“The. Fuck. I. Do.” Each word is pulled from within my soul. It’s the only option I’ve got. It’s me or Cade in a body bag.
“Are you afraid of the Grim Reaper?”Sammie’s ghost asks.
“Not right now,”I tell her. I’m not having a conversation about death with the one person whose final moments saw her breath taken away from her.
“Tell me what the fuck is going on,” Ren demands.
“No.”
“Isolde—”
“I said no.”
Ren stomps her foot. “And I said?—”
“Fuck off!”
Her face drains.
My heart beats and beats and beats. It rushes in my ears. My jaw aches. I try to loosen it, but it’s like I don’t know how to work the muscles anymore. Which I might not, based on how tight everything feels.
Me or you in the body bag.
That’s the last thing Cade said to me as blood gushed from me.
I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to be like my sister.
Not then. Not now.
Ren is hurt. I know she is.
Just like when I tried to talk to Tristan earlier, no wordscome. They never do. Instead they ball up in my chest, a tangled mass I can never seem to explain.
I should just tell them my brain is going haywire. But maybe it’s justmethat’s haywire. And I don’t want them to know that.
Ren doesn’t bother to say anything. She marches out of the kitchen. The front door opens and shuts.
My jaw aches differently now. There’s a pressure that wants to be released. A valve of tears.
I swallow a thick lump down my throat, effectively ensuring the tap is shut off.
Tristan, with the quiet skill the Ghost is known for, edges into the kitchen. His presence gently pushes up against my self-created bubble of tension. He doesn’t quite ease it, but his company isn’t unwelcome either. “You wanna get out of here?”
Tristan takes me to the gym.
We arrive at a row of warehouses where I know Tristan likes to scuttle about. The yellow paint on the outside is faded, and the blue cursive painting spelling ‘Leon’s’ now looks more gray.
It’s nothing like the gyms tucked away in bustling buildings, with commuters ducking in and out after work. And while I’m still standing outside, the chances of the place offering Pilates and smoothies are slim.
The place blends into the landscape in a way that tells me Leon’s Gym was here well before I ever knew about it and will be here well after I leave.
Tristan is completely at ease for once. Figures, with the amount of muscles he’s got, that a gym would be his safe haven.
Luis also gets out of the SUV, slinging a bag over his shoulder. He offers me a friendly smile, something he does every time he glances my way. I think if Tristan weren’t around, he’d be cracking jokes. After getting bitched at for letting Ren up without calling us, he’s more subdued.
“You wanted me to keep Ren away from her bestie?” Luis blinked when Tristan brought it up as we got situated in the black SUV. Tristan switched to Spanish, grumbling to him in another language.
Luis slams the driver's door shut, nodding at another man walking up.
