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“And say what?” Sawyer questions.
I shrug my shoulders, just as lost as these assholes. “I don’t know, but right now, she feels it’s us against her, and I don’t want her pushing me away any more than she already has. She needs to know that we’re on her side. We might not be able to save her, but I can’t deal with her thinking I don’t have her back.”
Zade lifts his gaze back to mine. “I told you not to get attached, man.”
“Too fucking late for that,” I tell him. “Look around you, Zade. One way or another, we’re all fucking attached—even you. You just don’t know it yet.”
He scoffs. “That’s fucking bullshit and you know it. Unlike you assholes, I’ve kept my distance, not allowed myself to fall into her trap because I know what’s coming. If you were all smart, you’d pull back from her.”
“Right. Keep telling yourself that,” I mutter, moving around the kitchen counter. “But I don’t recall hearing a good fucking reason to have her sleeping in your bed where you can watch her all fucking night long. Her bedroom is fucking bomb-proof, Zade. Once that door is locked, she couldn’t escape even if she had a fucking tank. It’s one of the safest rooms in this penthouse, and yet you want her in your bed.”
Sawyer smirks, not willing to admit out loud that he agrees, but Cross has no issue with it. “She’s under your skin, Zade. Just as she is ours. I saw the way you were clutching onto her hand while we were running through those tunnels. The way you held her against your body. Deny it all you want, but the truth is right there in your actions. And I’d bet everything I have that if we can see it, she can see it too.”
Zade clenches his jaw, and deciding he’s had enough of this conversation, he turns on his heel and stalks out of sight, probably to go work it out in the gym. Cross, Sawyer, and I briefly glance at one another. None of us need to say a word to know what the others are thinking—Zade is full of shit.
Not having any kind of solution to the whole favors thing, I bail too, my gaze already cast on Oakley. Striding through the living room and into the den, I lean against the wall, watching her as she stares out the window at the dark, busy streets below.
I’ve got to give it to Zade, he’s got the best view in town. During the day, with the sun streaming against the high-rise building, glistening and ricocheting off the glass windows, it’s incredible. But at night when Faders Bay lights up with activity, it’s simply breathtaking.
Not wanting to startle Oakley, I gently rap against the wall and wait until her soft gaze lifts to meet mine. “Am I going to get castrated if I come in and join you?”
She shrugs her shoulders, those gorgeous, bright blue eyes sparkling with mirth. “Apparently you like to take risks,” she says. “Why don’t you come closer and find out?”
A smirk pulls at the corner of my lips, and I push off the wall before moving across the den and dropping onto the couch beside her, making sure to leave space between us. I don’t want to push my limits yet. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I don’t want you to hate me, Firefly.”
She shakes her head, a barely audible scoff slipping through her lips. “That’s like asking the sun to shine during the darkest night. Impossible.”
“Then let’s move to Antarctica,” I say, a stupid grin on my face.
Oakley glances at me, her brows furrowed and her lips pursed with irritation. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You know,” I say with just enough awkwardness to make me feel like the biggest fucktard who ever walked the planet. “Because of the tilt of the earth’s axis, the sun doesn’t set for months on end in Antarctica. So technically, you don’t have to hate me.”
“Really?” she deadpans. “You came in here to give me a geography lesson?”
I let out a heavy sigh and fix her with a hard stare. “Don’t act dumb with me, Firefly. You know exactly what I was trying to do. I hate seeing you so fucking broken like this.”
“Then tell me how I’m supposed to feel right now,” she begs me. “Because I have no fucking idea. One minute I’m telling myself that I can find a way to escape this and free myself, and the next, I’m in a fucking ball on the ground, terrified of what he’s going to do to me.”
Something aches in my chest, and as tears well in her eyes, I reach out for her, gripping her waist, and pull her into my chest. Her face nuzzles into my neck as she scrambles into my lap, her overwhelming need to hate me overshadowed by her fear. “I don’t wanna die,” she murmurs, her arms circling my neck, holding me tight.
