Chapter 8
Alyssa blinked, her mind too dull and her emotions too wrung out to fully process what he’d just said. Still, she gave it her best, echoing what she thought she’d heard.
“Bear-shifters are a Detroit gang?”
“The Griz, I believe.” He rolled his eyes. “Really obvious name, but no one asked me.”
She wasn’t very familiar with Detroit gangs, but the Griz were near enough to her neighborhood that she was aware of them. They did the usual: drugs, guns, booze, and really loud music. They certainly weren’t the worst gang in Detroit. The idea that bear-shifters could be living that close to her was enough to make her world tilt. Again. And in a day filled with new information and horrible surprises, she really couldn’t handle any more.
“Steady there.” Simon’s words were barely audible over the rushing in her ears. What penetrated her foggy brain was the sturdy grip of his hand on her elbow and the way he wrapped a strong arm around her waist.
She sank into him, letting her body sag while she breathed deep of his woodsy scent mixed with Irish Spring. Would that smell always make her knees weak and her head spin?
“Have you had anything to eat today besides beer and brownies?”
Honestly, she couldn’t remember.
“Never mind,” he said, his voice gruff. “I remember that you had a diet cola and a piece of my pizza ten hours ago.”
And a granola bar she’d picked up at a gas station.
“That granola doesn’t count,” he said, somehow reading her mind. “It smelled like petrified gravel. Couldn’t have tasted much better.”
It hadn’t.
“So where’s your bedroom?” He was walking her back toward the laundromat.
“Inside.” Apparently forming that answer took all the strength left in her body. While she was busy telling herself to stand up and walk on her own, damn it, the world decided to veer into more dizzying circles.Oh hell.She was going down.
Except she wasn’t. When her legs gave in, he swung her up in his arms. She tried to resist. She tightened her hands and managed to keep her head from flopping backward. But her vision was crazy fuzzed out and her head felt three times too large. All she ended up doing was dropping herself onto his shoulder while he balanced her in his arms.
“I got you. Go ahead. Close your eyes. You’ve had a full few days so it’s okay to check out for a bit.”
Like her body was giving her any choice? She closed her eyes and let his scent fill her thoughts completely. Kind of like dropping back into her fantasies when she’d kept a bar of Irish Spring in her bedside table just to help her remember. Meanwhile, she noticed that he wasn’t even winded as he took steady steps back toward the apartment. She wasn’t a lightweight by any stretch of the imagination, and oh wow, it was awesome to be cradled in his arms as if she were the tiniest Barbie doll.
And yeah, fantasy land. She felt her core go molten at the feel of living out one of her dreams, and she might have nuzzled a little against his neck.
He stepped into the laundromat, barely even jostling her as he managed both her and the door. Then she heard Malik gasp in surprise.
“She’s fine,” Simon said, stopping anything Malik might have asked. “But she needs to sleep for a while. Where’s her bedroom?”
“Um, it’s across the hall. This way.”
They’d need her key. It was in her jeans pocket, but no way was she going to wiggle around to get it. She was far too content riding in Simon’s arms to change anything. Except that eventually they made it to her apartment door. Simon seemed to tuck his head down against hers. She heard him make a strange sound. Like a chuff of some sort. And then she sighed.
“You need my key to get in,” she murmured.
“Yes.”
“Set me down.”
“Can you stand on your own?”
No. Yes. Maybe.She groaned. He was crouching down, gently setting her feet on the floor. “I am not a woman who faints,” she said to no one in particular. She kept an arm wrapped around Simon’s broad shoulders as she dug into her jeans pocket with the other.
“No,” Simon answered. “You’re a woman who drives without sleep up to the UP and back to save her brother. But even Wonder Woman has limits.”
It took concentration to bring her key out of her pocket. Even more to shove it toward the lock. She didn’t get close. Malik took it from her and managed to get the door open. Then when she took an unsteady step inside, the world abruptly upended again.
