I shake my head at the two of them as I swipe a towel from the top of the pile in the corner and rub it over my head and face. When I pull it away, the bright white cotton is tinged red.
“Everyone is up in my flat. Come on,” I say, marching past Bri, more than ready to take a shower and hear if there have been any breakthroughs.
Everyone turns to look at us as we storm through my flat. Mum gasps in horror at the sight of the two of us, but I’m not sure why she’s so surprised. It’s not the first time she’s helped patch us up after we’ve gone at it a bit too hard as we’ve fought to banish our demons.
“Anything?” I bark, my eyes locking on Theo.
Everyone is still here apart from Daemon, who’s disappeared.
“Boss and Dad are digging into shit at the office. Daemon’s gone to the Italians’ compound to see if he can get some intel,” Alex explains.
“He thinks he’s going to randomly overhear something?”
“Fuck knows what he thinks or what they’ve got going on,” Alex mutters, clearly feeling a little pushed out with whatever their dad and Daemon are working on.
“I’m going to shower,” I grunt, taking off through my flat and toward the solitude of my bedroom.
With each step I take, the tight grip that I’ve had on anything but my anger over this begins to loosen.
A huge ball of emotion crawls up my throat, and as I push through into my bedroom, all I can see is Jodie sitting in the middle of my bed, my sheets twisted around her naked body. My heart shatters into a million pieces as memories of our time together play out in my mind.
I promised her that I would always protect her. That I would never let anything or anyone hurt her. But now fucking look. I can’t even find her.
“FUUUUCK,” I roar, swiping my arm across the top of my chest of drawers, watching as the bottles of fragrance and a couple of photo frames tumble to the floor. “FUUUUCK.”
Tears fill my eyes as I fight not to just crumble into a million useless fucking pieces.
I push my fingers into my hair until it hurts enough that I’m sure I’m about to rip it all clean out of my scalp.
A warm palm touches my shoulder and I wheel around, my fist clenching once more, ready to take out whoever it is standing there and witnessing me break.
“Bri,” I breathe a second before I throw what would probably have been the most regretful punch of my life.
“I’m sorry. I’m so s-sorry. I j-just— fuck,” she whispers, her tears spilling over her lashes.
“Fuck. Me too. Me fucking too.”
Forgetting about the fact that I’m covered in sweat and blood, I pull her into my body and wrap my arms around her as she cries.
“We’re gonna find her, Bri. I fucking promise you,” I say into her hair, praying to anyone who might listen that I’m not lying again.
Fuck. I have to find her. There is no other choice.
“I’ll do whatever you need me to do,” she says honestly, holding me as tight as I’m holding her. “But I’m going to kick all your arses once all this is over for lying to me about Jonas. Why the fuck is that cunt still alive?”
“Good fucking question,” I mutter, finally releasing her. “I’m going to regret not killing him sooner for the rest of my life. I know that for a fact.”
Walking away from her, I pull my tank off and throw it toward the laundry basket before pushing my sweats and boxers over my hips and storming into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.
I turn the dial down and stand under the ice-cold water until everything is numb and my teeth are chattering.
It’s the least of what I deserve for fucking all this up so badly.