Suddenly, River grabbed me. His strong arms reached under mine, and he pulled me up, easily carrying me down the hall.
We were outside a moment later, and the sudden silence after the alarm was so jarring, I collapsed into the grass, feeling like I was about to throw up. I even coughed a couple times..
Mortifying.
“What’s your deal?” River asked, sounding irritated, but I detected a bit of concern behind that, which was weird because he was a fucking psycho who’d just punched the wall next to my head.
“Loud,” I panted, putting every bit of my focus into not throwing up in front of this hot asshole that hated me for no reason. “Ear damage. Massacre.”
“What?” River snapped.
“I was in the Gulf Capitol Massacre,” I gasped, my nausea finally waning. “I was near the bombs, it blew out my eardrums. I can’t do loud shit now.”
Silence greeted me, and when I finally glanced over my shoulder, River was gone.
I blew out a heavy fucking breath.
Dick.
Chapter 32
Rafe
Wyatt pinchedthe bridge of his nose. “She had the guard ingreen?”
I nodded grimly as I picked up one of Wyatt’s trinkets from the book case. This one was a highly polished, pale blue, round rock. It was so shiny, I could see my reflection. I raised my eyebrows a few times, then tilted so my nose looked huge in the reflection.
“And get this, Raaz wasright therein the bed chamber.” I said.
“No,” Wyatt looked horrified.
“Alright, so not the bed chamber. But right inside the door to her living space. Weird, right?” I pressed my finger into the rock, leaving an oily fingerprint behind.
Wyatt hadn’t seen. “And Hugo was okay with it?”
“Yep,” I said, popping theP. “She was close to hysterics, going on about howthe lesseralways blames her for everything.”
“Fuck,” Wyatt hissed through his teeth.
“How was your father’s?”
We hadn’t had a chance to chat when I’d brought him back to the academy. He’d been in a shitty mood, barking orders at me to make sure Skye and Aiden’s new room had all the snacks they liked. Wyatt would never appreciate how hard it was for me to find the abhorrent shrimp puff things Skye liked.
I’d been spending my nights in the new dorm instead of his apartment, and while I could tell it annoyed him, he also pretended to hate me staying in the apartment, so he refused to comment on my new accommodations.
Wyatt stared into the sunlight spilling through his window. “Lauren could barely get up the stairs while assisted.”
I froze.
Well. That was certainly a good reason for a shitty mood.
“That’s…” I trailed off, not knowing what to say.
I’d always made fun of Lauren. She was a bit of an airhead, and while we were kids, she was the bad guy keeping Wyatt’s parents from being together. The jokes remained even as we grew up and realized that obviously wasn’t true.
It’d been a while since Wyatt had mentioned her, though. Last I’d heard, Lauren was responding well to some new medication. Now she could barelywalk?
“And…” Wyatt shifted, looking uncomfortable. “Dick made a comment. About Willow. It’s…not sitting right with me.”
