“Just hurry up and get us the fuck out of here,” I growled, tucking my hands into my pockets and staring at the speaker like I could pretend the moment with Tatum never happened.
Ten minutes later, a metallic screech rent the air, and the elevator doors inched apart. A bright red helmet filled the space, then lifted to reveal a smiling young face.
“How we doing in here, guys? Would anyone like a lift out?”
I didn’t appreciate the levity, or the way the smile turned that bit more interested as he noticed my broken little manager. Letting my scowl speak for me, I waved Tatum forward and helped her climb out first, before lifting myself through the gap. We were immediately swarmed by staff wearing expressions ranging from placating to jokingly admonishing.
I was fucking done.
Without bothering to acknowledge any of the faces in front of me, I gripped Tatum by the hip and steered her toward the stairwell in the far corner of the room.
“What about…?” she asked weakly.
“Don’t give a fuck. We’re leaving.”
The fact that she didn’t bother to fight me on it told me how close to the edge she was.
And as usual, it was my fault.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Tatum
It feltlike an eternity since we’d left the bus that morning. Calix’s heartbreaking words to his brother were a heavy weight that I’d struggled to shake until fear forced everything but survival from my mind. As we pulled up to the bus and Calix left to return the car keys, his words seemed to echo across the quiet lot.
Of course you’re a fucking project. I’ve spent my whole life keeping you alive, and you still have the coping skills of a fucking pineapple. I have been raped to protect you. Beaten to within an inch of my life. And your thank you is to check the fuck out and hope you don’t wake up. Well, maybe that would just be easier all the way around.
The look on Toby’s face had been something worse than devastation.
I knew Calix thought I’d been quiet because I was mad at him, and a part of me was, but more than anything, I didn’t know how to begin to fix what was broken between the twins.Through no fault of their own, they’d lived a life no one should have to experience and were left to pick up the pieces while the responsible ones walked away.
I wished I could speak to Ma about it. She’d know what to do. But that conversation would lead into the one where I had to admit I’d been lying about my means of employment for the last few months.
The bus was quiet as I stepped inside. The familiarity wrapped around me as I moved past a passed-out Otis and headed for the bathroom to splash my face.
I’d handled the whole elevator incident with less grace than even I could have predicted, and a part of me hated that I’d had to lean so heavily on Calix to avoid going into complete meltdown.
I was still unclear whether I hated how easily he’d stepped in to help me, or whether he was starting some new fucked-up game that was going to make life infinitely harder than it already was.
With one hand on the door to the bathroom, I took a steadying breath before moving into the tiny space. The door I left wide open.
Boots.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Why would there be boots in the shower?
But as I moved farther into the room and pulled back the curtain, Tobias’s body was revealed, slumped in a corner of the shower.
“Toby?” I shook his shoulder gently, growing increasingly concerned at the chill in his skin. That concern grew to absolute terror as I spotted the syringe by his right hand.
“Tobias,” I snapped, stabbing two fingers under his jaw in search of a pulse. The skin around his lips was an unhealthy blue, and his chest was not moving.
“Shit. Shit. Shit. Help! Toby!”
The first aid training Ruby insisted we do every few years evaporated from my mind like I’d never heard of a rescue breath before. What did you do when someone wasn’t breathing?
Breathe for them.
