had bad dreams sometimes, woke up in a panic.
“Mmm, about exit fourteen on the highway I think?”
He heard Eric suck in a breath from his station by the door.
Aside from the fact that she’d been walking on the highway, that was over five miles from Hive. She had walked, over five miles, after being severely beaten, in no shoes.
He knew a lot of masochists so he’d seen people take a ton of pain but this was something else entirely for a million different reasons.
“I bet that took a really long time.”
She nodded, focusing her attention on the bunny.
“So you walked on the highway?”