“Trading one monster for three. Yes, she wants us,” Knox says with a roll of his eyes.
“Don’t say that,” I snap. “We’re better than him.” We have to be.
“He shaped us, fucked with our heads… I just hope we can be better,” Knox says with a sigh.
He shaped us… not only us. We weren’t the first and I’m sure we weren’t the last. The thought forces disgust to rise as my stomach twists.
She wasn’t mine to protect.
I fixed it, I changed it this time. I saved Hope… even if I couldn’t saveher.
Memories threaten to take over, pulling me back into the dark past. But I can’t, not until I’m sure Hope’s safe. That we’re all safe from whoever called Coach and whoever watched the feed.
“Any news?” I ask Dimitri and he grabs the laptop from the coffee table.
“The whole site went dark. I checked the phone number and it’s already disconnected.” He opens the laptop and refreshes the page. “See, nothing, as if it never existed.”
“Who takes the first shift tonight?” Knox asks and finishes his beer.
“I’ll watch her,” I offer.
“You need sleep, Jax,” Dimitri mumbles. “You never wake us up, and you can’t… never mind.”
“The nightmares are getting… better,” I note.
“Better?” Knox scoffs. “She might seem better during the day, but at night? Fuck.” He runs his hand through his hair and curses under his breath.
“She doesn’t seem to remember them,” I say with a shrug off my shoulders.
Knox rests his elbows on his knees as he stares me down. “Remind me, why did you take all your piercings out?” Knox pushes.
I narrow my eyes. “Not all.”
Dimitri chuckles. “Just the ones she tried to claw out during one of her nightmares.”
“Jax doesn’t seem to mind,” Knox teases. “He probably thinks it’s their love language.”
“Fuck you,” I spit out. “And yeah, I do.”
A smile spreads as Knox and Dimitri laugh.
“I’ll take every hit from her if that means she feels better,” I say and their laughter dies down.
“We all will, smartass.” Dimitri sighs and places the laptop back on the coffee table.
“We can’t stay away from the team much longer.” Knox changes the subject.
“She can’t go,” I say. The bruises on her face, her neck—she can’t handle the questions.
“I know,” Knox answers. “But I’ll go tomorrow and tell Carpenter we’re back and that Hope is with us. I’ll make up some story; it will be okay.”
“Will it?” Dimitri asks. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m still waiting for whoever called Coach to barge in here and kill us.”
I nod and lean back. “We should move,” I say.
“That’s not going to fix this,” Dimitri snarks.
“I know,” I snap back. “But it will help Hope.”
