Page 58 of Shiny Things

Her shoulders slumped and she hugged herself. I hated seeing her like that.

When she looked back up at me I could see unshed tears in her eyes.

“Talk to me,” I begged, hating seeing her like this.

“I don’t even know what to say.”

“What did I do?”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t you. Not exactly at least.”

“So what is it then? Because I have to be honest, my raven nearly lost it when I thought you were missing.”

She looked at me curiously. “Why would you assume I was missing?”

“Because I couldn’t get in touch with you, Kim. Do you have any idea how scared I was? I heard about your encounter with Joe, and I’ve been sitting in meetings all day hearing about an impending Collector raid.”

She gasped. “What?”

“Shit. I wasn’t supposed to say that yet. You have to keep it to yourself. But you see why I started freaking out? You have to promise me you won’t go anywhere alone, babe. I won’t survive it if anything happens to you.”

She wrapped her arms around my waist and held me. My body shuddered as the tension fled me.

“I’m right here. I’m fine,” she assured me.

“Do you want to talk about what happened?”

She scoffed. “Which part?”

I frowned. “There was more than one incident?”

“Basically it was just one giant nightmare of a day today.”

“Tell me.”

She sighed. “I guess you’re going to hear about it eventually anyway. After you left I called Gia to come pick me up. When I got in the elevator to leave, Felicity got on.”

“She lives one floor below me.”

“Yup, and she was pretty quick to put two and two together but didn’t say anything. That is until Novaleigh got on a few stories later. She made some comments, but I really did keep my cool. I didn’t react to anything any of them said.”

“There were others?” I asked, feeling the tension starting to lock up my jaw.

“I don’t know why that comes as a shock to you. I warned you this would happen.”

“Rumors, yes, but being disrespectful? No. That’s unacceptable. So which was it?”

She scrunched up her nose, and I knew things had gotten ugly.

“Nothing happened,” she assured me. “I left and Gia picked me up. I’m not an idiot, Elias. I knew to expect this part. Joe just caught me off guard.”

“What the hell did Joe have to do with any of this? He doesn’t even live in my apartment complex.”

“I know. But people talk.”

I growled in frustration. The only thing keeping me grounded and not going after all of them for hurting my mate was her arms wrapped around me and her touch centering me.

“What did he say?” I asked through gritted teeth.

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