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What the hell?
Had Marcus actually goaded him into changing his clothing? Or had Sawyer chosen to do so based on Marcus’s clear distaste for the slightly soiled outfit that came with the man’s job of working around animals day in and day out?
The question flew out the window because when Marcus leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Sawyer’s lips, all I saw was red. As much as my head was telling me it wasn’t real, my heart wasn’t listening.
What if I was wrong about all this? What if Sawyer really had reconnected with Marcus? What if I was seeing things that weren’t there?
I dropped my eyes because I couldn’t bear to watch if the kiss deepened or if Sawyer kissed him back. I felt like I was going to be sick but when I made a move to roll away just so I could get some space, Maddox’s hand clamped down on my shoulder, keeping me where I was.
I forced myself to look up and saw that Marcus was on the way down the stairs and Sawyer was nowhere to be seen. The apartment door was closed. Marcus had a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on his face as he made his way down the steps. The smile faltered when he noticed us but just like that, the fake one was back.
I ignored the introductions to Cam along with whatever veiled threats Maddox might have had under his hat. Thirty seconds ago, I’d wanted nothing more than to talk to Sawyer to make sure he was okay.
Now all I wanted to do was disappear somewhere so I could lick my wounds.
“Hey,” Maddox snapped at some point when I must have gotten too dazed to notice anything. He was practically in my face. “You know him probably better than any of us,” he bit out. “If you’re going to look back at everything you and he did, every conversation you had, you fucking go with your gut when you start to question things, do you hear me?”
“That simple, huh?” I asked.
“Nothing about this is simple,” Cam said from somewhere behind me. I turned my chair to face the older man. Marcus was nowhere in sight, so I figured he’d taken the direct path from the house to the sanctuary parking lot on his own. “I haven’t known Sawyer long, but I do know that what I just saw up there was about one thing and one thing only.”
“What?”
Cam glanced at the apartment before grimly responding. “Survival.”
I considered Cam’s words for a long time. I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure of what was happening, but it didn’t matter because I knew what I needed to do. I kept my eyes on Sawyer’s apartment even as I said, “Maddox, gonna need another favor.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SAWYER
“Did you really think they’d make it that easy for you?”
I jumped at the sound of Jett’s voice, banging my head on the open hood in the process. My phone, which I’d been holding between my teeth so I could use the flashlight part of it while I fiddled with different parts of the engine, fell, bouncing off the bumper and hitting the ground with a resounding thud.
Even knowing it was Jett’s voice, I couldn’t stop the harsh breaths that began to saw in and out of me as my chest became unbearably tight. Panic flooded my system as the adrenaline I’d been using to focus on getting out of Pelican Bay as quickly as I could turned on me.
What if it was Marcus? What if he hadn’t believed my apologies, my acquiescence, my promises…
“Jesus,” I heard Jett say and then he was there in front of me.
“Jett,” I wheezed, but I doubted his name actually made it out of my mouth. I felt his fingers close around my right wrist.
“Breathe, Sawyer,” he said as he urged me down. I automatically dropped to my knees so that we were nearly the same height. It was too dark to see his eyes but when his hands clasped my face and his forehead pressed against mine, it didn’t matter.
“Breathe, baby,” Jett repeated. “With me,” he added and then he was telling me when to breathe in and when to let it back out. I couldn’t match his pace at first because slowing my breaths went against my instinct to fight for every ounce of air I could get. I wanted to laugh and cry because it was pretty much the same thing I’d done to him weeks earlier when we’d first met. God, how had things gotten so fucked up so fast?
“That’s it,” Jett murmured. His thumbs were caressing my cheeks. Between his gentle touch and confident voice, I was able to match my breathing to his. Air finally began to move more freely through my lungs and the pain in my chest began to recede.
