“I omitted the truth.”
“Are you really trying to argue a technicality?”
A scream ripped out of my throat. I wished more than anything that I wasn’t standing in front of him. I needed somewhere safe. Somewhere I could process what Archer had shown me. The gold grew so blindingly bright that it forced me to squeeze my eyes shut.
When I opened them again, I was no longer in Gray’s home. I stood precariously at the edge of a pond and almost lost my balance until a mustard-coloured aura grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from it.
“You certainly know how to make an entrance,” the man who possessed the aura said.
He stood beside Dionne, sharing the same skin colour, bone structure and hair, although his braids ended just past the nape of his neck.
“Marcel, go home,” Dionne muttered, striding towards me.
“And miss out on this,” Marcel replied. “Not a chance.”
I straightened up and pinned my gaze on her. “This is your home?”
“Yes,” she said, stopping in front of me, with Marcel behind her.
“I need to stay with you for a few days.”
“Quentin, I’m—"
“I need a place to stay, Dionne. Can you help me or not?”
“Does Hunter know?”
“I don’t give a flying fuck if he knows,” I said, aura reappearing. “Please don’t make me go back up there.”
“Okay,” she said, putting her hands up between us. “You can stay the night.”
* * *
I wanted sleepto be part of the equation. A distant part of my brain tried to convince me that this was all a bad dream. That if I slept and woke up, I would regain consciousness on the canvas at Sal’s after taking a rough hit. There would be no Gods. No job. No lies.
But the excruciating pain that burnt in my chest and knotted in the depths of my stomach demanded to be felt. Pain didn’t belong in the beautiful land of dreams. Emotions this strong only existed in the dismal dread of real life.
A knock on the door made me wipe the tears roughly from my face before Marcel walked in. “You have a visitor,” he said, leaning against the door.
“I’m not in the mood to see anyone.”
“Archer’s refusing to leave until he’s seen you.”
I jammed the heels of my palms into my eyes and took in three deep breaths. If I could go back in time, I would tell Gareth exactly where he could stuff his job. It led to more trouble than it was worth.
“Dionne’s my twin. This is her home. She’s my family.”
“I get it,” I snapped, moving my hands away from my eyes.
Everyone had family. Everyone had someone they wanted to protect the best they could. Put it all on the line for. I didn’t fall into those circles, which meant that I once again needed to rely on the only person I could. Me.
Pushing myself off the bed, I brushed past Marcel and went downstairs. The sound of Dionne and Archer arguing cut clear through the house, but I didn’t bother to knock on the door before I walked into the room.
“You’re taking stalking to a whole new level,” I told Archer. If Gray managed to harm him, he bore no marks from the assault.
“Would you like me to stay?” Dionne asked.
“I think your brother might put my head on a pike if I asked you to do that. I can deal with this,” I answered sharply.
