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The call ends and I . . .

“I need to sit down.”

I start to just . . . sit down. I’m aiming for the floor, but Tucker won’t just let that happen.

“Sunny,” he shouts and then he’s holding me up by my arms and walking me back. When I feel something on the back of my legs, I let go and fall onto a sofa.

Good, a sofa.

“That was . . .” I say, but I can’t get more out. My breaths are coming way too fast.

“It’s okay,” Tucker whispers. I can tell, somewhere inside my mind, that he’s trying to be soothing, trying to help.

But there’s just no way. I manage to pull enough air to snap at him.

“It’s not fucking fine, Tucker. That was Eian Dempsey, wasn’t it?” I demand, looking to Eli too, who nods slowly. “The mobster?!” I don’t know why I keep asking, I already know the answer, so I don’t wait for one. “Why the fuck did you call a mobster? Oh god, is he going to kill Henry? Because of me? I don’t want that! I just want him to leave me alone.”

My vision narrows, starts to darken, and then there’s a flash of platinum-blond hair, and through the little circle I can see, I watch his face move in front of me.

“They’re not going to kill him. That wouldn’t make him look bad, and we want him to look bad.”

“Look bad?” I ask dumbly.

“Yes.” His head bobs in front of me. Focusing on that helps, and now I can feel hands on me, my knees, my shoulder, my own hand being gripped like a vise.

That’s probably Tucker.

Tucker, who is nice and warm and always makes me feel like nothing bad could happen when it’s just us, when he traps me with those pretty eyes.

I can’t see his eyes right now, only Eli’s cold blue ones.

They’re pretty, but it’s not the same.

“Eian’s friend is going to give him a very scary warning, maybe only a couple of bruises, but probably not!” he hurries to add when that only makes it harder for me to breathe.

“His dead friend,” I point out. “The one he doesn’t have a phone number for and doesn’t want to threaten⁠—”

My voice goes, and for a moment, so does my vision.

No wait, I closed my eyes.

I open them, but that only makes me dizzy, so I squeeze them shut and then fall forward.

“That’s good,” I hear Tucker say. “Just keep trying to breathe, Sunny. It’s all okay. If you don’t want them to hurt that asshole, then they won’t. We just want him to know he can’t ever come near you again.”

That’s what I want.

I try to do what Tucker says, just in and out. As little as the air flows, I keep trying.

“I’m right here, Sunny. I’m not going anywhere,” he whispers right against my ear.

His hand is still gripping mine and the other is rubbing my back again. The kaleidoscope of browns that are his eyes appear in my mind.

They shift like serene waves and entrance me a little. My mind begins to quiet enough that I can think just a little while my lungs work automatically again.

We stay like that for god knows how long, but long enough for my lower back to start to twinge.

I straighten slowly, not wanting to pull a damn muscle or fuck anything else up.