“There’s a sauna and hot tub?” I asked, because it was easier than analyzing whether the heat that had rushed through my body at the initial invitation had been because a sauna with Jude sounded tempting or terrifying.
“On the ground floor,” he said. “A workout room too.”
“I don’t have a suit.” I didn’t think I needed to verbalize the fact that I wasn’t about to get naked around Jude and his roommates.
“I know.” He held out a pile of clothes. “I brought you these.”
I stared at the clothes in his hands. “What are those?”
“A tank top and boxers,” he said. “We don’t have any girl clothes here but I thought these might work.”
He took a cautious step toward me, like he half expected me to bolt. I met him halfway and took the clothes just to get him out of there. I didn’t know if I would make use of them but I did know it was confusing having him here, being nice and acting like a normal, decent person instead of the predator he obviously was.
He backed up toward the door. “Just take the stairs down one level from the living room,” he said. “Towels are down there. No one will bother you.”
I nodded.
He was on his way out when I remembered my dead phone. “Jude?”
His name felt strange on my tongue. I’d thought of them as the Bastards for so long I’d almost forgotten they had names.
He turned around, running a hand over his buzzed hair. “Yeah?”
“I need a charger for my phone.”
“Sure thing,” he said. “Give it to me and I’ll see what I can find.”
I stared him down, really hoping he wouldn’t make me say that I wouldn’t trust him with my hairbrush, let alone my phone.
“Right. What kind of phone do you have?” he asked.
I walked to the nightstand and picked up my phone, then showed it to him.
“I’m sure we’ve got something,” he said. “I’ll take a look and get back to you.”
“Thank you.” It was hard to say when my heart still wanted to say “fuck you” but fair was fair.
He nodded and disappeared into the hall, shutting the door behind him.
I exhaled my relief and tried not to think about whether I was relieved he was gone because I was still scared of him or because I was suddenly confused as fuck.
10
RAFE
“This is fucked up.”It was an understatement. The truth was, the whole thing was so epically fucked there really weren’t words that would do it justice.
“It’s temporary,” Nolan said, scrolling his phone. He was looking up information on Lilah’s heart condition, making sure he’d covered all his bases since his training had been focused on trauma care.
In other words, he knew all about how to stop the bleeding if someone got a leg blown off but not so much about congenital heart defects like Lilah’s.
“Not temporary enough,” I grumbled, pacing back and forth in front of the wall of glass in the living room.
“Where do we keep our old phone chargers?” Jude asked, coming into the living room.
“Office,” I said. “Desk drawer. Why?”
“Lilah needs to charge her phone,” Jude said, dropping onto one of the chairs by the crackling fire.