Page 79 of Nyx

"Tell us what you need?" comes another voice, and I look past him to see another man I recognize as a Cerberus member from working at the house.

"I want you to step out of the car," the first man urges. "Holler will pull it out of traffic."

I'm shaking, the tremble in my body so bad my teeth chatter despite the heat surrounding us, but I manage to climb out of the car.

Standing somehow makes it harder to breathe, and my first instinct, the one I've forced myself to stop, is to apologize for causing a scene. But when I look up at him, he seems only concerned about me. Like, he doesn't care who might be annoyed or inconvenienced by this episode.

"Strong breath in," he says, pulling a breath. "Slow, controlled breath out."

I follow his instructions, breathing as he does, and it does help a little to orient me back to the here and now.

"I'm going to guide you out of the road," he says, looking for assurance in my eyes before he places a palm high up on my back and urges me to take steps in that direction.

The touch is guiding, not intimate. It doesn't set off alarm bells in my head or make me want to run, and as I continue to pull in deep breaths and calm a little, I know just how out of the ordinary that is.

"I'll move your bike," another man says, and I catch a glimpse of the triple-headed dog on the back of his leather vest as he walks in that direction.

"In and out," he urges, drawing my attention back to him.

Salt coats my tongue, telling me that I'm crying, and I didn't even realize it.

Terror washes over me again, knowing how unsafe it is for me to be out in the open like this, especially when I can't even seem to keep track of time, much less what I'm doing.

"Can you tell me what triggered this?" he asks, but the question only serves to multiply the tremors in my hands.

"Work," I say.

"Work will be there when you're ready," he assures me.

"The song," I say, shaking my head because it's the very last thing I want to think about and certainly not something that's going to help me gain control of myself again. "People are staring at us."

"Let's get you in Holler's SUV. They'll get your car to Juniper House," he says, but the idea of being in another vehicle where there's a chance that song could play makes my blood run cold.

I glance to the side, watching the other Cerberus member climb off the motorcycle.

"You want to ride instead?" he asks, noticing where I'm looking.

"I've never—"

Instead of waiting for me to finish my thought, he moves, grabs the helmet hanging on the backseat rest, and walks back toward me with it in his hand.

"It's going to be a little big, but I won't go fast," he assures me as he lifts it, placing it over my head. "Lift your chin. Don't want to pinch you."

I tilt my head up, closing my eyes when his fingers brush under my chin. His attention is gone the second the sound of the snap locking into place fills my ears.

"I'm gonna climb on first to stabilize the bike, and then you climb on behind me. Be careful not to touch the exhaust. It'll burn you," he says, urging me to walk closer to the machine. "You can hold on to me, or you can shift your hands back once you're on and hold on to the back of your seat."

I watch as he climbs on the bike, waiting for him to hold his hand out to urge me to join him. I don't take his hand, but I am cautious of the exhaust as I climb on.

"I'll go slow," he says as I get situated and grab the seat rest behind me. It's an awkward way to sit, but I feel like it's a lot less awkward than it would be to wrap my arms around this man. "Ready?"

I nod, hitting him in the back of the head with the helmet.

"Sorry," I say, feeling terrible. It had to have hurt.

The bike rumbles to life, the vibration of it under me calming more than the deep breaths did. It's as if the pulse of it somehow invades every single inch inside me, forcing all the bad out.

"We're going," he says, and a second later I watch as he looks over his shoulder, checking traffic before pulling away.