AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shit.
How was I supposed to tell him this? Maybe I was wrong to want to keep this from Dash. Maybe it was him that I should be talking to first about this. If it were me, I'd want to know and I'd be upset with the people who kept it from me.
Quinton let go of my chin and stepped back. The sudden absence of his heat felt like a shock to my system.
I finally looked up at him and wished I hadn't. His eyes had lost their rage, but they were now wide and uneasy. I almost preferred the rage if I was being honest here.
"What have you done?"
I flinched. Why did he have to blame me for everything? I'd done nothing wrong. Really, I hadn't.
"It's bad." But not my fault.
"Fuck," he hissed, as he turned away from me and began pacing around in the closet. He reminded me of a caged animal just waiting for his chance to break out and attack all the innocent onlookers who were stupid enough to stare at the big, bad animals through a pane of glass.
Rip off the Band-Aid, Ariel.
Shit.
It was now or never.
Still, I wanted him to be prepared for just how bad it was going to be.
"Quinton," I murmured softly, as I stepped away from the door. I held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks. "It's bad, and that should tell you a lot coming from me."
"Tell me," he ground out, and a muscle in his jaw ticked. "Don't make me wait any longer, it's going to piss me off and things are going to go downhill really fucking fast. So tell me, Ariel."
I squared my shoulders and exhaled. It was now or never.Put on your big girl panties and get it over with.
"His name is Romero Flynn, he told me. He's—"
"Stop," he said, cutting me off. "You have no idea what you're talking about. Romero Flynn is Dash's father and he's been dead for years. You might not have known him by name because Dash never speaks it aloud and we don't either out of respect for him. But you damn well know he's dead. I want you to think very carefully before speaking any more on this subject."
My head jerked to the side and my eyes stung. I felt almost as if he'd physically slapped me.
He'd been a dick to me before and sometimes I had even deserved it, and I always gave it back to him. Sometimes, I was even the person to start it. But this? This was entirely different. He'd always trusted me with everything, and definitely with handling Dash. This hurt like nothing he'd ever laid on me before.
I swallowed past the pain as I took a step away from him. He watched this and his lips pursed unhappily as if I'd made him angry. Or, should say, even angrier than I already had.
"Baby," he whispered sweetly. He reached for me and I shook my head as I swatted his hand away to the side. "Baby, come here."
"Where's his body?" I demanded to know. "Dash never said anything about a body, just that he'd gone away one night and never came back and that his grandmother told him his father was dead. What if she lied to him, Quint? Did you ever think of that? The woman was pure evil. I'd know, I've seen her for myself and she was abusing him until I stopped her. It was more a memory than a dream. But it had been real, very real, I know that much. Think about it."
His head twitched to the side and he dropped the hand that had once again been reaching out for me. "What the hell are you talking about? When did you see Dash's grandmother?"
He studied me closely for a second before snapping his fingers in the air and pointing rudely at me. "God fucking damn you. You invaded one of his dreams, didn't you? Jesus Christ, Ariel, how often are you doing this shit? It's not exactly safe for you until you have complete control and know what the hell you're doing. What if you get hurt and you're all alone?" He shook his head. "No, you need to be sleeping beneath your dream catcher, it'll keep you safe."
I ignored this, all of it, because I didn't want to be lectured on how wrong I'd been when I'd done absolutely nothing wrong.
"He's alive, Quinton. I saw him with my own two eyes and I even spoke to him. It had been his dream I'd been sucked into. I don't know how I got there or why, but I swear to you, Quinton, I met Romero Flynn tonight in his dream."
Quinton placed both hands on his hips, tipped his head forward, and stared down at his silver cowboy boots.
"He's dead, baby." I opened my mouth to argue with him and he quickly continued almost as if he knew I wanted to interrupt him without even having to look at me. "I'm not saying I don't believe you, I would never say that. I'm not saying I don’t trust you, either, because that would be a lie. What I don't trust is the Council right now. I wouldn't put anything past them, especially when it comes to getting their hooks in you. I bet they are using Dash's dead dad to suck you in. I don't know who that man was in your dream, but I'm telling you right now it wasn't Romero Flynn."
I didn't know why he wouldn't look at me, but it really bothered me. I honestly felt like if Quinton and I weren't careful this would be a turning point for our relationship. For the worst.
"It was him," I argued in a confident voice that was very much at odds given the subject matter and the fact we were discussing a man I hadn’t so much as seen a photograph of before this day. "I know in my heart it was him. And I can prove it to you."
