“You get a name, you tell us first,” Saint says.
“Why?”
“The why isn’t important right now.”
Bryant looks to Lo, and she nods. Saint stiffens.
“Okay.” Bryant looks over his shoulder to where the truck is getting ready to leave. “We need to go.”
Caz grabs Lo to him, enveloping her in a bear hug. “Stay safe, badass.”
She grins. “You betcha, sexy.” She plants a kiss on him.
“If anything happens to Lo, I’m holding you accountable,” Saint says to Bryant because he just can’t resist going there.
Lo slaps his chest. “Just stop. I’m tiring of this.” She pecks his lips. “I can take care of myself. You stick to your end of the bargain.”
He swats her ass. “See you this weekend, princess.”
Lo turns to Theo, looking unsure. They stare at one another, and Theo looks equally unsure. Tentatively, they step toward each other, and he kisses her on the cheek. “Mind yourself, Lo.”
She nods, smiling, but it doesn’t meet her eyes. Her gaze whips around to me, and I straighten up, grimacing as red-hot pain whittles through me. “Meet me in the lobby,” she says, after a few beats of awkward silence, surprising me.
I open my mouth to ask why, but she’s already leaving, running alongside Bryant in the truck’s direction.
_______________
I’m sitting on a small black leather couch in the lobby area when Lo arrives. The guys are here too. She sets a white box down on the coffee table. “Take your shirt off,” she commands, not looking at me as she removes a few things from the box.
“What?” I splutter.
She bores a hole in my head. “Do it before I change my mind.”
With great difficulty, I remove my shirt, sweating with the exertion as splintering pain assaults my upper body. Cool fingers brush against mine as she helps lift it over my head.
Our eyes meet, and I drop my usual barrier, hoping she can see how sorry I am. I’m still confused over the past, and the lingering resentment I harbor toward her for the part she played, but I’m so fucking sorry for handing her to Darrow. It was a temporary lapse in judgment. I let that bastard manipulate me in a moment of weakness, and I’m better than that.
She deserves better than that.
And I don’t deserve any show of kindness.
Hurt and anger and uncertainty are etched upon her face.
“Lo, I—”
“Don’t speak!” Her harsh tone reminds me where we’re at, and I swallow my apology.
It’s not enough to say I’m sorry. I know words are cheap. And the only way I’ll redeem myself in her eyes is through my actions.
I stay quiet and hold still as she applies arnica cream to my broken ribs before wrapping a bandage around them. Her touch is gentle, and she’s careful not to hurt me, and I’m awash with confusing emotions. Despite the pain I’m in, her touch and her presence are doing funny things to me. My stomach flips, my skin heats, and I conduct a stern inner talk with my dick, urging him to stay the fuck down.
The guys watch her every move, looking as entranced as I feel, and it’s obvious we’re all under her spell.
Lo unwraps a couple of ice packs, holding them to my burning ribs. She takes my hand, keeping it pressed on top of the packs. “Keep them iced for a few days, and take regular pain meds.” She looks over her shoulder at Caz. “Can you get me a cup of water from the cooler?”
He ambles off, returning a minute later.
“Open your mouth,” she says, and I comply without protest, staring at her plump lips and the high angles of her cheekbones as she drops a couple tablets in my mouth before holding the cup to my lips. I drink, swallowing the tablets as I stare into her beautiful green eyes. She hands a box of pills to Theo. “Make sure he takes those.”
Saint is watching with a frown, rubbing his hand back and forth across his chest. And I get it. I’m confused too. Growing up, both of us sustained more than our fair share of injuries and we got used to living with the pain, because neither of us had anyone, other than each other, to care.
Emotion bubbles up my throat, and tears sting the back of my eyes. I drop my mask, offering her a glimpse of the real me. “Thank you.”
“I still hate you,” she says, as if on autopilot, her voice devoid of feeling.
“I know.”
“That’s not changing anytime soon.”
“I know that too.”
“Good.” She tips her chin up, adopting a determined look. “You’d do well to remember that and stay out of my way.”
CHAPTER 12
Galen
“WHY’D SHE DO that?” Saint asks from the driver’s seat a half hour later, as we are on our way home. He insisted I ride with him though this is the first time he’s spoken to me or even acknowledged my presence.
“Because she’s a bigger person than me, and she has a good heart.” I shift on my side, pressing the ice pack to my ribs as I stretch my legs out on the back seat. I prop my head against the door, because it’s too painful to lie down flat.
He looks at me through the mirror. “Why’d you do it?”
“You know why.”
“It’s more than that.”
I sigh. “Everything is changing, and that scares me.”
His chest heaves. “I know, but it feels right. She feels right.” His eyes meet mine in the mirror.
“You love her.”
“Maybe.”
“What about the others?”
“She’s made her feelings clear.” He barks out a laugh. “It serves me right for putting the sharing rule in place.”
“You implemented that with good reason, and it’s been for the best. Caz is tits over ass crazy for her, and her past with Theo sure seems complicated. She would’ve torn us apart if that rule wasn’t there.”
“Hasn’t she done that already?” He stares me straight in the eye. “Isn’t that what you were afraid of?”
“Yes, but I was wrong. I think—” I pause, because if I say this, there is no taking it back.
“What?” Saint prompts me to continue.
“I think she has the power to make us stronger, and she loves you too. I see it when she looks at you.”
“And when she looks at you?”
I send him a scathing look. “She hates me.”
Silence ensues for a few minutes. “You need to fix things with her.”
“How? I want to, but I’ve no clue how to go about it.”
He purses his lips, signaling as he takes the exit to the highway. “I don’t know,” he admits.
“Will it work?” I ask. “Because we’re the product of our upbringing. How will we ever know?”
“She’s easy to love,” he replies, his tone low, his face soft.
“She’s broken too.”
“Because of us.” The soft look vanishes from his face, replaced with a familiar cold expression that’s in part directed at me. I don’t need a look inside my cousin’s head to know he reserves the other part for Sinner, because he was the one who broke her first. And he seems hell-bent on breaking her further.