"Why does Rafael…"
I snap one cuff around my own wrist.
Then I reach for his.
"What thefuck?"
The second cuff clicks shut.
Rex stares at our connected wrists with an expression of pure baffled outrage.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he snarls.
"Many things. But right now, specifically, I'm cold and you're warm,andyou're a flight risk." I settle back against the headboard. "You can either deal with it or gnaw your own hand off to escape. Your choice."
He yanks at the cuff. It holds. "This isinsane. You're insane. I am not going to?—"
"Then don't. Lie down. Go to sleep. Pace if the chain reaches." I shrug. "But you're not getting rid of me tonight."
He stares at me like I've grown a second head.
"You realize I could break this chain."
"Yep. And then you'd probably break my wrist too, and then Phoenix would cry and ask you 'why' until your head explodes, and neither of us wants that."
His jaw tightens. "You're handcuffing yourself to someone who hates you."
"Do you?" I ask. "Is that why you didn't send me back to Stephen? Because you hate me?"
He goes still. That single blue eye searches my face.
"I don't know," he grits out finally. "I don't know what this is anymore."
"That makes two of us." I tug the chain. "Eat while I steal your body heat. That's the only assignment."
Rex stares at the plate of pasta like I've just handed him a live grenade.
I take a deep breath when I see the fresh tension coiling through his shoulders and the way his jaw ticks. "I'm not going to watch you," I say. "But you need to eat something. You can't just…not eat, Rex."
He's still muscular and fucking intimidating, but he's lost weight since we met. There's a lankiness to his build that wasn't there before. But he just keeps staring at the food like it's going to bite him.
"I'm actually fucking worried about you," I admit, forcing the words out. "Really worried. Do you know how annoying that is for me after everything?"
He doesn't respond. His eye is still blank and dissociated.
And I get it. I do. I'm asking him to do something that probably requires removing his mask, which means trusting me not to look after all the horrible shit that's happened today.
Trusting someone—especially trustingme,his sworn enemy—isn't exactly a position he's used to being in.
"Rex." I tug gently at the chain connecting our wrists to get his attention. His gaze flicks to me and he watches me in silence through his lashes. They're light, I realize, almost white-blond. Not like his dark hair. The one eye I can see is actually… beautiful. I'm only noticing that because he isn't glaring at me or telling me off right now.
It takes my brain a moment to stop glitching out.
"I'm going to turn around," I continue. He keeps watching me. "You're going to eat whatever you can manage. Neither of us is going to make a big deal about it. Deal?"
Still nothing.
I shift on the bed, turning my body toward the window so my back is to him. The rain is still coming down in sheets, blurring the city lights into smeared watercolor. It's pretty. He would've fucking frozen to death. And I think that's exactly what he was intending on doing.