Park was shaking his head before Gift had even finished talking. “Absolutely not. That’s not happening. It’s too dangerous.”
Gift’s jaw thrust forward, eyes narrowing into angry crescents. “Boone already said I could. I’m one of the best handlers in this program. I have perfect grades, and Payton and I have…bonded.”
Park scoffed, his fury causing an ache behind his ribs. “Oh, I’m sure he wants you ‘bonded’ to him. But you cannot be with him. Especially if you sleep together. And if you think he’s going to fall in love with you, you’re wrong. He’s a psychopath. He’s never going to love you. He’s never going to care about you.”
“And you do?” Gift snapped.
Park took a step back at the fury in his voice. “You’re very…important to me.”
Gift’s eyes burned, his mouth twisting as he spit, “Fuck you, Park.”
Park’s brows shot up. “What?”
Gift arranged his features into that infuriatingly placid smile he saved for their nightly dinners, his voice dripping with disdain as he said, “Oh, I’m sorry. Fuck you,hia.”
“Gift.”
“No,” he raged, shoving Park farther away even though he’d had plenty of room to leave.
How had this gone off the rails so fast? Two days ago, Park had everything under control. Now, Gift was tearing through his life like a tornado. “Gift—”
Park winced as Gift jammed a finger into his chest. “Don’t. Just…don’t. You don’t get to tell me who I can and can’t sleep with. You’re not my dad, and you’re not my boyfriend, so do me a favor and mind your own business.”
Park stared, mouth open. Where was the Gift he knew? “This isn’t like you.”
“How would you know? You think of me as this sweet, docile creature.” He gave a humorless laugh. “The funny thing is, when we’re together, I want to be that for you. I want to let you have control. I want to be good for you. I like when you take care of me. But not like this. You don’t get to tell me what to do and then not be with me. You can’t have it both ways.”
Park shook his head. “Gift, where is all this coming from?”
Gift snorted. “Frommonthsof sitting across from you while you treated me like an adorable little burden. Just…stay away from me.”
Park stood frozen, watching as Gift snatched his bag from the table and stormed out, slamming the door behind him hard enough to rattle the mirror over the fireplace.
And this was why Park didn’t do relationships. He wasn’t good at them, wasn’t good at things like feelings. And now, he’d hurt Gift and probably sent him right into the arms of that manipulative serial killer he called a best friend.
What the hell could he do? He couldn’t sleep with Gift just to keep him away from Payton. That would break Gift into a million pieces that would never fit back together properly. But would he just be doing it to keep him from Payton? He shook his head even as the answer to his unspoken question rattled around in his head.
No. He’d do it because he wanted Gift more than he wanted air, more than he wanted a friendship with Gift’s mother.
And that was why Park was a terrible person.
“You girl-bossed too close to the sun.”
Gift glowered at Morgan then made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. “What does that even mean?”
“You unleashed the crazy too soon,” she clarified.
Had he? Maybe. But he was so tired of Park acting like some self-sacrificing martyr. He’d killed people. A lot of people. According to Payton, Park had a body count that made him infamous in the world of assassins. But being with Gift was somehow a step too far over the line?
Or maybe he just didn’t want him. Had Gift read their interactions all wrong? He’d thought—hoped—that Park had just been ignoring his feelings for him, but maybe there were no feelings at all and he was just blackmailing him into kissing him. Ew.
Was Gift some kind of manipulator? Or worse. Was he, like...harassing Park sexually?
He shuddered at the notion.
“Morgan’s right,” Drake said from his bed, temporarily pulling Gift from his downward spiral.
He clenched his fingers around the toy in his hand—a lightsaber. A childish, but painfully expensive, toy given to him by his mother during their last very brief visit. His mother, who knew so little about him, she thought he was still obsessed with a movie franchise he’d loved when he was twelve.
