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My blood freezes as I jolt into a sitting position and plaster myself against the expensive cushioned headboard behind me. Only I don’t scream, because deep down, I recognize him.
Xi is just standing there, observing me. I sleep with a small light on now, and the warm glow illuminates his body. My stomach churns when I take him in.
He’s wearing a black suit, his hands in the pocket of his slacks. His black jacket is ripped at the shoulders, like it was too small and he did a sudden movement with his arms. His tie is undone, hanging over a white button-down covered in blood.
Covered. In. Blood.
It’s drenched in it.
He’s bleeding, and that’s the only alarm ringing in my head right now.
“Oh my God, Xi,” I whisper in panic. My instinct is to push my duvet off and throw my legs over the bed so I can run to him.
Except the moment I grasp the covers, his husky voice reaches my ear. “Don’t move.” It’s a low, threatening rasp. The kind that stops me instantly.
I’ve never heard his voice like this. Xi is moody, obviously. He can never spare a smile, and everyone gets on his nerves.
But me.
I’m special, and I know it. It’s what made me fall in love with him in the first place. How he has always been different with me. The effort, the protection he bestowed over me. Even during the times he protects me from himself.
“A-are you okay? You’re bleeding,” I whisper with concern.
“Not my blood.”
“Whose?” I gasp.
“Why didn’t you tell me the brothers threatened you?”
A silence falls over us, only disrupted by the sound of me working to swallow the sand in my throat. After we broke up, I deemed Ethan and Elliot’s threat void. Since we got back together, I completely forgot about it.
His threatening form slowly walks to the side of my bed, getting closer to me. My window is now behind him, the light of the moon casting his face in shadow. A shiver crosses my body, the scene too similar to the night of my birthday.
“Can we turn the light on,” I murmur. “I—this is making me feel uncomfortable.”
“Why. Didn’t. You. Tell. Me,” he says through gritted teeth.
“Because you should never negotiate with terrorists,” I say with a confidence I didn’t know I had. “If there’s one thing I know, it’s that you don’t give in to threats. If I’d told you, you would have done something about it, and I didn’t want you in more danger with them than you already seemed to me. They talked tome, and I made the decision that they wouldn’t get to us. What is it they even want?”
Ignoring my question, he leans over me, pressing a hand on the mattress by my hip. My eyes dart down to it and back up at him. “You thought they wouldn’t get to us?” he sneers.
I gulp, nodding and understanding I must have been very wrong about that decision.
“Of course, they’ll never get to you, cupcake. You live in your pretty castle and you had your North Shore knight protecting you. They would never get to you because your daddy would shield you. Build a fort with stacks of dollar bills if he had to.”
“Stop,” I rasp, feeling tears spring in my eyes and attempting to swallow them down. “Talk to me and tell me what happened. I’ll accept my mistakes and make it right, but don’t put up walls between us.”
His other hand comes under the cover, wrapping around my thigh. “They didn’t get to you, Alex. But they got tous.”
In a sudden movement, he pulls on my leg, dragging me down until I’m lying on my back and gasping at the violence of his gesture.
He grabs both my wrists before I can react, pushing them above my head as I twist.
“Xi,” I groan, his grip painful.
He reaches for his back pocket, and I feel my eyes round when I see metal glinting in the moonlight. I cry out when he wraps the first metal cuff to my wrist. He roughly grabs my other arm, forcing me to fold in half. Dread seizes me when I feel him slide the second cuff around my other wrist. The gradual clicking becomes painful as it pinches my skin. As soon as his hands leave me, I sit up with my back against the headboard. My wrists are cuffed behind my back, and a wave of sickness overcomes me.
“Us,” he repeats. “You know? The people who don’t have the money to protect themselves.”
