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“How are you feeling?” he asked, gently dropping his hand to my breast and groping it softly, almost as if it was instinctual. It didn’t even look like he had meant to do it or even realized that he was touching me there. “These past two nights have been really rough. I want to make sure you’re still okay with everything.”
“I’m okay,” I said, heart swelling at the mere thought of him checking in on me like this.
Obviously, Calder wasn’t going to.
“Darius and I were talking last night,” Gaian said, glancing over at the digital clock on his side table. “We want to bring you out to breakfast in south Durnbone.”
“Like, as in a … date?” I asked, heart racing.
Gaian gave me a sheepish smile. “Like a date? If that’s what you want.”
But by the look in his eyes, I could tell that was exactly what he had meant. He wanted to bring me out into Durnbone this morning and have a good time with me, but he didn’t want to overstep—as if they hadn’t overstepped yet by enacting my fantasies.
“Thayer and Calder are staying back, if that makes it any more enticing.”
My lips curled into a small smirk. “Calder staying backdefinitelymakes it more enticing.”
“So, you’ll go?”
“Yeah!” I jumped out of bed, nerves zipping through me. I might’ve had a boyfriend before—thanks, Jaroth—but he never brought me out to breakfast. Ever. “First, I need to shower. I still smell of … cum and hot, sweaty sex.”
As I went to hurry toward the door, I stopped in my tracks when I saw a picture of all five of us the night before my eighteenth birthday in a picture frame on his nightstand. I grabbed it, my chest tightening at how happy we had all been together.
Back then, Thayer hadn’t been half as insane and Calder hadn’t been half as pissed off and rude as they were now. I didn’t have anything against Thayer being an actual psycho—honestly, it was kind of a turn-on, the way he had talked to me yesterday—but Calder had been annoying as fuck lately.
Last night had been amazing, but now, finally coming down from that high, I realized that everything that Calder had said and done to me was because he wanted to get back at my dad. He didn’t want me pregnant, nor did he like me … for me.
Everything had changed these past four years. Everything.
“What happened to Calder?” I asked, running my thumb over his face in the picture.
He looked so young, his skin so unmarked and unscarred and his expression so innocent. It looked like he had been through hell and back these past few years.
After placing down the picture frame, I looked over my shoulder at Gaian, who hadn’t said anything. He clenched his jaw lightly and wouldn’t make eye contact with me, instead just staring at the blankets.
“Gaian?”
He sighed softly and looked up at me, shaking his head. “Pack stuff, Sina. Nothing you need to worry about. He probably prefers you stay out of it anyway. He’d kill me if I even mentioned it to you.”
“It just feels like …” I swallowed hard and stared out the window, where I spotted Darius, Thayer, and Calder coming back from their morning run. “Like you guys are hiding something important from me that I should know about. You guys tell me how dangerous Durnbone is, but four years ago, it wasn’t that dangerous.”
The only dangerous thing four years ago had been staying home with Dad for too long.
“What is it? What happened in Durnbone when I left?”
Again, Gaian stayed quiet for a long time. “Sina, let’s save this for when we can all talk about it.” He swiped a hand across his face, his fingers lingering on a scar that I hadn’t noticed yet, just underneath his jaw. Whatever had happened was … horrid. “Please.”
Once I finally came to terms that I would have to find out on my own—maybe from Maxine—I sighed heavily. Even Gaian—the good boy who told meeverything—wouldn’t say a single word about it.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” Gaian said, taken aback. “You’re okay with that?”
“Yes.”
Because I planned on finding out on my own now. Living with Dad for four years by myself was proving to be very useful. He might’ve been a monster, but during my time with him, I had found ways to sneak out and figure out information that people were keeping from me.
“Oh, and by the way, can we stop at my old gynecologist on our way home?” I asked, lingering by the door. “I just want to make sure that my birth control is … working. I refuse to get pregnant just because Calder wants revenge on my father.”
