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“Don’t be foolish.”
But Leo sounded pained when he said, “I didn’t think to fight back, Shane. Not like that. He was absolutely…barbaric. If Hunter hadn’t done that, they might have taken Skye—no, theywould havetaken her.”
At the mention of my name, his voice shifted as he demanded, “Where is she?”
“She’s been sleeping. Let her rest.”
But Leo pressed. “How long was Hunter here with her?”
Shane’s voice wavered. “He was here for a while.”
“Doing what?”
Another waver. “He cleaned her up.”
The silence that followed was heavy.
Then Leo said, “I’m going to bed. You can crash in the guest room. I’ll see you in the morning.”
For some reason, his footsteps sent a jolt through me. I scurried back and buried myself under the covers. I didn’t want him to know I overheard him, or maybe I didn’t want to confront him just yet after everything that happened. My nausea was at its all time high as I brought my knees to my chest and tried to breathe through it. I wound up shaking again, but it wasn’t the fear of earlier that rocked me—it was the revelation that Leo and Hunter had a side to them I had never witnessed before. Maybe I’d seen bits of it leaking out of Hunter, but Leo had always kept himself in check.
The door opened, and he walked into the bedroom. I squeezed my eyes shut, hearing him quietly walk across the room. He was being quiet so as not to disturb me. I heard him draw near, coming to the side of my bed, and then he stopped moving. He wasn’t touching me, but I could feel his eyes on me. Could feel his body closing in, could hear his quiet breaths.
Fingers ran down my face, soft and doting. He let out a deep sigh, and still, he didn’t leave my side for what felt like forever.
I could smell him—the mix of his cologne, musk and soil. It should have comforted me to know he was near, to feel his touch on my face, but my heart sped in my chest instead. I couldn’t pinpoint my emotions. Couldn’t dissect them, not in my exhausted state. But I knew on a deeper level that I wasn’t prepared to be touched, and it took a lot for me not to cringe away from him.
Guilt settled in the pit of me that I could ever feel that way, especially toward Leo. And when he finally turned away and disappeared into the bathroom, I felt a tear well behind my eyes.
Everything…
Everythingfeltdifferent.
But it wasn’t what I expected.
Because the change had started to happen in the centre ofme.
*
Every night, my dreams consisted of running into darkness, feeling like I was being chased. And it didn’t matter how hard or fast I ran, I was always caught. The arms came down around me, shoving me back into a hard chest as Hunter’s voice thundered over me, demanding, “Was it worth it?”
I didn’t know what he meant, and I woke up every time, sweat trickling down my face, searching for his hand.
I always found Leo’s.
Because Hunter never came back after that day. Only Leo did, and he didn’t talk about what happened back at the cabin. He simply slipped into his bed after a long shower and wrapped his arms around me, holding me close to him.
The first night I was unable to sleep, and I was pretty sure Leo was awake with me, but we didn’t utter a single word. Come morning, he got out of bed and made me breakfast—or, at least, he had his cook make me breakfast. We ate in bed, his eyes on me, mine directed on the tray as I kicked my eggs and sausage around the plate.
“Do you want to talk?” Leo finally asked me.
I simply shook my head, the words clogged in my throat, unwilling to come out.
I wasn’t ready to confront it all.
I wasn’t ready to hear him admit to me that he had vanished a bunch of dead bodies. It felt like a dream, all of it, and I kept waiting to wake up in that cabin with the men at my side so I could tell them the nightmare I had.
But that didn’t happen.
