That got a laugh out of all of us.‘You’re my main bitch and you know it,’I said into Ronnie’s mind. Connecting with her was the easiest because we were theclosest.
She smiled at that and gave Maxine a pointedlook.
My heart was racing, the stims mixed with pain pills making me feel jacked up andanxious.
“All right, I’ll see you guys in a few hours,” I told thegroup.
“Oorah!” Brisk said, and smiled as the rest responded in kind, including Josephine and Mr.Hansen.
As I left the room to let them get some rest, I should’ve felt good about the situation. They were well armed, they had the new plasma band, and no one in the group was a ghoul attraction. But a pit formed in my stomachanyway.
Everything had changed—it was hard not to acknowledgethat.
Chapter Fourteen
Iswitchedon the baby monitor Damien had purchased so we could watch each other while sleeping. Creepy but effective. If any of them moved, screamed or started bleeding, I’d wake their asses up. It even had infrared scanning to tell us the respiration rate and heartbeat of all the individuals, connecting to an app on hisphone.
I hobbled out into the kitchen where Damien was cookingsomething.
“Whatcha making?” I asked, trying to shrug off the anxiety the stims were givingme.
He pointed to a package of chocolate brownies. “Cooking calms me. I’m anxious from thestims.”
I sighed in relief, glad I wasn’t alone. “Me too. Can Ihelp?”
He nodded, handing me a pack of powdered artificial eggs. “I need twoeggs.”
I pulled out the measuring cup and noticed my hand was shaking. Freaking stims. I did feel super alert though, which was saying something after being awake for three days. I measured out enough powder for two eggs and then added the right amount of water. I missed real chicken eggs. The way the bright-colored yolk looked against the whites. The sound it made when you cracked it against abowl.
After pouring it into the bowl, I looked up to see he was watchingme.
“What?” I was probably doing it wrong, or looked like some shaky stimjunkie.
He gave me a lopsided grin. “What’s the story with all of the 80s band T-shirts?”
I was wearing my KISS shirt with a pair of tight black soccershorts.
“What do you mean? Don’t you like KISS?” Who didn’t like Gene Simmons? The man could wail. The current techno raver music of today made me shiver. It had nothing on theclassics.
He chuckled, throaty and deep, sending a pulse of warmth between my legs. The stims often had a side effect of increased arousal. That was not something I needed around DamianStriker.
“You’re adorable,” he stated, before focusing on hisstirring.
I scrunched my nose and frowned. “Adorable? Puppies areadorable.”
The billionaire grinned, looking up at me. “Sexy?”
I put a hand on my hip and puckered my lips. “That’s more likeit.”
Why am I flirting with him? Do I really want to go down thisroad?
He drizzled the dark chocolate batter into a greased dish. When he was done, he moved past me to grab an oven mitt and brushed his hand against my arm. My stomach did somersaults and I nearlymoaned.
“I’m gonna rest my leg,” I said abruptly and started to hobble away on my crutch. Maybe staying up alone with Damien on stims was a horrible idea. I was ready to hump his leg for touching myarm!
Four hours. I just needed to make it four morehours.
And three moredays.
