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The facade fell.
And she just… shattered.
My instinct had been to hold onto her lightly when she’d thrown herself at me, some part of me always thinking she was like glass—so delicate, easily broken.
But then she’d clung harder to me, and I wrapped her up as she sobbed into my chest, getting all that confusion and fear out of her, so she could think straight again.
I wasn’t someone who was used to feminine tears. But they didn’t bother me, either. Something about Everleigh’s tears, though, brought out something primal in me. Something that had me wanting to track down every last person who was involved in making her feel this way, and ripping their throats out. With my teeth.
She was silent as we drove back to Shady Valley, then in the direction of her apartment building, but she was drinking the coffee. And her stomach wasn’t growling as loudly anymore.
Didn’t they feed her inside?
Had someone not let the new girl eat?
I didn’t know how shit worked for women on the inside. But I did know the stories from Judge, Coach, and Rook about being inside, about the way the old timers treated the new bloods, how their food was stolen, and, well… other shit.
I guess I imagined that the women had been more civil.
That said, it was a completely different world for Everleigh. It could have just all been too much to take in at once, and she’d been too sick to her stomach to eat.
I would make her something when we got back to the clubhouse. I’d gone grocery shopping the night before, stocking up on damn near everything I could have possibly needed.
“You remembered,” she said as I parked near building A.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. I went ahead and didn’t tell her that I remembered exactly how she smelled that night I drove her home, too. Like caramel and vanilla. Sweet. Begging to be tasted.
“Fuck,” I hissed to myself as I went around the hood of the SUV to open her door.
I needed to pull myself together.
“Top floor, right?” I asked as we made it to the elevator. “Because it’s quieter,” I added as we got into the elevator car.
“Yes,” she said, and a hint of a smile was playing at her lips as she fished around in her belongings for her key.
I won’t lie. I was curious as fuck to see her place, to figure out how she lived.
In my mind, I figured it was soft and feminine.
When she pushed open the door and moved inside, I realized I’d been completely fucking right about that.
The walls were painted a beige color that had a pink hue to it, and likely looked pinker in artificial light.
Her apartment was smaller than the one Nyx had lived in when she’d been in an apartment, but the tight feel of it seemed to only suit Everleigh more. It made it feel even cozier.
Everything was, as I had expected, very neat and organized. No dishes in the sink. No shoes strewn about.
Her furniture in the living room was light-colored with an assortment of throw pillows and blankets in neutral shades. Her coffee table had several magazines and a big three-wick candle on it.
Moving further in, I saw she’d done some DIY thing to her TV to make it look framed, but the TV screen must have timed out because there was no art on it, just a black rectangle in a gold frame.
She had art on her walls, all simplistic and feminine. A record player sat on top of a console table with a rack set beside it.
Ten of the albums sitting inside of it were Taylor Swift. The others were Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon.
I’d always suspected that Everleigh was a girls’ girl. This pretty much confirmed it.
From the other side of the apartment where Everleigh had disappeared to, I heard a crash.
