Damn. Who knew a lie from when we’d first met would come back to bite me in the ass?
“It’s fine, I already knew it was a lie. Who doesn’t like chocolate?”
I glared at him, then hooked my foot around his ankle and tried dragging him closer to me.
He didn’t budge.
“You should really?—”
Val coughed, and Dakota’s posture stiffened, his gaze shifting to his brother.
I turned to see Val clutch at his throat, and then he started clearing it repeatedly. His face was turning red, and his voice was scratchy when he asked, “Are there nuts in here? Did someone?—”
“Oh, fuck.” Dakota pushed his chair back so quickly it fell over behind him, and then he was digging into Val’s pocket while I just sat there, stunned.
And the rest of his family just sat there, too. Like Val wasn’t choking to death or having an allergic reaction that could potentially kill him, like their son and brother wasn’t suffering.
Fuck this family.
Dakota’s body language became more frantic, and in a panicked tone, he asked, “Where’s your EpiPen? Fuck, where is it?!”
Albert stood up and pulled his phone from his pocket as he walked toward Val.
Val’s face was getting redder and redder, and the sounds he was making were freaking me the fuck out. He pointed a shaking hand toward the corner of the room, by the stage?—
I raced to his bag and ran it over to Dakota, who dug through it until he found the EpiPen. He pulled it out of the tube, flipped something open, then pressed the orange tip to Val’s thigh. He held it there, murmuring, “It’s okay, you’re gonna be okay.”
Albert was pacing back and forth behind Val, talking with someone on the phone, glancing at Val every few seconds. He actually looked concerned now, which I thought was probably a monumental show of feeling for someone like him. I’d only ever seen him look authoritative, menacing, and entirely in control.
Dakota pulled the pen away and rubbed the spot he’d just injected, his eyes moving over Val’s face, which had started to relax, the redness dissipating. His breathing became less shallow as the epinephrine worked its way through his body, and he squeezed his eyes shut as a tear spilled down the side of his face.
I glanced over at Evelyn, who was watching the situation with scrunched brows, like she was confused, and Everett, who was?—
Scrolling on his fucking phone and looking entirely bored with it all.
What a fucking piece of shit.
“Dr. Burns will be here in fifteen minutes,” Albert said, sliding his phone into his pocket. “Are you alright, Valentine?”
Val nodded, looking completely sapped of energy and like even doing that took the last of his strength.
Albert leaned over Val and pressed a kiss to his head. “Good.” His dark eyes flashed to the food on the table, and he said, “I’m going to have a word with Nell.”
I was guessing that was the person in charge of the food.
Albert strode toward a door on the right, shoving it open almost aggressively. I felt sorry for whoever would be on the receiving end of his vitriol. Or maybe I didn’t, considering what Val had just gone through. Shouldn’t the family’s chef know to be careful with their ingredients if one of the members had an allergy like that?
I glanced at Everett again. He was still looking at his phone, but there was a tiny smile on his face.
Smug. He looked fucking smug right now, and why? Because he enjoyed seeing others suffer?
“Come on. I’ll take you to your room so you can lie down,” Dakota said, urging Val to his feet.
“Yeah,” he said breathlessly, holding Dakota’s arms while he stood on shaky legs.
“Do you want me to come? Or…” I had no clue what to do here.
Dakota turned his tired eyes to mine and said, “No, it’s okay, stay here. He just needs to rest for a bit. I’ll be right back.” He was so distraught over what had just happened, he couldn’t even smile at me. He tried, and fuck, I wished I wasn’t so useless right now, that I could actually do something for him.
