My ribs ached, refusing to let air in.
My eyes shifted to the dark window above my head, the rain blotting it out.
Fuck. This hurt.
I filled my cheeks, but an unusual violence burned hot.
This was wrong. Jagged. Adjacent. Three thousand fucking miles… Was there a way to make numbers bleed? Was it safe? Was I letting her go because I wanted the fucking cape? What if something happened to her and there was no one there to…
Shit.
I shut my eyes, pulling at my collar. Why did everything feel so goddamn tight? I ripped off my shirt, threw it onto the floorboard, and crawled into the downpour.
Turn on the light, Daph.
I peered up, rain slicing through my eyelids until the usual blur that made up Seattle, Washington, collapsed into a single line. Her window was still dark, which meant Kandy was probably trying to figure out why her roommate was having a meltdown in the middle of the living room.
I paced along the wet street, catching debris from passing cars. Daphne lived in a shithole, covered in needles and trash. No matter what we did, there was no escaping this vista. She went from a moldy, dilapidated mattress to a criminal bunker to an overpriced zero-square-foot apartment overlooking Marianne’s sex ring operations. Maybe if she left, she’d have… I don’t know, one of those things you push and the garage door flies open. A fucking dishwasher that wasn’t her! Anything but this.
The slide of bloated wood on metal lifted my gaze to Daphne, who stared at me, drowning in the rain. I stood there for a moment, watching the way her swollen eyes traced over my tension, wishing it were her fingers. I had to go! I needed to get the fuck out of here.
“Thayor,” my name rolled into the night, and it wasn’t lost on me she was the only one left in the world who used it. “Don’t kill anyone tonight.”
Fuck. She knew me too well.
I flipped her off. “I make no promises.”
“I mean it,” she said, kneeling on her elbows.
“I know,” I mumbled, shaking the rain from my hair and crawling into the darkness.
When the engine started, I stopped thinking and sank into the nothingness that took over my brain. There were lights and streets, stops and slows, music that sounded only like noise. I pushed my foot down harder while everything inside me slowly shut down. It was like entering cryogenic sleep without a countdown. An icy terror telling me you’re not awake, but you’re still breathing.
At least, I think I was.
I swerved right over the curb, and suddenly I was in front of the clubhouse, blinking when Wolfe’s eyes met mine at the other end of the hall.
“Fucking hell, here we go,” Wolfe groaned, giving me a quick look like the pedantic, asshole piece of shit he was. I sincerely hoped Daphne knew his dick was mostly ego, and that every time she stroked it, he became more of a bastard.
I paused when a familiar voice caught my attention from the side room. Or thecommon room, as Daph called it, because apparently it was the 1700s and Bernard had not yet returned from churning the butter.
“Maybe don’t go in there right now,” Wolfe clamored after me, thinking his big boy title would save him after what he’d done to Daphne today.
“Maybe go fuck yourself!” I growled, stomping into the room. Nathem shot our fearless leader a look, and our fearless leader shook his head.
Oh, I see. Wolfe knew Daphne was leaving before me, and now everyone expected me to fly off the damn hinges.
Well, I’d hate to disappoint.
“Rinley,” I mouthed low, casting a glance at Molly, who was lying on the sofa, while he stood there like a doe-eyed princess about to get hit.
“Threx,” she tried to sit up, but her body was tired and soft. “Is, um, Daph around? I have some questions for her.”
Nathem made a face, raking his fingers down his jaw in a thoughtful, deliberate line.
“Hey, love,” Nathem whispered, padding over to the edge of the lounge. “You will not want to see this.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, shaking.