But not actually seeming at all pissed off that we werein a fucking room in God knew where after pretty much getting ambushed.
I wanted to cry.
“Do notget… hysterical. I’m not… in the mood,” The Defender grumbled.
I blinked.
Hewasn’t in the mood?
Him?
I took my time pressing my lips together, thinking, then asked so, so slowly, so quietly, “Are you shitting me right now?”
He yawned.
Yawned!
“I thought they hurt you!” I hissed, sounding 1000 percent panicked. Because I was. I was scared on top of this. I was so, so scared.
“They used… beanbag rounds,” he explained like he was telling me about the weather. Like we were on the couch at my trailer and not… nothere. Having this conversation about being hit by beanbag rounds.
As tears filled my eyes and something terrible formed in my throat, he gave me another one of the irritated looks he’d been shooting my way since we’d met.
I stared at him. I stared at him in disbelief. In terror.
“They didn’t… hurt me,” he said, sounding almost dismissive even as his eyes narrowed. “You’re the one who got hurt. Probably have… bruised ribs.”
That explained a lot, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
“How are you so calm?” I asked him, twisting my head to look around the room just in case I’d missed something a minute ago.
“Why shouldn’t I be?” he asked in that grumbly, crabby voice that was the one I knew best.
“Is this not kind of a jail cell?”
“It is.”
We were in a jail cell.
I’d been shot with beanbag rounds, which totally explained why my back and ribs ached so bad.
And now… now… he was choosing to talk to me.
Fuck.
Fuckkkkk.
I’d tried to live my life quietly. So small.Don’t draw attention.Don’t become too attached to anything. I had kept away from people for not just my own benefit but for theirs too. I tried to be decent. I believed in karma.
But I was still here.
Because I had been a stubborn motherfucker trying to do her best.
I’d ignored the signs like an idiot.
Resentment toward my parents stirred hard in my chest. In my entire soul if I was going to be honest. I didn’t think it was possible to be so damn pissed off, but it was.
My eyes started to sting, and it took me a couple tries before I got my mouth to actually croak, “And you’re okay with that?” Because I wasn’t. This was my nightmare.
