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We’re safe. I’ll call soon. -Rae
Before she could track me down from that single ping, I shut off the phone. As I had warned Shira, Riss probably could find a way to track the phone if it was online too long. She’d be banging down our door with Ben and Angie in tow, guns blazing, in a matter of minutes.
I replaced the phone on the shelf just as the others returned to set up the dining table. Corbin was saying something about Fox smelling like wet dog after being out in the snow, to which Fox retorted, “And you smell like wet bird.”
“What the hell does a wet bird smell like? I’m just saying you should use the shower next. We’ve all had our turns.”
Fox lifted the neck of his shirt, sniffing covertly.
It was all so innocent. So pure and perfect. I couldn’t stop the giggle that bubbled out of me, bordering on maniacal. Everything was insane, but this?
This was perfect. Or as perfect as it was ever going to be in light of everything we’d gone through. Maybe the peace was fake, but I would take whatever bit of it I could get.
When Everly appeared, I breathed easier. She painted on a small smile, performing for everyone else at dinner to seem grateful, but I could tell she was distant. Her eyes kept going off to that faraway place with Arthur.
For a moment though, if I could pretend Everly was still herself, it was like we were family. All of us. Corbin, Fox, Shira, me, and Everly. All seated at the table, throwing rolls at each other whenever someone asked for one. One of those rolls bounced off Corbin’s forehead, which had Shira shrieking with laughter, snorting and covering her mouth with a hand.
After Everly slunk off to the room early, and Corbin and Shira retired in the office bedroom, it left just me and Fox to finish up the dishes. I washed, he dried, and he put everything away since I wasn’t trusted to move about the kitchen freely.
As I shut off the water, reaching for the rag to dry my hands, a delicate touch brushed down my arm. Fox’s warmth greeted me next, rippling off him in waves, caressing the side of my body as he drew close. I leaned into it, eyes falling shut.
His mouth met the side of my neck, and I parted my lips to let loose a sigh of bliss. We ended up on the sofa, parallel with the cushions and tangled together. Kissing him was the only thing that felt natural right now. The only thing keeping me from going down a spiraling thought pattern that kept turning for the darkest corners every time I got distracted. Blood, death, and monsters in the woods lurked right at the edges, ready to drag me down.
And the worst part?
I wanted to go there.
I wanted to bathe in the darkness and let the rage consume me. Over two decades of being underestimated and mistreated had filed me down to a raw point. The ignition came when Arthur took something I loved away.
The only problem now was there was nowhere for my rage to go. I had to keep it in check, lest I end up hurting someone I didn’t want to.
“Where did you go?” Fox whispered. He pulled his lips away, tucking strands of my hair behind my ears.
I burrowed in against his chest, nose to his neck to breathe him in. He smelled like Shira’s aunt’s generic soap since he’d showered right after dinner, his hair still damp, but beneath the cheap smell of spring rain was his scent I was so accustomed to. Addicted to. Forest, sandalwood, and something musky that woke shivers up and down my arms.
“Nowhere. I’m right here.”
He kissed the top of my head and reached for the blanket. “You can stay here tonight if you want.”
Such a simple request. So innocent, because I knew he wouldn’t do more than kiss and touch me. Not until he was safe from his family’s influence and their archaic rules.
I didn’t think Everly was ready to open up to me yet, so I decided to give her space, nestling down with Fox on the sofa. It was nice to be held, too. To be someone’s whole world. Someone who didn’t care what baggage I came with. Someone who knew how wild I could be and seemed all the more entranced with me for it.
His breathing evened out as he eased into sleep. I would have followed suit if it weren’t for my racing thoughts.
What in the world are we supposed to do next?
It took me hours to get to sleep, plagued by those swirling, unsilenceable thoughts, but when I finally did...
Chapter 39
Snuggled up in the warmth with Fox, I could’ve slept easily through the night without a single dream. Alas, something interrupted the deep peace I’d slipped into. Something bright.
Cracking one eye open, I spied flashing, pulsing blue and red light past the curtain. No sirens though. Just a silent, spinning agony of light that wouldn’t let me fall back to sleep.
With a groan, I pushed up off Fox’s chest. “I told them not to call the police.”
It had to be Riss. Maybe she’d been waiting for the exact second Shira’s phone turned on to geolocate us and snagged the coordinates.
