Yeah.
This boy is going to fucking wreck me.
***Eli***
“There are so many of them,” Lila says as we watch Maverick’s men swarm the compound on the security screens. Black suits, guns, stern faces…everywhere. “They outnumber our guys ten to one.”
“If Maverick turns on us,” Riley whispers, voice shaking, “he could take us down with a flick of his wrist. There are hundreds of them out there. Hundreds. And we have what? Maybe thirty men up there?”
“Oh no. Eli.”
I can’t focus. The edges of my vision shimmer, a slow, dangerous pulse. I’m trying every breathing technique known to mankind, but it’s like my lungs forgot how to work.
My heart is galloping. My body is buzzing. My legs feel like they’ve been unplugged.
Someone speaks near me…Sunny, I think…but her voice is muffled, far away, like she’s talking to me from the bottom of a pool.
“Skip said if he passes out, it won’t last long,” someone murmurs. “We just need to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself when he falls.”
I feel hands guiding me downward.
“Easy, Eli,” Sunny says softly, lowering me onto the couch. “We’ve got you. Just breathe, honey. You’re okay.”
“I…I can’t…” My throat tightens. My fingers go numb. “There’s… there’s so many.”
Terrifying. Overwhelming. Too much.
Abby kneels right beside me, gripping my hand tight.
“Look at me,” she says, voice steady, eyes determined. “Skip is up there. Spike is up there. Bones is up there. Max. Foster. Knuckles. Crusher. Those men would let the world burn before they let anything happen to us.”
“But they’re outnumbered,” I whisper. “So badly. What if…What if someone turns a gun on Skip? What if…”
“Eli,” Abby says, cupping my cheek gently, “listen to me. You’re spiraling.”
My breath stutters.
She presses her forehead gently against mine.
“You’re safe. You’re not alone. And Skip isn’t stupid enough to leave you without coming back.”
“But he might not be able to.”
“He will,” Abby says fiercely. “I’ve never seen a man so obsessed with another person in my life. Skip is coming back.”
My eyes burn. My lips tremble. My hands are ice-cold.
“I don’t think this is a spell,” Riley says softly. “I think he’s having a panic attack.”
“Which will turn into one of his spells if we don’t calm him down,” Lila adds, pressing a cool cloth gently against my forehead. “Eli, sweetheart, breathe with me. In… two… out… four…”
It takes several long, shaky minutes before the roaring in my ears finally quiets. My lungs still feel tight, but I’m not drowning anymore.
Just exhausted. Embarrassed. Like all my insides are trembling.
“I feel like such a wuss,” I mumble, staring down at my hands. “You’re all strong women, and here I am…a man who had to be pulled back from the edge of a freaking cliff.”
My voice cracks at the last word. Perfect. Let’s add that to my growing list of humiliations.
