The locker room door creaks open before I can respond, and Jade drops from sight so fast I wonder if I imagined him.
“Saint? You in here?” Micah’s worry bounces off the tile walls.
I snap the case closed and shove it deep into my gym bag.
“Yeah,” I call back, willing steadiness into my voice. “Be right out.”
“Are you okay?” His footsteps approach my stall. “The instructor was way out of line. Jade almost decked him after you left.”
I flush the toilet for cover, buying seconds to compose my face.
“Old instincts.” I unlatch the stall door and step out. “Guy shouldn’t have grabbed me.”
Micah stands in his workout clothes, hair damp with sweat at the temples, concern etched across his features. “Total dick move.” He studies my face. “You sure you’re all right? You went white as a sheet.”
“I’m fine.” The lie falls from my lips with practiced ease.
I move past him to the sink, turning on cold water to wash my hands and splash my face while avoiding my reflection.
Jade leans against a locker, arms crossed over his chest, watching our exchange with his lips pressed into a thin line. He doesn’t like what he caught me almost doing in the stall, but he’s keeping his mouth shut, for now.
Good, Micah doesn’t need more reasons to worry about me.
“I’m going to change real quick.” Micah pulls his gym bag from a bench. “Coffee after this? I need to drown this whole experience in sugar. I won’t be coming back here.”
“Sure.” I dry my hands on a paper towel, the need to cut still thrumming under my skin, but Micah’s presence pushes it back to a dull roar.
As he disappears into a changing stall, Jade slides closer. “You good?”
“Been better.” I shrug on my leather jacket.
“Been worse, too.” He tips his chin toward the stall where I’d been sitting. “Not judging. We all have our ways to cope.”
My throat tightens at the casual acceptance. Jadeand I are two sides of the same coin when it comes to our traumas, and we’re both determined to make sure Micah never joins our fucked-up club.
Micah’s voice drifts from his stall. “So, this place was a bust. I can’t believe it had such high reviews with this quality of instructors.”
Jade’s mouth quirks up at the corner. “Do I hear a plot to take down this establishment brewing?”
Their easy banter fills the locker room as Micah changes. I sit on the bench, focusing on my breathing, counting down from ten over and over.
“Can’t say I’m not tempted,” Micah continues, “this can’t be the first incident of inappropriate behavior. Bet I could dig up enough to, at minimum, have the guy fired.”
“There’s the righteous hacker we all love,” Jade coos.
“I’ve been thinking of doing some kind of charity work next month for the Omega Outreach Program,” Micah says, his face softening. “After what happened with my stalker, Trevor, I want to help other Omegas who’ve been through worse.”
The word ‘worse’ hangs in the air, and I catch Jade’s eye. His expression doesn’t change, but something in his posture shifts.
From snippets I’ve caught while visiting Micah athis mate’s fancy Rockford Manor, Jade went through worse shit than my best friend. He was held captive by an Omega trafficking ring for a while before they located and saved him.
“It’s so awful what’s been happening around here,” Micah continues as Jade’s face goes blank. “But we’re safe now, right?”
The silence that follows makes my skin crawl.
Jade stares at a point on the wall, seeing a different place, a different time. “Yeah. Safe as houses.”
Micah emerges from the stall in fresh clothes, oblivious to the way his question triggered us, and the contrast hits me hard in the gut.
