“Are you okay?” she asks softly, her hand on my heart that’s definitely beating wildly now. I need to can the rage for now. “Calm.”
She does that often. I’ve told her countless times that I’m too young to inherit my father’s hypertension—but she always does this. She even gifted me a smart watch that I never take off. But still chooses to feel my heartbeat with her touch instead of an app.
And I’m raging that she’s doing it now. When she got fucking attacked by my own uncle.
I take a deep breath, my eyes squeezing shut. “You’re asking me ifI’mokay? Areyou? Are you hurt?”
She carefully grabs my hand and guides it toward the back of her head. And I know—fucking know—what I’ll find there.
The bump is small but angry. Raised. Tender. She flinches when my fingers graze it.
I fucking see red.
“Cece…” My voice cracks into something ugly and broken.
For some godforsaken reason, she tries to reassure me. “I’m okay, Levi. Really. I noticed it earlier this morning. It only hurts a little.”
“It shouldn’t have hurtat all,” I say, breath shaking. “He shouldn’t have touched you.”
I’ll fucking kill him. My pulse is pounding loud enough that I’m betting she can probably hear it. The vision of Gareth shoving her—his hands on her dress, her body—makes something inside me snap and splinter in the same breath.
She studies me with the softest frown, still keepingher hand on my chest like she’s trying to regulate my heartbeat instead of hers.
“I was going to tell you, but I was a little overwhelmed. It just all happened so fast that I just… I needed to get out of there,” she murmurs.
A little overwhelmed?
Christ. She spiraled into that sensory freeze after coming home, hands over her ears, begging for the world to stop. And I didn’t notice. Didn’t see her drowning. I was too caught up in my own frustrations from what I learned last night that I ended up hurting her.
“Cece,” I whisper, carefully cupping her face with both hands. “I’m so sorry.”
Her lips part, like she wants to say something. Instead, she sits there in my lap, small and quiet, letting me hold her. For the first time since this morning, she fully rests her head against my shoulder.
And I finally breathe. “I’ll handle it,” I whisper into her hair—more vow than promise. “Gareth won’t come near you again. Ever.”
She tenses for a second, then exhales. “Don’t do anything yet, Levi. He thinks it’s me poking around and not Blackthorn. Let him think that until we know everything for sure.”
“Fuck. You’re right.”
“Of course I am.”
I smile, pulling her closer, my chest tightening painfully. “But he won’t come near you. I’ll make sure of it.”
She shakes her head gently, voice softer. “Can we… not talk about him for a while?”
Right. Of course. She needs quiet. Stillness. Not my rage. “Okay,” I whisper, kissing the top of herhead. “Okay. No talking.”
She finally melts into me for real, her arms sliding around my torso, her breath settling.
A few moments later, I get a feeling she’s asleep. So I don’t move a muscle.
I have so much to tell her but it can wait until she isn’t this overwhelmed.
Until I can get my head around what I found out about my parents last night.
??????
LAST NIGHT - Anniversary Party
