“Shh,” I snap at him a mere nanosecond before his sobs alert his father to his distress. I’m not overly angry at Jasper. He’s kind of cute, and he was nice to me, but I’m feeling so unwell I either snap at him or curl into a ball and cry.
The last time I felt this unwell was when my mom made me a special soup. She said it would make me better, but it hurt me for days on end.
I don’t want to feel like that again.
When Jasper’s whimpers reach Nick’s ears, his head rockets our way so fast I hear the crack of his bones before he pushes out a tormented, “No!”
With his cell phone shattered on the concrete sidewalk and his tendency to run when things get hairy nowhere to be seen, Nick sprints our way.
He reaches us remarkedly quick. Dexter has only just slipped into the driver’s seat, and his foot has just braced the gas pedal.
“Please, please, please,” Nick begs as he chases the rolling sedan down the isolated street. “I’ll give you anything you want,” he pleads while staring into my eyes. “Anything at all. Please, Megan. Just don’t hurt my son.”
His pleads should do something to my insides. They should have my stomach dancing and my heart rate soaring, but nothing happens. He is the blip at the bottom of the heart monitor I was seeking when I tried to claim my life six times the past year.
The flatline.
He means nothing to me anymore, and Dexter means everything.
Once he realizes his chances of mending things between us are null and void, Nick shifts his focus to his son. “Open the door, Jasper. Pull up the lock. It’s okay, Daddy is right here. I just need you to unlock the door for me, okay?”
He’s almost taken out by the door he’s referencing when Dexter veers for a stationary truck. The collision flicks Nick off the back of our sedan and sends him tumbling across the asphalt.
I shouldn’t smile when the expensive threads of his suit get hacked up during his tumble, but I do. He threw me out like trash, so it’s only fair he gets treated the same way.
“Good girl,” Dexter mutters under his breath when I scoot across the old bench seat so I can curl up onto his lap like the kitten my mother never let me have.
As I struggle to ease the pain ripping through me, I consider the events of the past ten minutes. I thought a weight would lift when I confronted Nick and felt absolutely nothing for him, but it hasn’t. I feel heavy and weak. Somewhat woozy.
I’m so tired, I only just send the message to Nick’s security team telling them where Nick must arrive alone before my eyelids become too heavy for me to keep open.
thirty
DEXTER
“Megan.” I slap her harder than intended before shaking the shit out of her shoulders. I knew gorging on sugar wasn’t the best solution for a missed night of sleep so we could fool around, but I never anticipated this type of response. She’s barely responsive, and when she does come around, nothing she mumbles makes any sense.
I’d rather she be mute than mutter the crap she’s been spilling the past hour.
“S-she’s sick.”
I shoot my eyes to the little demon sitting on the blanket Megan laid out for him during one of her lucid moments before shaking my head. “No, she’s not. She’s fine. Now eat your fucking Wheaties and shut up.” My tone isn’t as confident as I’m hoping, but it is better than the blank look Megan gives me when she finally opens her eyes. “He’s on his way, and you’ll want to be awake for this.” I lean in close before whispering words I thought I’d never say, “Do you need something? A stiff drink, a valium, a…” I swish my tongue around my mouth before grinding out through clenched teeth, “… Prozac?”
Megan pulls me away from the ledge I’m about to leap over when she shakes her head. She still looks as dazed as fuck when she sits up in the chair she’s been slumped in the past two hours, but the color in her cheeks returns stronger than ever when the creak of a warehouse door pulling open sounds through the empty space.
“Just you!” I scream after yanking Jasper up from the blanket and pressing the switchblade to a vein in his neck. “You were told to come alone,” I snarl out when I notice a second shadow bouncing in the lights I set up to blind Nick’s entrance.
Even if the snipers I’m sure his brother placed around the warehouse have night vision, they won’t be able to see anything through the amount of wattage I’m directing their way.
My mind spirals when a feminine voice mutters, “The message said I was to come too.”
“Cleo?” I mutter, certain I’m hearing things.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
After holding her hand up to block the blinding rays shadowing her face, Cleo nods. “It also said you’d let Jasper go if I came with Nick.” She shifts her eyes from me to Jasper before whispering, “It’s okay, Jasper. You’re okay. Mommy is right outside.”
“That wasn’t the deal.” I shake my head so fast my brain rattles against my skull before I shift on my feet to face Megan. She looks worried. Rightfully so. I am as pissed as fuck. Bringing Cleo into this changes everything, and I don’t mean in a good way. “This wasn’t the plan.Sheisn’t meant to be here.Sheisn’t a part of this.” I loosen my grip around Jasper’s waist so I can tug at my hair. My brain is throbbing so much, it feels like it’s about to seep out of my ears. “Why are you doing this? Why bring her into this?”
