Fractured Hearts (Shattered Lives, Book Three) Read Online Free Page A

back. Strong woman. However, her eyes said it all. There was nothing but hopelessness. In a whisper, she said, “Look at him… My heart goes out to him when he’s like this. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found him in this same position. He’s so broken and I don’t know how to fix him.” She knelt and ran the back of her hand over his cheek. “Henry…” She shook him, but he was out cold. “Henry…,” she said again, a little louder. “I think I’m going to need some help getting him back to our room.”
    With a sigh, Gunther said, “Let me try. I’ll pick him up first.”
    Gunther bent down and picked Henry up, pressing one palm into his chest, holding him against the wall. He was like a ragdoll just flopping about. “Henry!” Gunther hollered, causing Henry to startle—limbs windmilled for a split second before they went limp again. “Henry, wake your arse up! You need to get back to your room.”
    Gunther lightly slapped Henry’s cheek, causing his arms to flail about as he mumbled something that was nothing more than a drunken slur. His legs, seemingly made of rubber bands, were fighting for purchase on the vomit-covered floor. There was no way he was going to be able to walk on his own.
    “You take one side. I’ll take the other,” Elaina muttered. “I hope no one sees this. He would be humiliated.”
    Gunther and Elaina wrapped their arms around Henry and dragged him back to their room. He helped her strip him out of his clothes, then put him into bed. It was like dealing with a two hundred pound sloth on downers.
    Standing over Henry, her hands on her hips, Elaina examined him. The tears started to flow again.
    “Hey, now. Come on. Let’s step outside so we can chat.”
    She followed Gunther out the door, closing it with a click behind her. She waited quietly but anxious.
    Elaina wanted life for him. Henry needed to open his eyes and see what he was doing to himself. She wanted to love him back into health, but, at the same time, beat the shit out of him until he promised to change. Most of all, Elaina wanted him to love and believe in himself. She knew he could, backwards and hopping on one leg, carry everyone to the finish line, but he didn’t see that in himself. Henry only saw the devastation, the pain, and the insecurities, which made him lift the bottle to his lips.
    “I don’t know how to fix him,” she whispered.
    Gunther stood in front of her. “Let’s start with this. You can’t. You can only support him.”
    “He used to be my rock. I desperately need him back. I can’t take much more of this.”
    He grabbed her shoulders, causing Elaina to shiver. “I understand that. We need to dry him up.”
    She still couldn’t believe the burden Gunther was placing on himself. “You’re genuinely concerned for him, aren’t you?” He nodded and pursed his lips. “You two have been through a lot. For you to put aside all the bullshit and fighting is huge to me. It says a lot about you as a person. How do we dry him up?”
    Unsure of how to handle Elaina’s compliments, he skipped over them. “Dump his booze, of course. Where does he hide his stash?”
    “I don’t know,” she whispered, her gaze dropping to the floor. He placed his hands on his hips, cocked his head to the side, and quirked a brow with that annoyed “I’m trying to help you” look. She muttered under her breath, “At the general store.”
    “I know exactly where that is.” Gunther stormed off to the storefront he and Josie had first run into Henry when they came to town.
    Second thoughts paraded through her mind, so Elaina chased after him. “Gunther! Wait. Please, don’t. Let me talk to him first.”
    Gunther continued to walk, not even turning around. “How many times have you talked to him about this?”
    “I don’t know!” she yelled at his back. “Too many, I guess. But…”
    He stopped suddenly and looked at her, thinking, What the fuck is wrong with her? She’s enabling him?