What if Gina Daley had tried to get through to his parents? Told them he was about to shift? Even if she had, there was no guarantee they would have accepted him. In fact he was certain his father would have been just as disgusted, but at least his mother might still be alive.
Then there was the facility. What if he and Ash could have been spared that hell? Ash…. What if the timeline had been skewed and Arlo had lived?
“Sloane?”
Dex’s soft voice made Sloane flinch, and he hated his reaction. He loved Dex. God, he loved him so much it scared him.
Swallowing hard, Sloane turned to face Dex, his heart hurting at the sight of those pale blue eyes. Sloane remembered her so clearly now. His mind was his worst enemy at times. He could recall Gina Daley as if he were looking at a picture of her. Dex was a spitting image. The same eyes, same pouting lips, smooth skin, and captivating smile. His dirty-blond hair was the same shade as Gina’s. Sloane had felt safe with her. He’d trusted her even though he’d only known her for minutes. She’d been kind, gentle, and so beautiful. Dex was most certainly her son.
“Please talk to me.”
Dex took a step forward, and Sloane took one back before he could stop himself. It was as if he’d punched Dex in the gut, and judging by his partner’s expression, doing so would probably have hurt less. Sloane closed his eyes to gather his courage before he faced Dex again.
“I’m sorry, I think… I think maybe I need to not be here for a while.”
“What are you talking about?”
The fear bubbled up inside him, twisting his insides and squeezing at his heart. He didn’t want to hurt Dex. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. “She walked away, Dex. She knew what was going to happen to me, to us, and she walked away.”
Dex shook his head, determination in his crystal-blue gaze. “I don’t believe that.”
“You don’t know what happened.”
“Neither do you,” Dex replied heatedly. “I might not know what happened, but I knew my mother. So did my dad, and Tony. If you knew her like we did, you wouldn’t say that shit. You wouldn’t believe the word of a psychopath.”
“You don’t know the hell we lived through day after day in that facility. The pain, the torture. There were days I prayed I would die in that chair just so the hurt would stop.” At times he’d felt less like a boy and more like a numb piece of flesh, every nerve ending exposed and exploited.
“And it was all at the hands of the man that’s trying to come between us.” Dex slowly approached and took Sloane’s hand in his. “Babe, he’s lied to you from the moment you met. He’s the reason you ended up in that place. How can you believe him?”
“It doesn’t matter who I believe. The fact is we don’t know, and that’s what’s killing me. You said it yourself. What if your parents weren’t who you believed them to be? You were scared to find out the truth, scared of what it might mean, and I understood that. And before you say anything, I stand by what I said. It doesn’t change how much they loved you, but it changes things for me. I can’t look at you and not think of her, of what she could have done, might have done but didn’t. What I feel for you hasn’t changed, you have to believe that, but I need time to wrap my head around everything.”
“Sloane—”
“What about the anomalies?” The other bombshell Shultzon had dropped on him, the one that deep down inside scared him most of all. “What if I hurt you? Physically? What if that’s the reason Dylan Reynolds killed his wife? Dylan Reynolds is my age. He’s a First Gen. What if the same anomalies Shultzon said are in my blood are in his?”
“Then we’ll work through it. You promised me no more running, Sloane,” Dex murmured, and a deep sense of loss filled Sloane when he pulled his hand out of Dex’s.
Why couldn’t Dex understand? There was so much going on that it made Sloane’s head spin. He worked on facts, figures, evidence. Going on hearsay, on cryptic messages and theories of conspiracies… it wasn’t logical. His brain couldn’t process this overload of half-truths.
“I’m not running,” Sloane replied, heading into the bedroom to pack a bag.
“Just leaving.”
Sloane didn’t refute it. He pulled his duffel bag from the closet and turned around. He could see the exact moment Dex’s heart shattered.
“Are you coming back?” Dex’s eyes grew glassy, his voice shaky. “Because if you’re not, I need to know—”
“I’m coming back. I just… I don’t know when.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know. I need time to think about this objectively, and I can’t do that here, with you. I’m going to stay with Ash for a while.” He hadn’t asked, but his best friend always had his back. Ash would understand.
Dex rolled up his sleeve, showing Sloane his healed scars, the scars Sloane had marked him with. “And this, what? This means shit to you?”
“You know it doesn’t,” Sloane snapped. “Dex—”
“No. I’ve bled for you from the day we met. My heart’s been ripped apart and pieced together more times than I can count, yet no matter how many times you’ve hurt me, I’m always here, waiting for you to come back to me, just to have you do it all over again. I thought this time would be different. Instead, at the first sign of trouble, you’re bailing? Just like that?”