Luca covered his hand with his, forcing him to stop. “I don’t mind.”
“It’s just going to go to waste.” Either Reese wouldn’t eat it or throw it up if he did.
Luca sat. “Seung told us what happened.”
Of course she did.
“It will be okay.”
“Yeah.” Reese laughed and it withered. Okay? He wasn’t even sure what that was anymore.
“Johnathan made it sound like he would try to keep this from happening.”
“I heard.” All of it. Even what Luca said about it being against Reese’s will.
“You heard?”
Reese waved a hand close to his ear. “Ever since… you know that day. Sometimes I can hear better, smell, see in the dark well enough that I’ve forgotten to turn on my headlights a few times. Luckily the streets are pretty bare by 1:00 a.m. Not that I make a habit of going out in the middle of the night, but sometimes, when I can’t sleep, I crave peanut butter cups. Not the commercial kind. The homemade kind. I buy them at this little store and—”
Luca held Reese’s hand.
He dropped his chin to his chest. “I’m babbling again.”
“It’s okay. You’ve had a rough few days.”
“Yeah, yeah, I won’t argue.” He pushed up his glasses with his other hand and wiped his eyes with his finger and thumb. “Although I’m not sure I’d call it rough, more like paroxysmal.”
Apocalyptical seemed melodramatic. At least until he thought about it too hard.
“I don’t know what that word means but it sounds pretty bad.”
It was worse. Way worse than any word or words could describe. “I’m scared.”
Reese squeezed Luca’s hand.
“I know.”
“And I have no idea what to do. I mean, if there is anything I can do. But there isn’t, is there?” Worse, the more Reese thought, about everything, he didn’t know if he wanted there to be.
“Seung didn’t seem to think there was.”
Reese nodded. “Yeah.” He went back to staring at his hand in his lap and scraped the cuticle of his other thumb. “I kind of figured that.” He winced and rotated his shoulder.
“Did you hurt your arm?”
“What? Oh, no it’s…” Reese pulled his hand free and massaged the muscle close to his neck in an attempt to ease the growing ache.
Luca paled and swallowed several times.
It took Reese a moment to realize the neckline of his shirt had slid to the side far enough to flash the ugly wad of scar tissue. No wonder Luca looked like he was about to throw up.
“Sorry.” Reese pulled his shirt back into place.
“It’s okay.”
Not really. But it wasn’t like Reese could change it unless he went for plastic surgery. He would have if he thought Harrington or Phillips wouldn’t find out. Because they’d already proven they could find out anything about him. Or knew everything about him.
“Does it hurt?”