“What the fuck was that? Why did he take off?” I asked, not hiding the hurt in my voice, but he kissed my shoulder and spoke softly.
“Because he knows I want some time alone with you. He’ll come back and sleep in here, I promise.”
I glanced over my shoulder with confusion, meeting his eyes in the dark.
“You wanted some time alone with me?”
“As much as I like how we all make things work now, I still miss the days when you first moved in here and it was just you and me. I love you so much, Rory. You have no fucking idea how much you mean to me,” he whispered, melting my heart in the process.
He was such a softie when he wanted to be.
“I miss that too. I love you all equally, but you’ll always be the first person I chose to sleep with after what happened to me, and I promise you will always have me. I know things aren’t smooth right now and we aren’t all together, but it doesn’t mean I love you guys any less. I need to sort myself out before we fix our relationship.”
“You’ll always have me too, baby. I promise,” he replied affectionately, not changing pace until we both came together in each other’s arms.
“Jense, slow down. I don’t understand,” I mumbled into my phone the next morning, trying to wake up properly.
Tyler and Caden had both gone to the gym, which was stupid because Caden had a private fucking gym downstairs.
Rich kids, I tell you.
Jensen’s voice sounded frantic through the phone as I tried to keep up with what he was saying.
“I said I can’t fucking find him! We had another fight last night when he showed up, and I actually hit him. Fuck, Rory. He was so drunk, and I’m really worried about him. He’s not at home either.”
“What did you fight about this time?” I asked and held back a groan, knowing the answer.
“You again. He was super pissed off that I hung out with you guys yesterday afternoon. You two need to talk, because he’s self-destructing so bad and…,” he stumbled over his words, but I cut him off before he could upset himself even more.
“Jense, listen to me, okay? I’ll get dressed and have a look for him, but if he doesn’t want to talk to me, I can’t make him. He’s hurt and scared, remember?”
“He shut down when I mentioned that you’d been shived while locked up. He said it didn’t bother him, but he completely changed in attitude, and then we had the fight,” he mumbled, and I had a hard time biting my tongue.
They didn’t need to fucking talk about the shit I’d gone through in prison.
“Text Caden and Ty to keep an eye out for him, but I’ll go and look around for him, okay? I might know where he is.”
I knew exactly where he’d be that no one would think to check.
“Where?” He asked, and I could hear the frown in his voice.
“Leave me to it, okay? You’ll know if I find him, I promise. I love you, Jense,” I replied, and he let out a shaky breath.
“I love you too. Thanks, baby,” then he hung up to let me go and find him.
I climbed out of bed and had a quick shower before getting dressed and walking outside to the Corvette.
I drove straight to my shitty rundown house, and I wasn’t surprised to find Lukas asleep in my room.
I’d basically moved into Slash’s place, so I knew the only place people wouldn’t think to look for him would be at mine since no one was there very often now.
I could smell the stale alcohol on him before I’d even taken two steps into the room.
I hesitated before closing the door behind me and making my way towards the bed, sitting on the edge of it.
He stirred, jolting back when he noticed me watching him.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He sneered at me, making me sigh.
How long could he hate me for?
“Honestly? Jense is shit scared you’re not okay and called me in a panic because you two had another fight last night. But also, you’re in my house.”
He glanced around with confusion for a moment before he realized where he was, anger taking over his features as he glared at me.
“Jensen needs to fuck off. How did I end up here?”
“He loves you, stupid. You were pretty wasted apparently, so you probably just rocked up here because you were drunk and upset.”
His eyes flashed with rage, his voice raising.
“I wasn’t fucking upset!”
“Yeah, you were. You two had a fight and he punched you. Let me look at it,” I asked calmly, reaching a hand out to touch the bruise under his eye.
He pulled back with a snarl, his entire body full of tension.
“Fuck off, Aurora. I don’t want you near me so just…”
“I’m not going to die on you, Lukas. Stop pulling away from me just because you’re scared of losing me. In doing so, you’re losing me anyway,” I stated, reaching out to touch him again, but he was a stubborn bastard.
“I don’t give a fuck about you!” He shouted, shoving the covers back and climbing out of bed, pushing me back in the process.
I winced as my ass hit the floor, and for a second concern etched his face, but he blanked it out quickly and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
I slowly stood, rubbing my butt as I went.
Lukas had always been the type to lash out, but never like that.
I quietly wandered into the kitchen and found him sitting at the bench with his head in his hands.
I approached him carefully, unsure how to talk to him, but his teary gaze met mine and his voice broke, breaking my heart along with it.
“I want to hate you so fucking bad. For letting me in so goddamn close, then doing stupid shit that nearly gets you killed. You don’t understand how hard it is to love someone who doesn’t seem to care about their actions. You have been shot multiple times now, and you’ve been to fucking prison where you got shived multiple times. You have crews out to murder you all the time, and I know if something happens to you, then Jense will lose his mind and do something stupid, then I’ll lose him too. I don’t blame him for throwing that punch at me last night, because I said some nasty shit about you and…”
“Luke, I love you, and I’m sorry,” I cut in softly, moving closer to put my arms around him.
He tensed up for a moment on instinct, but he quickly pulled me onto his lap and held me tightly, burying his face in my neck as if it was holding him together.
“I love you too. So fucking much,” he mumbled, his voice scratchy.
“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” I murmured, running my fingers through his black hair to soothe him as we just held each other in silence for God knows how long.
My phone beeped and I pulled it from my pocket to check the message.
I knew Jensen would still be freaking out.
Jensen: Did you find him? Where are you? Are you okay?
Rory: Yeah, I’m with him right now. We’re all good. Meet us at yours.
“Who’s that?” Lukas asked, frustration seeping into his voice at the thought of me taking off.
“It’s Jense. He’s just worried about us, so I told him we’d meet him at his.”
“I can’t go near him. Not after last night,” he choked out and shook his head firmly, uncertainty filling his sad almond eyes.