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Theo remained in stony silence.
“Fine,” I said, leaning back with the ice pack. “I’ll just go ahead and get to the point. How are you here? How’d you get out of custody?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It sure as fuck does,” I said. “Considering how your unexpected freedom just saved my life.”
Of all the statements, I doubt he was expecting such frankness.
“You saved my life, Theo,” I repeated. “You—those men back there…” I couldn’t finish, so changed tactics. “Despite the very real fact that I betrayed you.”
There. A brief flick of emotion, a line forming near his lips then disappearing. The most I could expect.
“I turned you in,” I continued. “Your family, your brother and father. And I walked out of that precinct without a scratch. So, what made you chase me down and protect me?”
Come on, Theo, getangry.
“I didn’t deserve it,” I said. “Yet you helped me anyway. Why?”
“Scarlet…” Kai warned.
“Why,Theo?”
“You need to rest,” Theo said carefully. “Once we move you—”
“I’ll rest when you do.”
“Then you’ll sleep in your grave,” Theo replied.
Like a time bomb that ticked to 0:00, I clued in. “That’s how you got out of custody. You made a deal with them, too.”
Theo startled, then said, “I had to, in order to be released.”
“No,” I said, all the while gathering my thoughts. “Before. You made a deal with them long before reaching out to me again. That’s the only thing that makes sense. You … you…” I stared at the floor, then back up to him when clarity hit. “What did they promise you? What didKaipromise you?”
“Scarlet,” Kai said, “You’ve just been through some pretty epic events. Perhaps it’s better if we regroup, then—”
“Don’t treat me with kid gloves,” I snapped. “Both of you, tell me the truth. Tell me what the hell that was out there. Why Chenko wanted me dead. WhyGordon Saxonput a hit on me.”
When neither of them said anything, I stood, dropping the sack of ice to the floor. “One of you better speak.”
“I love you.”
Theo’s words stilled the room. My chest wouldn’t even dare rise and fall in such resulting, sweeping silence.
“I love you,” he repeated, his eyes anchoring mine. “Which is why I felt like someone was removing my organs, one by one, when I realized what you’d done. Who you made a deal with, what you were willing to do.”
Speechless, I stepped toward him, hand raised … beseechingly. Terribly. Uselessly.
He used his own hand to halt any further steps. He said, “Which is why, despite all that, I understand thewhyin everything you’d done.”
My lips parted, and while my vision pooled, blurred, I couldn’t summon the strength to blink tears onto my cheeks.
“If I remember anything about my cocktail waitress, my girl, it’s her loyalty. To those she cares for, she’d do anything to protect.”
“You can’t do this,” I whispered through the thickness. “You can’t treat me like this, knowing what I’ve done to you.”
“And you should remember I do whatever the fuck I like,” he replied, but it was with softness, a satin he’d only reserved for us, in dreary mornings, during dusky nights. “I’m not going to pretend I’m not angry, that I wouldn’t want to pull one of these wooden beams off the ceiling and use it to stake something. Someone.”
