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“I’m not going to kill you if that’s why you’re—” He reappears but stops when he sees me. “What’s wrong?”
“My head.” I stand upright and brush it off. “I’m okay. Just need a sec.”
He reaches for my massive shades and slowly pulls them from my face. I hum a grunt of pain when the arms of my glasses scrape my temples. The sore one really fucking hurts.
I hear his intake of breath when he sees the swelling. I don’t have a black eye but my temple and cheek are really tight, bruised, and swollen.
He stares, his body tight and his diamond-heart lips dry. “I did that to you?”
“That night was wild, huh?” I joke but then the truth of the situation registers with his confused expression. “You didn’t know?”
“Why would I know?”
“Because Loki…” I trail my words off and look around, wondering why I’m here if not for his guilt. “Look, it doesn’t matter. It’s done.”
“Doesn’t matter?” When he steps back, he looks almost distressed. “You told me I’d hurt you and I called you dramatic. I thought it was just your nose.” He shakes his head and raises his shaking hand to my face. “I don’t like that you wear a mark and have pain caused by me.”
I didn’t expect him to be so upset by it. But then I honestly thought he knew already. “Loki took me to the hospital, so I just assumed you knew.”
“You went to the hospital?”
“I had to have a CT scan.”
He blanches. “A fucking CT scan?”
“Yes, Nok,” I snap, snatching my sunglasses back. “I was really bad. I collapsed and everything.” Now I’m just milking it. “I get my results in a few days.”
He scowls at the ground. “And you came to school?”
“I wanted to see you,” I admit before I can stop myself.
“Because of my truck?”
“No,” I scoff. “I’m not sorry, I’d do it again but this time I’d go for the body if you ever put me in a position where I feel unsafe.”
He nods and some of his long hair escapes the tie that holds it, my fingers twitch, aching to reach up and push it back. “Is that why you paid for the repairs?”
“Who says I did?”
“Sanders.”
I put the glasses back on and stomp past him. “Sanders is a dirty rotten liar.”
He chuckles and catches up with me. “We both fucked up that night, but what I did was worse.”
“Why did you do what you did?” I ask, glancing at him through the corner of my eye.
He grips my arm with a firm hand and guides me over a fallen tree. “It doesn’t matter the reason behind it.”
“You mean like when you slammed me up against the lockers for trespassing?”
Stopping, he turns me to face him and glares at me. “You shouldn’t have been there, you had no right.”
“Yes, forgive me for riding my bike over grass and earth in a place with no fences lining their border.”
“Those are sacred grounds you were tearing up. Did you ever ask? Did Nash never tell you?”
I roll my eyes and keep walking; despite the fact I don’t know where I’m going. “I said I was sorry and never went back. What more do you want from me?”
“I don’t…” He stops himself and growls, gripping my bicep again to turn me to face him. His light brown eyes are glowing. He’s so handsome. “Look, I don’t know if I like you, but out of every white chick I’ve ever met, you’re the most genuine, and psychotic. It makes you interesting and I like figuring out interesting things.”
I bark out a laugh. “That’s fucking weird, man. Can we just get to where we are…” I trail off when I adjust my eyes to something or someone in the distance. I step around Nokosi for a clearer view and push up the leaves of a low-hanging branch.
I spy a figure in the distance, in the thick of the trees. Goosepimples break out over my arms. He’s looking our way, his legs spaced but the entire form of his body is shrouded in shadows. I squint to make out his face but it’s impossible. “There’s a man over there.”
Nok swings around, looking where I’m pointing, and the rest of his hair falls from the tie. I’m mesmerized by it for a moment.
“Probably a hiker.”
I look around his bulking frame and scan the spot where the man shrouded by shadows was standing but no longer is.
When he sees my frown he checks again, walking away from me a few steps. He cups his hands to his mouth and howls, but nobody howls back. His howl lingers in the trees and space around us. It’s eerie.
“Definitely not one of my people.”
“Is that like a tribe thing?”
“The howling?” he asks, still looking around the area.
I nod.
He smiles that seriously attractive happy smile that only he can pull off. When I smile like that I look like a grimacing hairless cat.
