‘Fine.Put thatdown.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you killed some of the people in it.’Sitting up is painful enough to make Kade’s mouth flood with saliva, cold sweat breaking instantly across his skin, but he forces himself to breathe through it until his body starts adjusting.‘Where’s Riley?’
‘Said he’d find you later.’
‘He just left you here, did he?’
‘We talked,’ Lachlan says shortly, returning the photograph to its home on Kade’s dresser.‘He told me a little about his… issue.’
‘Whatissue?’
‘There’s a lot you don’t know.’
‘Maybe you could actuallytell mesome of it.’Kade stands, wincing at how tender his middle is.‘What fucking issue?’
‘Do you need help?’
‘Go fuck yourself, Bodyguard,’he sneers.‘I’ve survived worse.’
‘I know,’ Lachlan utters quietly.‘Look, I’ll tell you whatever.I just don’t know what youwantto know.’
‘Tell me the thing Riley was asking about.The ritual.His “issue”.’
‘He wanted to know about the book.’
‘And?’
Lachlan smiles.‘We should go out.’
‘Bodyguard, I swear to God—’
‘C’mon, you’re all cooped up.Let’s go dancing.’
Kade feels like he’s slipped into an alternate dimension.
‘Are you for real?’
‘You always loved to dance,’ he says, deceptively casual, but there’s never anythingcasualabout the way he looks at Kade.‘I’m sure you can—’
‘I don’t leave,’ Kade cuts across bluntly.‘I can’t.’To explain it he has to simplify it and simplifying it leaves a bad taste in his mouth, but it’s better than the truth which he has no intention of giving.‘I don’t like to leave.’
‘Why?’
‘None of your business.’
It has the opposite effect, of course.Lachlan, like a shark with blood, has sensed something off limits.Head cocked, he studies Kade openly.‘Does he not let you out at all?Kade, if he—’
‘I’m his bodyguard.’
‘You didn’t go with him when he left,’ Lachlan points out, reading Kade from head to toe like he’ll get the answers from his body if his mouth won’t give them up.‘Bodyguards go everywhere with the Primary.Does he—?’
‘I can’t leave,’ Kade says, hurts to admit.‘OK, you happy?Ican’tleave.I get.’He slams his eyes shut, mouth in a thin line.‘I have this specific kind of… agoraphobia.PTTCD.’
‘What the fuck is that?’
‘Post Traumatic Territorial Control Disorder.’
