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We both stare at the necklace for a while, my hands shaking in disgust and anger. What the fuck was Declan on about and who the fuck is J? None of this is making sense. Someone was going after Declan first? Or were they using him to find me? Either way, I don’t like the fucking look of any of this. Too many fucking people in my life have decided they could have whatever part of me they wanted, fuck whether I agreed or not. I’m sick and tired of it.
“What do they mean the stories?” I ask eventually, anger leaking out on every word. “What fucking stories?”
“I don’t know.” Rhys shakes his head, his fists balled up so tight the whitening of his knuckles has me pausing in concern. “I don’t fucking know, Lay. What I do know is that they won’t get to you, whoever they are.”
“Maybe I should just head back home,” I deflate, sitting in the chair Rhys was sitting in before. “It’s not like I’m doing anything here anymore. You know, except gaining a stalker.”
The joke falls flat between us, Rhys looking at me with sympathy so deep it makes my cracked, broken soul bleed. The tears are falling from my eyes before I even register the feeling clawing its way through me. I don’t want to break. I don’t want to cry anymore. This will not be the thing that finally does me in.
Pulling myself together, I look at Rhys with utter determination in my gaze. “Let’s go hit some shit.”
“You’ve got it, Fighter.”
Chapter Fifteen
Alayna
“What’s that?” Declan asks, swinging his legs beside mine on the dock.
“It was my mother’s.” I smile down at my necklace, remembering Momma wearing it whenever she went out with my Dad. “It was a gift from my Dad the day she found out she was having me. It was given to me after my parent’s accident.”
“It suits you, Allie cat. I bet you look just like her,” he murmurs, pulling me into his side.
“I have her long black hair and facial structure, but my eyes and nose are all my Dad.”
Reminiscing with Declan feels good, like I’m properly remembering my parents for the good people they were. I don’t talk about them much and I never show my necklace to anyone for fear it will go missing afterwards. With Declan, I don’t feel that. He’s there for me, protecting me and being my friend.
Looking up into his beautiful brown eyes, I push the messy brown locks of hair out of his eyes. He smiles down at me, the kind of smile that’s only reserved for me. It lights a fire in me, one I didn’t think would ever be touched after the things that happened to me.
“Do you have a new song to sing for me?” I whisper, trying desperately to change the mood before I do something stupid like press my lips to his.
“I always have a song to sing for you, Allie cat. You’re my muse. The musiest muse there ever was,” Declan declares, moving away to grab the guitar behind us.
Resting back on my elbows, I watch him tune the guitar in wonder. This puppy love crush I’m falling under is going to get me hurt. I don’t get happy endings, those are for other people, born into different lives. That doesn’t mean a girl can’t dream though.
“I’m sorry you never got to save me,” Declan says as he gets his guitar ready to go. “You’re just not good enough to save anyone.”
“W-what?”
This isn’t right. This isn’t how this happened. He didn’t talk before he started singing, he just looked at me in a way that made my heart skip-a-beat and my palms go sweaty. He sings me a love song that I stupidly assume he wrote for someone else then we head back to the hell house to endure three days of torture. Instead, Declan looks at me dead in the eyes and starts singing Save Her as his face morphs into the same one from his casket.
Flying out of bed, I land with a loud thump on the bedroom floor. My nightmare has my mind in tangles so it takes me a while to realize where the hell I am. The guest bedroom at the guys’ house slowly breaks through the fog lingering in my head. This recurring nightmare has been plaguing me for weeks and the more I see the worse it gets. It re-enforces those voices in my head reminding me how much of a screw up I am.
With deep breaths, I take in the room around me that Rhys all but forced me to stay in. The three guys have been taking this possible stalker threat very seriously since Rhys saw the gift a couple weeks ago. We went to the gym eventually after I packed all of my stuff and checked out of the motel. Rhys convinced me that the motel was incredibly unsafe and I was going to die if I stayed. Of course I fell for it hook, line, and fucking sinker. Goddamn it, anxiety!
Now I'm staying with three men I barely know because at least they aren't the complete unknown. Thankfully, it won't be for much longer. I have an appointment with Declan's lawyer today and then I'll be heading back home by the end of the week.
With the rush of adrenaline from the nightmare gone, I collapse backwards onto the bedroom floor. The plush grey carpet cradles my head nicely, making my exhausted brain tell me it's the perfect place to sleep. That is, until a soft knocking starts at my door.
"Alayna? Are you okay?" Riggs' deep voice comes through the door, calming my nerves even more.
Refusing to even acknowledge why that might be, I softly call out that he can come in. He doesn't even hesitate before he walks through my door, closing it almost all the way but leaving the slightest crack. Probably hoping to make me not feel like he's trapping me in here with him. He may have made me nervous when I first saw the sheer size of him, but after getting to know him, I wouldn't think he could hurt a fly. A big ol' teddy bear, that's what he is.
"Why are you laying on the floor? Are you alright?" He asks, moving to sit with me on the ground. For someone his size, it's quite the feat to watch him do it so quietly. "I heard a thud and got worried you fell or something."
"I had a nightmare," I murmur sheepishly. Adults have nightmares yet for some reason it feels childish to admit to them. Curling onto my side facing Riggs, I bite my lip to hold back my tears.
"Wanna talk about it?" Riggs asks as he leans back on his hands and stretches out his legs beside mine. "My mom always used to get me to talk out my nightmares when I was kid. She said if we voiced them out loud, it took the fear out of them and made them less real. Even the guys talk about their nightmares out loud now."
