“I said no,” I snap aggressively.
“Give it a rest, Ashe,” a grumbly, sleepy voice says to my side. It’s really him.Ty.
“Ty?” I whisper, breathlessly.
“Yeah,cariño,I’m here.” He scotches forward in the seat he’s in by me, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and sitting up. It’s obvious that he stayed right beside me throughout the night.
“What… How…” I do my best to ask questions but there are so many, my words trip over themselves in my head.
“I found you,” he says with an awed smile. “After six fucking years, I found you again. Getting your ass handed to you.” He sighs loudly, running his hand over his weary face still lined with sleep. “What a reunion, Rox.”
“I always aim to make a grand entrance,” I say with a snort and close my eyes, laying back and muttering softly, “I found you first.”
“What?” Ty asks, his voice soft and quiet, like he knows my head is killing me. He probably does. No, I know he does based on all that Mickey’s said and the fights I’ve snuck into.
“Nothing,” I whisper back. “God, my head hurts.”
“Ashe, can you go get the new painkillers? The ones in the bathroom, still sealed?” Ty asks, and I peek an eye open. He’s looking at Asher with a very careful, guarded expression. One that screams protective.
“Yeah, I can do that.” Asher nods and walks off, leaving Ty and I alone.
“What happened?” I ask Ty softly, letting my head fall to the side so I can see him. So I can really see him. Not covered in blood or dirt or looking aggressive because of the fight… Just Ty.
He’s older, of course, but in a way that tells me he’sgrowninto his looks. He was lean and muscled before, his jaw and cheekbones sharp, but now… Now, he’s a man.
Bigger, broader, rougher somehow. His wavy hair is gone, a buzzcut left in its wake. But those eyes… I’d know those eyes anywhere.
Ty’s looking at me as if he’s cataloguing all the differences in me as well.
Well, that or he’s trying to determine my injuries. I can feel how swollen my eyes are. I’m going to have some not-so-nice words with Harry the next time I see him.
And if he leaves with a new black eye, so be it.
Ty takes a deep breath, and pulls one of my hands in his. The moment his skin touches mine, I’m thrown back into memories. The memories that make me ache with longing. The ones that have become my safe space in my mind. The ones that I hold so close to my chest because they’reprecious.
I gasp, and his eyes flash to mine. He knows. He understands.
“I got to The Underground for my fight that my dumbass brother pushed me into and to my surprise; you were there. In the middle of a fight that should’ve been fucking stopped but no one was stepping up. I saw you,” he says with a far-off look in his eyes like he’s not telling me the whole story. “You were…laying there, knocked out, and being punched like he wastryingto kill you. And I just snapped. I saw red and all I needed was to get you out of there. I stepped in and with one hit, that scrawny fucker was on his ass.”
“No,” I whisper, my heart drops through my stomach.
“Hey, hey, what is it?” I can hear the worry in his voice, the way he’s automatically able to tell that something’s wrong. Even after all this time. But I can’t focus on that right now, all I can see, feel, hear, is the overwhelming panic taking over me.
“Oh god,” I say, nerves and anxiety overtaking me and making my stomach turn violently.He stopped the fight, he stopped the fight, he stopped the fight. I lost, I lost, I lost,the spiraling, ruminating thoughts take over and I can’t stop.
I lean over the edge of the couch, even through the pain, and I dry heave. Throwing up even though I have nothing in my system. Ty doesn’t move, doesn’t jump back in shock, just rubs my back and tells me to breathe.
“Are you alright?” Ty whispers when I stop heaving, and gently wipes away the saliva that’s dripping down my chin as I roll back onto the soft cushions. His strong, rough hands help me move back into a position that doesn’t make me want to curse in pain, and then asks me softly, “What’s wrong?”
“You stopped the fight.”
“Fuck yes, I stopped the fight. You weren’t fighting back. You weren’t awake. He was going tokillyou and I was not going to wait for that to happen.” Ty looks at me with such a confusedlook, it’d be cute if I wasn’t about to be killed. “I finally found you again, and I found youin the dirt in an underground fighting ring getting your face kicked in.”
“But now he—” I say but shut my mouth quickly. He doesn’t need to know about Mickey.
About what Mickey does. About what Mickey doesn’t do.
“What?” Ty asks sharply. “But now he what? Who? Roxie, are you in trouble?” The questions leave his lips so quickly they give me whiplash and cause my defenses to rise.
