She snarls at me before she lifts her chin, sniffing again.
Good. Give me all your fire, Kenny Traylor. I can take it.
I take a breath. “You angry with me, baby? Come and show me.”
Her upper lip peels back at my taunting words, revealing those sharp, lethal canines. Another low snarl curls from her throat.
Behind me, I hear an irritated mutter. “I’m not cleaning him up this time.”
I shift forward, closing the gap between us. “You think I want anyone else, Kenny? When I’ve got you? Never in a million fucking years. You’re it for me. Only you.”
Her gaze rakes over my sweatshirt, as if examining it. Higher, climbing my throat until she reaches my face. Our eyes lock.
“I’d rather fight with you than spend a single second with anyone else,” I breathe. “No more hiding, baby. You’re safe out here.”
The growl suggests that she feels otherwise. My throat locks. “Please, Kennedy.”
This… isn’t going to work.
The realization threatens to break me. To knock my legs out from beneath me, to drag me under waves of grief and drown what’s left of my soul.
I close my eyes, my words a prayer to who the fuck knows what deity. Any of them. All of them. “Come back to us.”
She takes a single step, her eyes still locked on my face. I stop breathing as she edges closer, her own breathing deepening as if she’s stealing the oxygen from my lungs. She sniffs at the air, her cheeks flushing as she creeps closer.
I barely feel my knees hit the floor. My hands raise, my throat stretching until I’m completely bared to her. My words come out in a trembling rush. “I’m begging you, Kenny. I’m on my fucking knees foryou.Comeback.”
Come back or end me. Because I can’t do this life without all of you in it.
I close my eyes, breathing her in. Cherries. Chocolate.
And… that’s it.
Shock steals my air, eyes flying wide to connect with bright, scarlet, furious irises.Cherries. Chocolate.“Kenny—?”
She lunges for my throat.
Kenny
Thebarsaresmall.
So small. My hand barely fits between them, but it doesn’t matter.
There’s nothing there.
Screaming, until it burns my throat away to dust.
Until I’m nothing but a speck, buried in the dark.
Nobody is coming.
And it’s so, so dark.
***
Hurts.
I don’t want it to hurt anymore.
