Page 189 of Hard Pass

“I’m fine,” I grit out.

“Yeah,” he grunts as I try to get him off me. “You keep saying that.”

My chest heaves and my body hurts and it . . . hits. Not anger or rage but something far worse. An inexplicable weight.

I sag into him before I can stop it. My grip tightens on his shirt . . . and everything just breaks. I fight the sob that rips out of me. I try to hold it in. I don’t. Then I’m pressing my forehead into his shoulder, fighting it, trying to hold it together, trying to—

“Valor,” Wolfe says. “Let it out.”

“He”—my voice cracks and I swallow hard—“he knew.”

Wolfe doesn’t ask who or what, he just holds me up and keeps me there.

“Dude, you’ve been under more pressure than most guys can handle. Your job. The media. The investigation. All of it.”

I shake my head. It’s not that. It’s worse.

“It’s okay,” he says, voice gruff. “You don’t have to carry all of it alone.”

Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat.

I don’t know how long we stand like that, but I push back and wipe a hand down my face, trying to pull myself back together.

Wolfe steps back and gives me space.

He doesn’t look at me like I’m broken or have lost it. All he does is nod. “You good?”

I draw in a shaky breath. “Yeah,” I lie.

“Okay.” He nods as our eyes meet. “As far as I’m concerned, this never happened.”

He claps me once on the shoulder and then turns to walk out, leaving me alone in the silence of the room.

I force myself to keep breathing. To keep processing.

The rage is still there. The betrayal riding shotgun next to it.

Nothing has changed and yet everything has.

The urge to get on a plane and go back to Los Angeles to confront him is immediate. Violent. Consuming. And a phone confrontation is out of the question. But even as confused and furious as I am, I also know it’s best if I wait the few days until he gets back.

Until I can calm down and decide the best way to confront him.

Because fists aren’t going to fix this and right now, that’s all I’ve got.

So I stand there. Breathing. Trying to get my shit together.

My hands shake as I drag them down my face.

Come home to me.

Home.

My calm in the storm. That’s where I need to be.

With Dublin.

Because right now, the only thing keeping me from completely losing it . . . is her.