Page 79 of Hate Me

“Give it time,” I soothed, playing with strands of his hair. “She’ll come back to us.”

“We can’t let it be any other way, Cas.”

“I know, lovely. I know.”

17

~Skylar~

What were they playing at?

It had been an entire week since I’d been brought here to King Manor.

And, aside from my initial charged reunions with each of them, I hadn’t encountered any of them since. Sure, the mansion was vast, but it was still unbelievable that I hadn’t run into them in all this time.

They were intentionally keeping out of my way.

It was jarring, considering the initial heavy-handed, in-my-face approach they’d each used.

The only people I’d seen in this time was Doctor Granger, who Caspian had made visit me for a session every single day ever since I’d told Caleb about what he—and Jeremy—had termed my suicide mission. And Luke was the other person. He came by twice a day to ask me if there was anything that I needed. Each time I’d answered with the same thing. I wanted my phone back. Each time he’d responded with the infuriating and cryptic one-word answer of “Soon.”

When I hadn’t gone down to eat out of protest for them keeping me here, forcing that doctor on me, and refusing to give me my phone and my other things back, meals had shown up outside my door. If I didn’t bring them inside, they were then put inside when I was in the shower or asleep. It was a toned down version of force-feeding me. They wouldn’t let me get away with refusing any meals.

This whole thing was a complete mind-fuck.

And, honestly, it was working.

I’d had the urge to go to them, to talk to them.

I’d also started to want my sessions with Doctor Granger.

I liked her warm and non-judgmental demeanor, the way she understood things that I couldn’t imagine just some random other therapist getting—dark things I’d been through and committed. Because she was under Caspian’s employ, I didn’t have to worry about any of what I said incriminating me. His influence prevented that from happening. And it had been a load off to get some of those things off my chest. I’d felt a little lighter from it.

None of that meant that I was going to stand down from my mission, though.

I didn’t know if that was what the guys had intended by having me talk to her. It had seemed more focused on my hopelessness than that. But knowing their tendency to play mind games, which they’d done with me before, it could’ve been discreetly woven into the fabric of it all in a way that was difficult to detect. The guys were masters at it after all.

Except Caleb.

He didn’t operate in that same way. He also hadn’t been that against me eliminating Jett Bane either. He’d even murdered his men that infamous night. He just didn’t want me making it my last act in this world.

Clearly, none of them did.

And, as much as I hated the idea of being saved, I couldn’t deny the effort they’d gone to in order to pull me back from that.

Even the fact of them backing off themselves was a major deal, because that wasn’t usually how they did things, especially not when it came to me. They were all for being right in my space, all over me. This had to be straining on the three of them, especially when factoring in my two-year absence from their lives.

In truth, it was starting to get to me in a way I could no longer simply deny.

Damn them.

I made my way back up the stairs after getting some fresh air out on the patio, heading back to my room.

Again, I hadn’t seen them anywhere.

It was late, too, so Bastian would be back from Luxe and Caspian would be back from King Tower. And from what I’d gathered from asking Luke questions, Caleb was here all the time working remotely with the rehabilitation facilities he now operated.

I walked back into my room and shut the door.

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