Light flooded the hallway then but I don’t think Toby noticed. Freckled fingers gripped his throat, tightening against his skin as if he were trying to rip a hole there so he could breathe.
“Sweet Pea?”
The footsteps were heavy, and I flinched with each one of them. The shadow of his silhouette ate the walls of the hallway as Mr. Thomas pounded toward his husband. “Toby?”
He was only a few inches away when Toby suddenly spun and thrust his finger toward his husband’s chest. “Youpromisedme there was nothing to worry about.”
Mr. Thomas didn’t seem to notice me as he reached for Toby, swiping his large thumbs across his face. “Sweet pea, calm down. What’s going on? What are you talking about?”
“There’s a man trying to kill you, Benji, and you didn’t even tell me.” Toby pounded his fist against Mr. Thomas’ chest but the hit was weak, and I don’t think he meant to hurt him because he wound his arms around his waist and rubbed his tears against the fabric of his shirt. “You lied to me!”
Dark eyes found me through the darkness of the hallway, and I felt my heart stop for just a second when Mr. Thomas bared his teeth at me and let out a growl so loud, it hit me once and then ricocheted off the walls and hit me again. “What. The. Fuck?”
Run.
My heels came off the ground, and just as I was about to take off, I heard his voice. “Silas!”
“Daddy!”Run.My heart thumped, and I took off, barreling down the hallway with my arms outstretched. I threw myself at my Daddy, climbing his body with a frantic desperation that left my lip quivering in a way itneverdid. “I’m sorry, Daddy! I’m sorry!” My eyes burned, and I didn’t understand what was happening until I felt hot tears roll down my cheeks.
Daddy slipped his arms beneath my butt and lifted me. Legs wound around his waist, I dropped my face to his neck and sunk my nails into his nape.Bad. Bad. Bad.“I didn’t… I didn’t mean to, Daddy. I promise.I pinky promise. It was an accident. I swear.”
“Silas, baby. Breathe.” Daddy slipped his hands in my hair and pressed his lips to my ear. “Follow my chest, sweetheart. There you go. Just breathe, okay?”
My eyes squeezed shut, and I felt wetness on the tip of my fingers. “You’re… you’re bleeding, Daddy.”
“That’s alright, Kitten. Daddy can take it.”
The blood was warm as it trickled down the inner edge of my finger, and before I even realized I moved, that finger was in my mouth. The sucking motion, coupled with the steady thumps of his chest, coaxed my heart out of its hiding place. It climbed out of my stomach and back into my chest when Daddy kissed alongside the shell of my ear, and whispered, “whatever happened, Daddy will fix it. You’re not a bad boy, Kitten. No fucking way.”
“I… I met Toby.” I said. “I accidentally told him about the ghost. I didn’t…”
Bam!
ChapterFourteen
Elijah
Silas’pain was palpable, and it was so fucking potent, I wanted to shove my fist inside his chest and tear it all out. Hot tears accompanied his rigid gasps, rolling down the base of my neck. The evidence of his sadness burned holes into my tight skin the same way acid would.
The sharp sound of a door slamming drew a harsh flinch from his lithe body, and my boy curled into me as though he was trying to disappear beneath the safety and security of my arms.
“Bad.” He sniffled. “Bad. Bad. Bad.”
He fingered the stiff fabric of my collar, sweeping his quivering knuckles across the area he’d saturated in blood. He lingered on a rough patch that’d already began to dry and started to trace it.
“I’m a bad boy.” He cried, dragging his blunt nails across the tender spot until small beads of blood broke through the surface and joined the others in coating his fingertips. “Bad. Bad. Bad.”
Christ.
Each broken whimper felt like a bullet to my lungs. The jagged holes they left behind filled my chest with blood, making it difficult to breathe as I stood there, holding him in my arms.
Silas was a lot of things—feral, obsessive, misunderstood, curious—but he wasn’t fuckingbad.My boy had spent his life quietly learning how he fit in a world that wasn’t quite capable of understanding him or the bruises he wore across his skin.
I pressed my lips to his ear, kissing along the shell of it. “You arenota bad boy, sweetheart. No fucking way.”
“I didn’t know it was a secret, Daddy.I swearI didn’t.”
“I believe you.”