Illya
“Stay here.” Shutting off his car, Theo pulled the keys out of the ignition with his left hand, and I sunk into the seat even as he cast me a sharp glance. “Don’t run away. I’ll be pissed.”
“I’m not gonna run away.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I frowned as I gazed out the window at the rundown, unkempt house we’d stopped at. Theo stared at me for a few, slow seconds, and I huffed childishly at how sharply this day had turned from okay to downright bad. When I didn’t look back, he got out of the car and only briefly did the notion of running away flash through my head.
Theo knew where I worked and lived, though, so there was no point but to suffer through his. The sooner he found Sylvie, the sooner he’d leave me alone.Hopefully.Right now, we were just going door to door searching for her, and I pulled my phone out of my fanny pack to check the time. I had work in three hours, but I was seriously considering lying about it and saying I had to in at six p.m. instead of seven p.m.
“Why did you do something so stupid, disappear, and still manage to get me involved somehow.” Mumbling through clenched teeth, I rested my head against the seat as I watched Theo walk up to the door. He didn’t knock, just strong-armed the barrier open, and my mind swiftly turned to the little episode at my apartment.
Obviously, Theo had been through some stuff. I mean, he had two fingers missing from one of his hands. Now, in the cold light of day, I noticed a scar running up the side of his face, and his nose had clearly been broken more than a few times. I couldn’t help the curiosity I had surrounding him, but I surely wasn’t going to ask about it.
If I asked about Theo’s scars, maybe he’d want to see mine, and I just wasn’t going through that. Not for him. Not for anyone.
“Ugh . . . ” I wished the seat would open up and suck me in, and I reached to push my palms into my eyes. The ruined skin on my chest prickled as my lungs deflated in an exasperated sigh, and I ran my hands down my face with a loud groan. “This sucks.”
I was stupid to think, as the days passed by uneventfully, that I was done with Theo, and I scowled darkly. If I never saw him again, it’d be too soon.Who cares if he’s muscular and a little aloof and actually a human, not a robot wearing human skin.
To be fair to Theo, he didn’t break into my apartment by busting down my door. He just picked the locks, and I gave him points for that, at least.
Seeing him in pain with his hand also gave me some closure that he was a little bit human, and my heart throbbed in my chest. I couldn’t imagine the struggles Theo had to go through every single day, and I turned my gaze to my hands to flex my fingers. There were more scars, I knew; there just had to be more. Could I go all day without using two of my fingers? Could I even go an hour?
I didn’t want to feel anything for Theo, but as much as I wanted him gone, sympathy still stung the backs of my eyes. In that regard, at least, he was just like me, and I pulled up my tank top to frown under furrowed brows. The thin layer of bandages wrapped around my torso hid the worst of me, and I winced when I pressed down on my abdomen. After thirteen years, the constant pain hadn’t faded away, I’d just gotten used to it.
Was that what Theo went through with his hand? Or was his hand the exception to his other scars?
“Why am I even thinking about this? I don’t want to be involved with him. He’s bad news. I have a hard enough time without worrying about someone else.” Grumbling, my frown darkened as Theo emerged out of the house out of the corner of my eye, and I sat up a little. This was only our third house checked, and he was scowling as he walked alone toward his car.
“Someone was sober enough to recognize her, a couple blocks away.” Slamming the door, Theo worked the key into the ignition and twisted awkwardly, and the car rumbled to life. “I don’t really trust tweakers, but we’ll check it out anyway.”
“And then I can go back home.” Mine wasn’t a question, but Theo nodded curtly, his expression souring some. Relief eased the burning of my skin under my shirt, and I closed my eyes briefly. “Good.”
“How did you and this chick meet, anyway?” The car peeled off the curb, and I cracked open my eyes as Theo, thankfully, kept his on the road. “You said you got her clean four years ago.”
“We met at a women’s shelter when we were twenty. After a couple months, we decided to move from Los Angeles. I told her I wouldn’t unless she kicked her heroin habit, so she did.” That time had been so rough. The cops had been cracking down on homeless people back then, and getting a spot at the shelter was nearly impossible. Sylvie and I started squatting, but she got picked up by the police for panhandling, and it’d freaked us out. “We moved here a little more than three years ago. I told Sylvie that if she did drugs again, I’d cut her out without hesitation. She was really upset when I threw her shit out the window, and she couldn’t get to it fast enough.”
“Why were you homeless?” Irritation bubbled up against my ribs like hot tar, and I sunk into my seat as Theo took a turn hard. The tires squealed in protest, but he didn’t slow down, and I gripped the door handle tightly as my insides sloshed from the force.
“U-uh . . . my parents died when I was thirteen, and I went into foster care. Pretty self-explanatory.” It seemed like for every question I answered, Theo had another one, and a sinking feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. My plan was backfiring on me, but I couldn’t back out of it now. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“There’s the house.” My gaze swung to the windshield, but this house looked like all the others— rundown and forgotten by the town. This city had a small but noticeable number of houses that were just ignored. I’d always had a feeling that someone had swooped them up for this exact purpose. A lot of drugs came into this town on its way west, but we were far enough away from the ocean not to have a port close enough to be suspicious.
Blinking hard, I pursed my lips thinly as Theo pulled up on the curb, and he swore viciously when he bumped up onto the crackled sidewalk. The car jostled dangerously, and I tightened my grip on the door handle as he worked on readjusting. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him struggle to turn the wheel with his bad hand as he twisted to see where he was going. A nasty kind of frustration engulfed his features, and his jaw ticked as the muscles in his neck strained.
My heart squeezed, and I stuffed my fists between my legs and glared at my lap as I silently cursed myself.
“Shit.” The whole car jolted hard as the wheel on the pavement slid off onto the asphalt, and Theo’s fiery breath was so hot it reached my shoulder. He turned the car off, and I peeked up through my lashes while he jerked the key from the ignition. “Get out.”
I didn’t hesitate to unbuckle, and I popped open the door and tried my damnedest to shove down this sensation tingling against my ribs. Shutting the passenger side door gingerly, I stepped onto the sidewalk to glance at the rear wheel, and it’s absolutely messed up rim. There was a huge dent in the spokes where the corner of the sidewalk smashed into the metal, and I winced just looking at it.
That’s just sad.
Theo’s eyes didn’t so much as flicker to the damage he’d caused as he grabbed my forearm with his good hand. Stomping up the walkway, the muscles in his back rippled powerfully underneath his shirt, and I frowned under furrowed brows. This time, he didn’t pull any punches as he shoved the door open with his shoulder like he’d done it a million times.
He didn’t look at me, and a tiny part of me wondered if he was embarrassed about his parking.
But then the stench hit me, and I covered my mouth with my free hand as Theo released my arm to pull out his phone. When he tapped on the flashlight, he illuminated wasted bodies and passed out drug addicts on dirty, disgusting mattresses or just lying on the floor. I couldn’t even tell who was a guy or girl— they all looked the same— and I grabbed Theo’s ruined hand when he tried to step away.
He looked back, and flames licked up my face to my ears as my fingers curled around smooth scar tissue. For a quick second, our eyes met, and I sucked in a sharp breath when his thumb and pointer finger hooked around my hand. Trying not to breathe, the ammonia in the air stinging my eyes, I blinked hard, and he frowned before sort of nudging me back out the door.
“Here.” Sliding his phone into his pocket, Theo started taking off his t-shirt, and a wife-beater clung like a second skin to his toned torso. He managed a lot easier than with his parking job, and he shoved the fabric into my face with a grunt. “Tie it around your head.”
“Like this?” Covering my whole face, I took a fraction of a moment to inhale deeply, and my eyelids fluttered as the heady, musky smell of him flooded my lungs. Snatching the shirt, Theo wassmirkingwhen my eyes focused on him, and the sparkle in his dark gaze tightened my chest.
Sidestepping me swiftly, he folded the shirt in half and wrapped it over my nose and mouth. Carefully tying the short sleeves over my hair, he pressed his palm to the small of my back, dangerously close to my ass.
“Ladies first.” I tensed when Theo grabbed my ass and squeezed, and his growl rolled down my spine. That seemed like such a strange thing to say, and I tilted my head to glance back only to find him staring at my ass. “I wish my fingers hadn’t been blown off, so I could really appreciate this ass.”
