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I didn’t know what Banks was doing or agreeing to in order to distract my father, but I wanted her out of there now.
I love banks
She was pissing me off. Screaming at me one minute, all over me the next, running away this morning, and now she was here. Was she going to decide she needed more space tomorrow?
“You’re going to do it again,” I said, dropping my hand. “You should’ve just left me there. Why didn’t you?”
“Because I was afraid of life without the hope of you to look forward to.”
Looking back, I’d always felt the same way. Whether or not we were together, I wanted her, and I’d always want her.
“I sometimes wonder what I’d be like if I grew up in Michael’s house. Or Kai’s.”
“You can smell the wet rock, and there’s a little pool where the water sits before it drains into a well. In the pool, there’s something you can have. Something of yours I saved. Something you forgot about.”
“It’s fine.” I relaxed into her, her arms still around me. “I could die happily right here.”
“Come on, we’re doing this, right? We’re in love. We’re doing this.”
If I didn’t die from Anderson’s embarrassing little finger-knife wound, she was gonna run off on me again to get more space, no doubt.
CHAPTER 26
He wouldn’t want her here, and all she’d be worried about was if she still got her settlement if he died.
“Um . . . yeah,” she finally stammered, “but I, uh . . . I can’t donate blood, I don’t think.”
“I’m, um . . . I’m pregnant.”
BANKS
“I was trying to find a way to tell you,” she said, to her husband, I assumed. “Something special. Sorry it happened like this.”
“So isn’t it a little convenient that Damon and Rika both share the same exact rare blood type?”
WHAT
It was one thing after another with this group, and for now, I was just fine without any more drama than I had on my own plate to deal with.
CHAPTER 27
“With you bedridden, you can’t cause trouble,” he pointed out. “It’s nice.”
This felt so pathetic, and I wanted to leave now. Why were they even still here? Banks, I could understand, but the rest of them?
“Don’t worry, there’s more on the inside,” Banks informed me. “Ten whole stitches. Super manly.”
I love banks
Before my friends and before Winter, Banks was my safe place. She could read me, take care of me, and just be there with no talking or expectations. She was the best thing in my life for a lot of years. I was tired of disrupting hers with all my bullshit.
A soft smile crossed her beautiful face and her eyes started to glisten. “Yeah, I love you, too,” she told me.
“Someone tried to take Alex from the dojo tonight,” Will told me. “She was able to fight them off and run, but . . .”
“One of them was Miles Anderson,” Rika said.
“Where’s Banks?” I asked.
CHAPTER 28
“Damon, man . . .” He almost hyperventilating as the water rose to our chests, slowly consuming the car. “We gotta . . . we gotta get out of here. I can’t . . . I can’t . . .”
Poor will
He met my eyes, starting to break down as his chin trembled. “Please,
don’t . . .” he begged. “Please don’t leave me.”
How I would never have lived with it if anything had happened to him that night. I held the back of his neck and planted my forehead to his. “I never did,” I promised.
“Tell me you love me,” she whispered. “Say it.”
She could fucking wait.
Winter held on, calm, but I could hear Will fighting in the water because he didn’t get a lungful before we went under, and I didn’t know why the fucking door wasn’t opening. It was supposed to open.
They were going to fucking die because of me. Again.
CHAPTER 29
Will hung his head, looking ready to collapse, but it was like he was possessed, almost as if he was trying to get away from something as he crawled and scurried.
What was wrong with him?
PTSD BITCH
We sat there against the wall, Will’s back against my chest and his head lying on my collarbone as the water drenched us.
I wrapped my arms around him, trying to help. “We’re okay,” I told him. “Just breathe.”
“I almost drowned,” he choked out, his breath ragged. “Again.”
There was nothing that would erase what I did; I could only to hate myself more because I’d done it at all.
“I feel like something is chasing me, man.” He wouldn’t stop shivering. “Like it’s only a matter of time.”
He wasn’t okay. He was anything but okay. Rika was right.
And I doubted anyone knew the full measure of the mess in his head.
“We’re yours. We’re all yours. We’re not leaving.”
And that bitch who treated him like garbage in high school and still rented space in his head would fail, too.
Will peeled her shirt off over her head, leaving her in her bra, and I cupped her face, caressing it.
She planted a hand on the wall behind me, held my face with the other as we kissed, and dry-fucked him.
It just felt so good to have them both here, in my fucking arms, and I knew Will felt it, too. After so long and so much anger . . .
