Another useless word neither of us believes.
I unwrap the ruined tape from his hand.His knuckles are split, but not badly.Already healing too fast for human comfort.I focus on the task because looking at his face feels impossible.
“You always punch walls when people annoy you?”I ask.
“No.”
“Just me, then.”
“You don’t annoy me.”
I glance up.
Bad idea.
He is watching me.His face is shadowed, eyes dark, mouth grim.But there’s something almost helpless in the way he looks at my hands on his.
“What do I do?”I ask before I can stop myself.
His throat works.“Make it hard to think.”
The admission drops low between us, and my fingers pause around the gauze.
Outside, somewhere far away, a siren wails and fades.Inside, the bar feels too warm.Too quiet.Too full of things neither of us should say.
I wrap his hand carefully.“That sounds inconvenient.”
“It is.”
“I’m not sorry.”
His mouth twitches again.This time, it almost becomes real.
“Good,” he says, and the word moves through me in a way it has no right to.
I finish tying the bandage and release his hand.He doesn’t move for a second.Neither do I.Then the hallway behind him creaks.
My body reacts before thought.I jerk backward, slamming into the bar.The first aid kit crashes to the floor.Every muscle goes tight, ready for hands, teeth, pain.
Knox is on his feet instantly.Not touching me, never touching me, but he moves between me and the hallway, enormous and silent, his injured hand flexing at his side.His shoulders broaden somehow.The air thickens.Something in him rises, old and brutal and barely contained.
A shape appears in the hallway.
Cruz steps into view wearing basketball shorts, a sleeveless shirt, and a scowl that matches Knox’s closely enough to make the twin thing deeply unfair.
He looks from Knox to me to the first aid kit on the floor.Then his gaze lands on the cracked brick wall.
“Do I want to know?”Cruz asks.
“No,” Knox and I say at the same time.
Cruz’s brows rise.I don’t like the amusement creeping into his face.
“Interesting.”
“Go away,” Knox growls.
Cruz lifts both hands.“Gladly.I heard a noise and thought someone was dying.”
