“I told him to watch her,” I said. “He’s just doing what I asked.”
“Yeah, well, he’s doing a real good job of it.” Thatcher leaned back. “He’s spending all kinds of time with her, and we know that because I had Wells watch him after Bow told us what kind of project it was.”
I didn’t understand, and Wells huffed.
“It’s Ares’s senior project, bro,” Wells stated, my brow twitching. “Exactly. Why the fuck would he have her work on that with him? That shit means too much to him.”
“He’s acting weird,” Thatcher surmised. “Real weird. You know how protective Wolf is over any of his art. Let alone the thing that’s supposed to get him into fucking college.”
I did know, my buddy’s art rarely seen. Outside of us and his family, Wolf’s art was his life. He didn’t expose that part of himself to people a lot.
And he was sharing that with Sloane?
That didn’t make any fucking sense. None of us guys got to see his shit all the time, and we were his best friends.
Something didn’t sit right, something weird like what Thatcher said. I picked up the phone, texting Wolf. I was going to give him a second to explain himself.
Because he had a lot to fucking explain.
Chapter Eighteen
Sloane
The animal kept getting closer. Its angry teeth kept getting closer.
Its monster eyes…
Mommy kept tugging me toward it, my feet skidding on the floor.
“You have to. You have to go,” she said, tears in her eyes. Why was Mommy crying? “I’m so sorry, baby.”
“No!” I screamed, jerking at her hand. She let go, and I raced away.
“Noa!”
I kept running. Running so fast. There were so many people around, and I kept pushing through them, stumbling.
I tripped.
I fell.
My sleeve caught on something, and it ripped.
There was so much blood.
I didn’t see it long before someone pushed me into a wall. I hit my head.
The world went black.
Chapter Nineteen
Sloane
I was pacing the hospital when Ares Mallick waltzed into the ER, and I twitched.
What the fuck?
The past few hours had been a complete mess, and I was still trying to figure them out. It’d started when I’d been ripped from my sleep by my brother. I’d been having another weird nightmare about my mother when I heard him vomiting.