“Your room, of course. Seriously, it’s late. Go poke your head in on her, then come back down so I can get to bed.”
She walked away toward the bar, so I headed upstairs. Knocking on the door, I opened it.
Sparrow was curled up in a ball on the bed under the covers. When she looked up and saw me, her face broke and tears flooded her eyes. “Rooster,” she said with a cracked voice as she sat up.
Rushing to the bed, I sat and pulled her close. “I’m here, baby. I’m here.”
Her body shook as I rocked her, petting her hair. She whimpered into my chest.
“I’m so sorry, Kristie.”
“Don’t-call-me-by-my-government-name,” she said between sobs.
“Sparrow, I’m sorry.”
She hiccuped a few times, then sniffled before pulling back to wipe her cheeks. She blew out a heavy breath, then said, “I’m okay. It was just scary. But you’re here now.”
“This never should have happened,” I told her, wiping a tear from her cheek.
“Well, thanks to Red I’m okay, and they have the guy that broke into my apartment.”
“It should’ve been me.” Shaking my head, I said, “None of this should have happened at all.”
“Hey, you would’ve been here if you could. But Hawk said you had to go.”
Standing, I wiped my hand down my face. “Exactly. This life is–”
“Oh, no.” She stood up, her face still red and eyes puffy. “Hell no. Stop. You aren’t doing this. Look at me,” she said as she grabbed my shoulders to turn me.
Wincing, I turned.
She looked at me with her brows drawn together, so I lifted my sleeve.
“Shit. I’m– actually, no.” She smirked. “I’m not sorry. You deserved that for trying to take a stroll down pity-party lane and attempt to ditch me,again.”
“I’m not ditching you–”
“Oh, Iknowyou aren’t. Because I’m not leaving,” she said, waving her arms. “You aren’t pushing me away again. You don’t get to be the martyr, Rick. You told me you loved me, fucking act like it!” she yelled.
Stepping forward until I forced her against the wall, I gripped her face. Her hazel irises practically glowed from the redness surrounding them. “I do love you, Sparrow. I just want what’s best for you.”
“You’re not my father. Stop treating me like a child. If I was going to leave, I would’ve been gone before you got here. I just need you to hold me.”
“I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, Sparrow.”
“You do realize the world sucks, right? Those guys were at the bar that night. It doesn’t matter if you were. They were there anyway. Maybe you showing up is the reason Bit and I didn’t get killed or sold off that night. Did you ever think about that?”
“Sparrow, I–”
“And we said a clean slate, right? A fresh start. So why do you keep trying to repeat the past? You trying to push me away scares me more than some assholes shooting at me, Rick.”
Leaning my forehead to hers, I sighed. “I won’t let you go, Sparrow. I just don’t know how to navigate this. If something happens to you…” I couldn’t even continue. I’d burn the world down, with everyone and everything in it. Then I’d be left with nothing.
Her hands wrapped around my wrists. “You need to learn to communicate better with me. You can’t allude to leaving, or making me leave every time things get hard. Because thiswillbe hard. But I think it’s worth it.”
“I promise to learn, Sparrow.” My jaw ticked as I threaded my fingers through her hair. “I wasn’t trying to push you away. I can’t let you go. Not again. I just got…”
“Scared,” she whispered. “It’s okay to be scared.”
