“Hey!”
My vision blurs, obscuring the figure whose hands land over my shoulders, steering me back against the nearest wall.
“Look at me.” He tilts my chin, stroking through the beads of moisture I can’t stop from falling down my cheeks. “Breathe. In and out. Nope—” His grip tightens when I try to turn away. “Look at me. Yeah...that’s it. In and out.”
I feel the rise and fall of his chest, goading mine to copy the same steady motion.In. Out.It shouldn’t be enough to calm me, but it does.
“That’s it,” he praises as my breathing evens out. I blink, feeling tears spill down my cheeks unbidden, and I realize he’s stroking the tangled hair from my face, brushing my forehead with every gentle sweep. “Look at me. Focus on me. I’ve got you.”
“Let me go.” I halfheartedly slam my palm against this chest.
He doesn’t budge.
“No can do, Frey.” His voice is harsher than it should be. Guttural. “Hale said you were a spitfire when provoked. No, don’t speak yet. Just hear me out—” With every word, his lips nudge my temple. He’s crushing me, leaning more of his weight than I can take.
I have no choice but to arch my spine toward him.
Embrace him.
Suffer him.
“Fuck you,” I rasp against his shoulder, resigned. Trapped.
“Not today,” he tells me with a sigh. “Maybe tomorrow. If you can’t tell, babe...I have a pretty damn big headache.”
He’s still bleeding. I swear I can feel it trickling down my own hairline. Hot. Steady. Salty.
Oh, God.I breathe in through my mouth and try not to picture it. Smell it. Taste it.
“Let me tell you the long version of what happened, free of charge,” Daze says, and his voice alone is an anchor against the nausea crawling up my throat. “I’m in deep shit, Frey. Deep,deepshit. I...I fucked up, bigger than you can ever know. I thought I could walk away from my old life. That turning over a new leaf would be easy. Boy, was I wrong. I just got way more trouble than I bargained for.”
He laughs ruefully, letting the sound trickle against my ear.
“And before you say something smart, it has everything to do withyou. But you’re not stupid. I’m sure that deep down, you already knew that.”
Knew what? My paranoid brain plays with a million terrifying possibilities. All those hints I’d tossed his way.You’re a criminal. You’re dangerous.
“Look at me.” It churns my stomach how he says it more like a plea than a command.
I can’t ignore it, and his height and bulk reinforce how dangerous he truly is. He’s right. I’ve known all along that he wasn’t at the bridge on a whim.
“What do you want from me?” he asks.
“The truth.”
He looks me in the eye and sighs, teasing me with another hit of his potent breath. I inhale him without meaning to, but this time…I shiver. It’s like the nuances of his flavor shift to match the sudden intensity in his gaze. The darkness that paints his irises, deepening the stormy gray.
“Well, I could tell you some fucking dramatic bullshit,” he says with a shrug. “Like Frances, your father is a very bad man. He ruined my life. Almost sent me to prison. Had me lose custody of my son—”
“Did you hurt Hale?” I can barely get the words out. It would make sense if he had, and he’s been taunting me all this time. He wasmurdered…
“No,” he says, and I can’t stifle a sigh of relief. “He was one of the few people in this world I owe some loyalty to. A good man. When he wasn’t high out of his mind, that is.” His quick smile contrasts the gruffness of his voice. “Yeah. I knew him.”
I inhale raggedly. “Why didn’t you tell me before?” I can’t stop the tears from falling, and my hands curl helplessly into fists. I don’t know whether to hit him or just…
Cling to his arm and choke down my disgust.
“What he was into… You wouldn’t understand. I didn’t want to put that shit on you, and he didn’t either. He made me swear never to talk to you—”