“But the rest have. How’s my face?” I showed them my left cheek where the wolf had clawed me, and Hunter nodded.
“The red lines are barely there. The skin is healed.”
“I’m gonna need some of that stuff. I keep bumping into things,” Patricia said as she blew on the bowl of soup she’d just heated for me. I didn’t want to eat soup, damn it, but one look at their faces and I knew that the battle was already lost. They’d force it down my throat if they had to. So, I grumpily took the bowl and ate.
And it was…delicious actually. Much better than anything I could have made for myself. Or ordered.
“You guys, I really appreciate you coming here, but I’m fine. You didn’t have to wake up so early.” I didn’t want to burden them with my troubles.
“Shut up, Pink,” Hunter said. “We’re your friends. That’s what friends do.”
“Yeah, but—”
“So, you’re saying youwouldn’twant us to wake you up early if one of us ends up almost eaten by a werewolf?” Eva said, raising her brows at me.
“No, of course not. You know I wouldn’t mind.” At all. Not even a little bit.
“So, suck it up and deal,” Patricia said. “And eat the damn soup before it’s cold.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I mumbled and stuffed another spoonful in my mouth. Which reminded me that I had to call my mom again before I left to show her that I was okay.
“It’s looking better by the second,” Hunter said as he inspected the wound on my arm. “Does it hurt?”
“Like hell.” But actually, it was a little better than before.
“Just eat the soup and drink the rest of the bottle,” Patricia said, pointing at the dirt water I’d left on my nightstand, still half full. Maybe it did help more than I’d thought it would. I honestly couldn’t feel my muscles aching as much as I did a few minutes ago.
“Okay, so I’ve reached my limit of patience for today,” Eva declared, dragging herself closer to me on the bed. “What happened? Details, woman. I meandetails.”
She saiddetails, and all I thought about wasDominic.
He had been there. He’d dragged me with him, had saved my life, and had left again, just like that.
I started to tell them how I’d gone to the pier the night before just to see what we were going to deal with in the morning, and then I went just a little farther, and then I ran into those men…
“Wait, wait, wait,” Hunter said, holding up a finger. “How exactly did you run into those men? Didn’t you hear them? You said it was silent on the deck.”
“Well, yeah, but when I heard them, it was already too late. They were coming for me.”
“Four of them,” Patricia said, as if to make sure she’d heard right.
“Yeah…”
“So how did you end up inside the ship?” Hunter asked.
I swallowed hard. “They started chasing me, and then shooting at me, and to get away, I had to jump inside the hatch. And then I just ran down the corridor and ended up in that room.”
God, when did it get so hot in my apartment?
The others thought about it for a second. It was more than enough time to let me drown in embarrassment and guilt. I hated, hated,hatedlying. And they’d come here to take care of me, make sure I was okay, and the best I could do was feed them bullshit.
Damn you, Dominic Dane.
“Right,” Hunter said. “Okay. Okay, and then what?”
“Then the werewolf came at me, and Crackdown was everywhere, and I injected him with it.” Every word weighed heavier on my shoulders, yet I kept on going.
“What about the others? Eight guys, right?” said Patricia, not even bothering to hide her suspicion.