When he bares his teeth, we go to war with each other, and these days, I always win—no matter how bad things get.
Today, they’re pretty fucking bad.
Everything is blindingly bright, and I’ve had a low hum in my skull that I can’t shake. My energy is zapped, and even breathing hurts.
Collapsing on Gabi’s bed for a nap isn’t the best idea I’ve ever had, but moving would require a moral compass, which I don’t possess.
When she gets home from school, I hear the elevator open down the hall, and Rafe greets her.
He’s currently parked on the lounge, probably losing his mind from boredom.
He might annoy the fuck out of me when he flirts with Gabi to get under my skin, but he’s loyal to a fault. When I asked him to be here this week, just in case he needed to murder me if anything goes sideways, he didn’t hesitate.
After a brief exchange, Gabi pads down the hall with Beppe trailing after her, his nails tapping over the floor.
When she enters the room and sees me sprawled across her bed, she shoots me a glare.
“Have you ever heard of boundaries?” she huffs.
“Can’t say that I care much for them.”
Despite the bite in her tone, she stares at me for a long moment, her gaze roaming the length of my body before she shakes herself out of it.
“Why are you in here, Romeo?”
“I thought I should see if there was something wrong with the bed. Or is there another reason you preferred sleeping on me last night?”
“Do you make it your life’s mission to torture me?”
The emotion clogging her throat bothers me, and my amusement dries up when I see the tears hovering at the edges of her eyes. She’s upset, and it isn’t just over this conversation.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, frustrated that I don’t already know.
“Nothing,” she rasps.
“Gabi, tell me why you’re upset.”
“Yeah, so you can use it against me later?” She sighs. “I don’t have the energy to fight with you today. Can you please just leave?”
Tension bleeds through my muscles as I clamp my jaw shut, biting back my words.
If I were in the mask right now, I’d tell her to get her ass over here and crawl into bed with me so I could take care of her. She would do it, because she trusts him.
But she doesn’t trust me.
I force myself upright, static crackling through my ears as electricity pulses through my skull. A flush crawls over my skin as I blink through the blinding white, muttering a low curse.
Not right now.
I can see the vague outline of the doorway, and I know from past experience I have seconds, if that, to get the fuck out of here.
My vision swims as I try to move, and everything feels like it’s underwater as Gabi says something that doesn’t register.
I’m halfway to the door when pain explodes behind my eyes, and I reach for the back of my head.
White-hot agony pierces through me as I lose control, and my knees buckle.
I collapse forward, bracing for the impact of the floor, but something catches my face, softening the blow.
