“Did you go to the hospital?”
“No. Colleen patched me up,” he says.
I have no idea who Colleen is. I’m sick of all the girls who sound important, yet no one tells me anything about them.
Everyone knows I’m curious by paranoid nature, and they deliberately keep shit vague.
He crashes into the wall next to me, and he fumbles with the cuff keys until he can reach over and undo me.
“Gonna need you to be useful. Fuck with me, and I’ll keep you tied down all night and day from here on out,” he warns me.
Now would be the perfect time to seize the upper hand and send him down to his ass. But…I’m not that stupid. Too many guys are downstairs. I’d never get out of—
He crashes to the ground at last, and I scramble off the bed to where he’s half passed out. Fortunately, most of the blood isn’t his. I think he’s just drunk off his ass and making the wound bleed worse than it has to.
“Idiot,” I mumble as I go to the bathroom to pull out the bandages I found under the sink earlier when I was scoping things out and wondering about Sarah.
Rush and the mysterious blonde seemed…familiar in a weird way. Hopefully not romantic, even though I shouldn’t care.
He’s snoring when I return to the room, and I sit down beside him with the wet, soapy sponge I prepared. This is going to take a while.
My eyes flick over all the new ink he’s acquired over the years, studying the intricate designs and tribal patterns. My fingers even trail over a few of them, idly wondering what all he’s gone through in here since I left.
He’s more jaded now than he was before, but I always knew that would happen.
Sighing, I brush some of his hair off his forehead, and I start cleaning there as well, my eyes drifting over his face.
“Who are you now?” I ask him as he unconsciously leans into my hand and wraps an arm around my waist.
My brow furrows when I hear him muttering my name like it’s a curse, even as his hand tightens on me. Once again, he relaxes, but he moves his head to my lap like he’s seeking out…comfort.
A full breath exhales harshly as I glance up at the ceiling and close my eyes. I fucking hate Halo. The bad only get worse. The good get crushed. And the souls stay stained forever.
Chapter 10
RUSH
“I’m not sure why you’re still cuffing me every night. It’s been a week, Rush. I haven’t tried running away yet—”
“Because you’re still working out a full escape plan,” I interrupt, glancing over the top of my newspaper at the door when it opens, letting light spill into the mostly dark warehouse.
Kara stops talking, and we both watch as Snake stalks in, eyes narrowing on me for a minute. “Watch how close you get,” he tells me like it’s a warning.
It’s obvious he’s talking about his ex that he swears he hates.
“Trust me, I don’t want any fucking closer than I’ve gotten. It’s a business arrangement only,” I assure him, giving him a cold smile just because he really does hate the fact Sarah keeps coming to me.
“She’ll just keep impressing you so you ask for more favors, and you’ll keep being in her debt. It’s apparently her AJ thing,” he goes on.
“I know. She told me as much. You’re overestimating the level of psychotic I can deal with,” I go on.
He narrows his eyes like he doesn’t trust that I’m not into his stabby ex. Finally, his eyes shift to Kara. He doesn’t say a word to her before walking off.
“He used to find me worthy of speaking to,” she mutters so quietly I almost miss it.
“He’s had issues lately,” I tell her around a yawn, stretching out as she huffs in frustration and crosses her arms over her chest on the couch across from me.
“We’ve been cooped up for too long. I can’t stand this. I hate staying in one place so much,” she goes on.
Just as I open my mouth to speak, the doors to the basement swing open, and Drex walks out with a bloody fist and angry eyes.
“Violence. Violence. And more violence. Feels good to be home. I think things have gotten worse, or I’ve found my sensitivity more than I realized,” Kara grumbles as she lies down and puts her arm over her eyes.
“They didn’t know anything worth hearing,” Drex says to me as he walks by and goes to the bar.
I take a bite of my sandwich, kicking up my feet as I lazily rake my gaze over Kara’s body. “Told you as much,” I tell him absently, watching the way her chest subtly rises and falls with her breaths.
Drex has barely acknowledged she’s even here. She pretends not to care. They’ve got issues to work out that neither want to work out, and Kara’s getting more agitated by the day.