I blinked, completely at a loss.
His head lifted. “You don’t know Dora?”
A sliver of jealousy slid through me. I had no clue who he was talking about, but he obviously knew her. That meant it was an automatic dislike for me. “Should I?”
He waved his hand in the air. “She runs around with a purple backpack, doing shit.”
“What?” Maybe the pain meds were still in his system.Maybe Doc gave him too much.I looked up at the IV and the empty bag hanging from the pole.
“It’s a TV show for kids,” he explained, then slowly leaned toward the headboard. Worried about his shoulder, I scrambled forward to grab two pillows and stuff them behind his back.
“Should I call the doctor?”
Half smiling, he tipped back his head to lean against the cushion. “You worried about me, Pip?”
“Yes—no!” I said, tripping over myself. “You got shot because of me.”
His chin tipped so his eyes could caress my face. “It was worth it.”
He’d said that before too. Back at the Neon Reef. But his actions and words did not align. Made me feel like a ping-pong ball bouncing between them.
Trying to decipher anything about him was like trying to understand Morse code. It was better just to stick to facts. “So the money was for me?”
“Well, I wouldn’t leave five grand around for anyone else.”
“I wondered if maybe that was your norm.”
His head pulled away from the cushion so he could level me with the intensity of his stare. “Excuse me?”
I shrugged as though my stomach wasn’t churning like I’d eaten some bad fish. Seriously, though, one time I ate some sushi that a local grocery store put in the trash. It was only expired by one day, so I figured how bad could it be.
It was a disaster in 3D.
I almost died.
And I can assure you I willnevereat fish again.
“I thought maybe that was the going rate for sex workers around here,” I said as if the idea of him paying me like a prostitute didn’t insult the hell out of me.
He sat up, offense written all over himandthe air around him. “You think I paid you for sex?”
“Well, it’s either that or you felt sorry for me. I think I’d rather be a prostitute than pitied.”
Eyes flashing, he jolted forward, wrapping his hand around the back of my neck and squeezing like he could brand the skin. “You been having sex with people for money?”
Why did that sound like a threat?
Why wasn’t I afraid?
I tried to shrug him off, but he refused to budge. The accusation in his eyes made me feel I was somehow in the wrong. “No!” I shouted. “The only person who’s ever treated me like a prostitute is you!”
He made a noise, the combination of a moan and a whine, and pulled me into a forced hug so I was between his spread thighs and my cheek was pressed against his chest.
“Leaving you there was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I knew I couldn’t have you. I knew you deserved better than me and the life you had. I never once thought of you as—asthat.Jesus, just the thought of you selling yourself to anyone’s filthy hands makes me want to ruin them.”
“I didn’t,” I croaked, understanding for the first time why everyone called him Ghost. Because right then, he sounded haunted. And so did I.
He forced me back just enough to take hold of my face, studying me with his scrutinizing gaze almost as if he were trying to decide if I was telling the truth.
