“Of course, anything—” I hold my hand up to cut him off, and thankfully, he stops talking because I’m not sure how much more I can take. Today’s already been so much, too much. I just want to go to sleep and have all of this be a bad dream, but I know better. Life is cruel, and this, while painful, isn’t the worst thing ever.
I already lost the most important person in my life. What’s one more person and a little more heartbreak?
Reaching up, I grip my necklace and take a deep breath to settle my racing heart.
“I’d appreciate your help, Mr. Adler.”
“Wren…” I hear the emotion in his voice, and I almost cave, but he did this, not me. I don’t have the time or energy to do this with him now, or maybe ever.
I force my gaze back to his and see the emotions, but whatever he sees looking back at him makes him stop.
“Come on.” He nods for me to follow him before he turns and heads down a hallway, leaving me no choice but to follow.
Well, if I could, that is.
I turn to look at Nolan and find his gaze on the empty space Dimitri occupied a moment ago, a deep scowl in place of his usually neutral expression.
“I need his help,” I tell Nolan, unsure if I’m trying to make him feel better or myself, not that it matters; it doesn’t seem to do any good for either of us.
“I’m going with you.” Both Nolan and Felix say at the same time before they turn to glare at each other, and I let my eyes fall closed with a groan.
“Is your head still hurting?” I crack an eye open to look up at Nolan and find him watching me with a look of concern that makes my face feel warm.
“No, my head feels great, actually. I’m just tired. It’s been a long day, and something tells me it’s only about to get longer.”
“And you two aren’t helping,” Julian says, coming to stand at Nolan’s other side near my feet. “That’s what she was thinking but is too nice to say, right, Pookie?”
I don’t answer, feeling like keeping quiet is the best choice here, given how my day is going.
“Nolan, you take her to Dimitri and stay with her so they aren’t alone. He doesn’t deserve alone time with her after his shit.” He shouts the last bit, also glaring down the hall toward where Dimitri disappeared a moment ago, and I get the feeling he wants him to hear.
“Ah, that’s better,” Julian says to me, reaching out to cup my cheek, brushing his thumb over it before he pulls back and gives me an almost sad smile.
“Felix, I need a word with you and your brother. If you don’t mind.” His voice is nice enough, but something tells me Julian isn’t really asking.
I look up at Felix, and it looks like he does, in fact, mind, but when he glances down at me and back at Julian, he grumbles but nods.
It’s not until we’re nearly down the hall that I realize Gavin is gone.
I imagine that if I’m feeling betrayed by a guy I just met a few weeks ago, he’s probably feeling it worse.
Damn, the last thing I needed was to feel guilty for a guy who claims to hate me…
It took all night and most of Sunday, but they managed to get most of the color out without damaging her hair. She’s going to have to do one more treatment in a few days to get the last bit out, but I’d say that’s more than she was hoping for before.
We sit at Dimitri’s kitchen table as she sleeps. She’s exhausted both mentally and physically, and it took everything in me to come to the table and not go to her. The urge to hold her, offer her comfort and security. I see the way she craves it, but everyone keeps letting her down, and I need to deal with that before she gets hurt again or worse.
She’s not alone, though. Nolan sits at the end of the couch, asleep and still holding her leg, her feet resting in his lap. She’d insisted he rest because he has his qualifier today, and while the rest of us know he could qualify even if he’d been up for days and been beaten within an inch of his life, I can’t deny it was cute as hell to see her worry about him.
He’d been surprised, and it was so cute I wanted to squeeze them both.
“You need to get your shit together and either walk away or tell her the truth,” I say, turning my attention to Dimitri. I could sit and be a creep all day, watching her sleep, but I should probably use this time wisely.
“What?”
Clearly, I’m going to have to hold his hand.
“You might be able to get away with this shit right now while she’s distracted and distraught, but Wren’s smarter than that, and you know it.” I lean forward in my chair, holding his gaze; he can’t hide from this. “You already hurt her with this shit with Gavin, and if she finds out you're the guy she’s been texting, and that you knew it…” I shake my head, falling back in my chair as Nolan, Titus, and Felix turn wide eyes to him.
