“Gracie,” he said suddenly. “Everything is going to be fine. You’re safe.”
I could have done a hell of a lot worse.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Rolling over the next morning,I blinked blearily at the bare back inches away from my face, and then at the unfamiliar room around me.
The smooth skin… it was Alex. We were at his house.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, I immediately regretted when it hurt. I rolled over and rubbed at my face, taking in the light coming in around the curtains.What time is it?I wondered as my stomach growled, reminding me of how erratically we’d been eating for days. The one thing I didn’t need a reminder for was that every single part of my body ached, inside and out.
Hewasright about me needing to go see a doctor. I’d woken up in the middle of the night, sweating, sure my fever was still lurking. I couldn’t get sick anymore. I was fucking tired of it.
Rolling out of bed, I tiptoed out and shut the door as quietly as possible, even though according to what he wanted everyone to believe, he was fully aware at all times. I crept down the stairs, hearing noises coming from the kitchen. It was Selene in there, at the table, talking steadily into a cell phone, an empty plate in front of her.
Her bright blue eyes came to mine, and she smiled before pointing toward dishes piled with eggs, waffles, and breakfast sausages on the island, then at the cupboards.
It took me a long time to find the cabinet with dishes, one with cups, and another with cutlery. All of it was nice too, heavy and not at all like the lightweight stuff that wouldn’t break if it was dropped from a third story that I toted around. ThatI’dtoted around. In the past.
It was all gone now after all.
I filled up the glass I’d had to go to my tippy toes to reach and gulped one down before refilling it with water from a filter on the counter. After filling up my plate, I stood there and ate slowly, savoring everything. I was so hungry, and my head was starting to hurt. I’d left the painkillers upstairs.
And what time was it?
I glanced at the microwave and jerked.
“I’ll talk to you later,” Selene said into the phone a moment before hanging up. “Hi, Gracie,” she greeted. “How’d you sleep?”
“Hi,” I told her, clutching my fork. “Really well. Is it really two?”
“Yes. If it makes you feel any better, I woke up at noon, and I haven’t been on the run for days,” she told me easily. “You both looked like you needed the rest.” Her crazy blue eyes flicked toward the ceiling. “He can go a few days without sleeping, but once it catches up to him, it hits him hard.”
“And here I was worried he has a sleeping disorder,” I told her, at ease but still a little uncertain about her. It was weird talking to a stranger, especially about The Defender. “He looked like hell for a while,” I told her. “I don’t think he’s slept much in days.” Possibly longer than that.
She watched me for a minute, a tiny smile playing at her mouth. “He’s tough. He’ll be fine.”
I hoped so.
“About your things, do you want to take my car and run errands? I would take you, but I have two meetings I can’t reschedule.”
Oh. “Are you sure? If it’s okay with you, if not, I can wait.” I couldn’t trust that the superbeing upstairs was ever going to have time to drive me around. That hadn’t been part of our deal. “The thing is, I don’t have any money.” That hurt me to say. I’d come to terms with that fact at some point while I’d been clinging to his neck, except I’d thought it would be Alex I’d be hitting up for a small loan. But my gut felt good around Selene. And for whatever reason, I didn’t feel so awkward asking her for it. Desperate times call for desperate measures. “Could I borrow some? Please? I can pay you back when I figure out how to get access to my bank account again.”
She started nodding before I’d even finished talking. “No problem. I don’t have a lot of cash on me….” She reached over to pick up a bright red purse, pulled out a slim, black wallet that had initials stamped all over it, and plucked out a few neatly folded bills.
Five one-hundred-dollar bills.
She didn’t consider that a lot of cash?
She handed it over, along with a credit card, that I instantly tried to give back.
“This is more than enough.”
Her dark blonde eyebrows rose. “Alex said you don’t have anything.”
I winced at the reminder of the situation I was in. “I don’t, but I don’t want to go too crazy. I’ll just get what I need for now.”
She kept the card in midair. “You sure?”
