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This time a fist pounded on the door. “Never, come on! I’m not going anywhere until—”
Leo was on his feet and across the room before I could protest. He opened the door just far enough so Clint could get a good look at his six-foot-plus shirtless frame, which also gave my cheating ex an up close and personal view of the stacks of muscle layering Leo’s body.
“Leave.” His voice was a low, warning rumble that raised a wave of gooseflesh across my arms. “Now.”
“I, uh... who the fuck are you?” Clint asked, slurring his words a little.
Was he drunk again? He might not be the best person in the world, but he usually saved the drinking for parties.
“Trick or treat!” The cheery, juvenile greeting echoed in from the hallway.
“What the fuck?” I asked aloud, though the question was really directed at the universe.How long was I gone?
If I’d had any idea where my cell phone was, I would have checked that. The television was a hunk of broken glass and plastic. That left, what? My laptop, which was hopefully still on my desk in my room. But that felt like it was about a million miles away.
How the hell did people figure out what day it was before electronics?
At the door, Leo was saying something to Clint in a tone that would have made me shudder if it had been pointed at me. There was a small scuffle. Not even enough action for Leo to losehis grip on the door.
He reached out with his free hand. I heard a muffled yelp followed by a thunk that shook the wall. Then he closed the door, shaking his head as he did. “He shouldn’t bother you again.”
“Thanks?” It felt a little strange to have the guy who’d hauled me to a demon over his very muscular shoulder defending my honor. “Um, weird question, what was he wearing?”
He gave me a quick description of Clint’s cheap pirate costume while he applied the butterfly sutures. When he was done, with a thick pad of gauze taped over the wound, I tried to sit up.
Leo’s heavy grip on the middle of my back held me down. “You need to rest.”
“I need to go find my brother.”
“You gave me your word.”
If I’d been just a shade less mature, I would have given in to the urge to punch the pillow. “I can’t just lay here. I will drive myself insane and probably take you with me.”
The front door swung open, and Lily came in wearing a scowl. “Did you know Clint is passed out in the hallway?”
The second Leo took his hand off me, I wrenched myself up, and instantly regretted it. “Damn,” I breathed. It was like a variety pack of misery up in my body. Aches and pains were coming from everywhere, but they all seemed to resonate in my lower back. “Did you find Matty?”
She shook her head. “There are too many people out there. I managed to catch up with him, but when he spotted me, he disappeared into the crowd. I tried to follow, but there were too many competing scents to follow.”
No. We couldn’t let him get away. What if we couldn’t find him again?
My head pounded, and a fresh dose of adrenaline seeped into my system. “Then we’ll go back out.” I tried to get up, but the pain was even worse now. In a matter of seconds, my pulse was racing so fast it felt like it might vibrate into a little pool of goo.
“Stubborn as always,” Lily said. “You know, she’s been like this since she was a kid.”
I shot her a look. It was hard enough to reconcile the fact that the woman had been my family dog for my entire life. Hearing her say something like that, put a whole different spin on it. She’d been there, sentient, conscious, understanding.
The realization was a little horrifying.
“I’m. Sorry.” I huffed out, still struggling to get my body to calm the fuck down.
She helped me shift around until I was sitting hunched on the edge of the cushion and took my hand. “You have nothing to apologize for, but you do need to listen to me. I know you’re in a lot of pain, and I know you’re worried about your brother, but you can’t help him in the state you’re in.”
No shit.I tried to shut down the snarky voice in my head, but that bitch said what she wanted to say when she wanted to say it. Even so, it didn’t mean I had to give those thoughts a voice.
“What I was trying to say is that I’m sorry I didn’t give you more table food,” I finally said.
She laughed, the warm sound filling the apartment in a way that made me miss my childhood. That was a special skill, considering I’d spent a good chunk of my adult life trying to forget it.
