He didn’t nod. He didn’t speak. Just stared off into nothing.
“Who are you tracking, Devil?”
Silence for a long moment, and then in a quiet voice, “My rabbit.”
I’d known Dex a few years now. He was an antagonizer. Always teasing, always smirking. He’d always seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn’t let anyone or anything get to him. But right now, he was broken. Wounded. A ghost of the man I’d always seen him as.
“Your…rabbit… they hurt you?”
“He didn’t mean it!” Dex snapped his head toward me, eyes struggling to focus. “It was an accident. Hesavedme. I need to… to…” He trailed off, brow furrowing as he tried to focus again. His lips parted without speaking, his words escaping him, and he was no more capable of capturing them again than he was his rabbit.
“He still hurt you, Dex. Really badly. When Cupid called me, he didn’t think you’d make it through the first night.”
He huffed. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters! He hurt you, intentionally or not. If he’s running away, it’s because he saw that and didn’t want to hurtyou anymore. You think it’s easy?” My throat tightened. “It isn’t easy. Running away hurts too. But sometimes it’s for the best. So no one else gets hurt.”
I knew I wasn’t talking about Dex and his rabbit anymore. I knew my situation and his were entirely different. But were they really? One person hurting the other, then running away. If this guy had hurt Dex and run off, it didn’t show that he didn’t care, it showed how much hedid. “Leaving is harder than staying, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. You should let him go.”
“Never.” He turned to look at me again, jaw clenched and pale eyes full of fury. “I willneverlet him go. He’s mine. I don’t care if it hurts.”
Dex glared at me, and I glared right back.
He wasn’t being logical. He wouldn’t listen to reason. I hated myself for wanting that. Craving it. Dex was ready to take on all of us to the point he’d had to be chained to his sickbed. He cared so much about getting his lover back that he didn’t care he was badly injured, didn’t care that the guy clearly wanted to stay away.
What would it be like to have someone fight for me that hard?
What would it be like to have someone fight for me at all?
I stood. “I’ll get you the phone.” I pulled out my wallet and found the business card I’d come here to give him. I flicked it onto the bed beside him. He didn’t take his eyes off me to look at it. “It’s a physiotherapist. Best in Harborview. I’ve paid for your sessions.”
He looked away. “I don’t want physiotherapy. I want Jonah.”
I sighed. “Then go to physiotherapy, and afterward—onlyafterward—I’ll help you get him back.”
Pale blue flicked back to me. “Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
Dex looked at the card, reaching for it with the hand that wasn’t bandaged up. He looked it over, then nodded softly. “I need to sleep.”
“Okay. If you need anything besides the phone, get someone to text me.”
He nodded, and I left, passing Roy as he paced just outside the door. He went right back in, presumably to take his place at Dex’s side again. I’d think he was a worried father if I didn’t already know that Dex’s dad had died.
Then I went downstairs. To find Bryce, and to have tea.
twenty-four
Harper
SOMEONE TO LISTEN.
“We won’t be able to meet the updated project deadline unless we work through the weekend.”
I glanced up from my screen to face the head of the hardware and prototyping labs. Normally, she’d be reporting to my father, but I’d taken on extra projects and responsibilities as I’d increased the number of hours I spent in the office over the past six months.
“So, work the weekend,” I told her.
