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Onyx hated me. Always took swipes at me if I ever tried to pet her. If I was in the middle of that fire, she’d have happily watched me burn, might have even yawned in boredom while I scorched to death.
Leo looked at her in my arms, forcing a nod in response. He was still troubled, and I wasn’t doing a good job making him feel better.
I didn’t give up.
“I saw Mrs Turner run out on my way to Hunter’s,” I told him on a forced laugh. “I didn’t know granny panties came in leopard print, Leo.”
His lips twitched, and I took that as a victory. I nudged my shoulder against him, continuing. “Do you think I should ask her if she has another pair lying around? I can rock that look, Leo. I really can.”
He turned to look at me, that soft smile making my heart melt. He watched me for several moments, his eyes running along my face. They stopped at my mouth, and he just stared at my lips for the longest time with this heavy expression. Every inch of me felt hyperaware from that look. I wondered if he was thinking about kissing me.
But then he looked away, sighing. “He shouldn’t have run in there, Skye.”
Still feeling a little lightheaded from that look he’d given me, I stroked Onyx. “He saved his mom’s companion—”
“What if he burned alive in there?” he cut in, fuming now. “What if he couldn’t make his way back out? We’d have lost themboth, and I know who matters more to me of the two.”
My strokes slowed. “They both made it out, Leo. No point wondering about the what-ifs.”
He just shook his head. “If he’s making these sorts of decisions now, what other shit is he going to do in the future?”
“You’re getting too hung up on this—”
“Because I don’t want to have to bury him, Skye!” he fumed. “Isn’t it enough what he’s doing already…?”
I tensed, heart beating faster at the wretched look on his face. He jumped off the rock, pacing away from me. For a moment, I reflected on his words.
Isn’t it enough what he’s doing already…
What was Hunter doing already? What were these guys keeping from me? Whatever it was, it was making my body feel weak.
I eventually went after him, which just made Onyx sink her claws into my chest. Ouch.
This time, when I came up next to him, I didn’t try to make him feel better. I saw him hurting, and maybe it was good for him to hurt on his own without me cracking jokes in his ear. I ran a comforting hand down his back. His body reacted by my touch, relaxing. He let out a few breaths, calming down. Then he wrapped an arm around me, and tugged me into his chest, holding me as he shook around me. He smelled smoky like Onyx, but buried under it was that delicious scent of his.
“I need you guys,” he said, voice cracking. “I’ve got no one else, Skye.No one.You guys are all I have…”
I nodded, blinking back my own tears. It was hard to witness him break apart like this. I wanted to remove his agony. I’d rather feel it instead if it meant he was happy.
“Do you think he’s okay?” he asked next. “They took him away—I shouldn’t have jumped him like that if he was actually hurt—”
“We’ll wait and see, okay?”
He nodded, his voice loaded with emotion. “Yeah.”
But he didn’t wait. Not here. Instead, Leo called Shane and had him pick us up a half hour later. He took us to the hospital, and we sat in the waiting room for hours while Onyx slept in my lap.
That biker was nowhere to be seen, and I wondered if he’d already managed to get through to them before we got there.
I kept replaying my encounter with him, trying to figure him out. If he knew Hunter well, it must have been because the garage Hunter worked at was owned by the bikers. It could have been innocent, right? Just an acquaintance?
But then I thought of Hunter crawling into my room covered in another man’s blood, wearing those overalls—
I bit my lip hard as I connected the dots slowly.
What was life coming to, I wondered.
I was sitting next to a boy whose mother tried to kill me, and the other boy was affiliated with bikers who, not too long ago, were shot up in broad daylight. I could have died both times.
