The disconnect was brutal. I still felt Ranger’s touch, his closeness and body heat, but I was not present enough to appreciate it.
My mind wandered, sifting through the fragmented thoughts that remained. I thought about getting high, of course. But it was distant enough that I could ignore it. That would change as thedays dragged on, but for now, I could live with the flu-like ache weighing me down.
Perhaps I could live with anything with Ranger this close. Time would tell. “Can I ask you something?”
Ranger cocked a brow. “You’re back in the room, eh?”
“I never left.”
A low sound rumbled from his chest and I felt it in mine. Because he wasstillpinning me in place with his leg. Still hovering his palm over my hip. Still gazing at me with the sweet ferocity that was better than any dope hit.
“Ask me anything, Vik.”
“Why did Jake send you here? Was it to defend me, or protect me from myself?”
Dark things could always grow darker. I watched it happen in Ranger’s inky stare. Felt his grip on me tighten. It was not fanciful to imagine I heard his blood rush faster too.
His hand left my hip and rose to wrap around my jaw. “The second one. He told me about the assassins on your case, but he didn’t seem as worried about that as he was about leaving you to your own devices.”
I leaned into his touch before I caught myself. Wondered at the trance-like state he’d reduced me to in the space of ten minutes. With Ranger’s hand on my face and his lips mere inches from mine, it was hard to recall that someone else had tried to kill me before I’d made my own attempt. But it was not hard to remember that being around me would put Ranger’s life at risk. I had lost friends before. Comrades. Brothers. I could not lose him.
So push him away.
Apparently I could not do that either, and I wanted to kiss him so much that a strangled sound caught in my chest.
I am dying.
And I could only exist in his vortex until he saw fit to let me go.
His hand fell from my jaw as Lida padded back inside. She had a leaf from an orange tree on her back and I made myself step away from Ranger to flick it off. “It bothers me that you will not have a bed, but I will allow it if it is what you want.”
“Allow it, eh?” Ranger lounged forward, elbows on the counter. “What persuaded you?”
I needed distance from him.
To survive.
To die a slow and painful death.
I retreated to the kitchen doorway. “You are like Jake. I can resist you as much as I like, no? But you will always get what you want.”
[ 10 ]
RANGER
. . . you will always get what you want.
Was he having a fucking laugh? Until Viktor and Locke had escaped captivity alive, my worst fears had always come true: My dad was dead, Folk had come back from war a different man than when he left, and the Kings really had found Rocco’s bones in a fucking dog kennel.
Viktor left the room.
I followed and tracked him as he disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door.
Then I took a moment to breathe, thankful that this version of Vik apparently washed a lot. Shitting hell. How had I forgotten what this dude did to me? How he made my heart pound with his hot stare and drove every ounce of common sense I had out the window with a single fucking smile?
Not that he’d smiled that much in the short time we’d spent together, but Vik had the kind of face that didn’t need much emotion to shine. His eyes glittered, those cheekbones popped, and combined with the scruffy jaw he now sported, I was a certified mess.
You got a boner ten minutes in. I’d nearly kissed him—I’d nearlymauledhim when he was a day out from a junk binge.What genre of twat was I for believing I’d be able to handle this shit?
