Page 33 of The Heat of Us

“Don’t forget that you are only here because I let you stay here.”

He was right.

I couldn’t leave my grandma alone with him for any longer than I already did.

I couldn’t afford to take my grandma with me.

We were three corners of an uneven triangle, my point growing narrower and narrower with each passing day.

“Tell me what you need me to do,” I forced out, my voice constricted by his fingers.

He released me and I fell back coughing.

“Nothing. I ordered in.”

With money we did not have to spend.

I didn’t even know how to dignify any of this with a response. “Can I go now?” I asked him simply.

Dad grunted, returning to his throne. “Don’t make too much noise.”

I lay awake in bed until I heard the creak of footsteps in the corridor outside. The whump of a body collapsing into bed. He would be snoring and dead to the world within minutes.

I slowly made my way out of the house, making sure to turn the knob at the same time as the key to minimise the sound. I risked the engine roaring to life and reversed with the headlights off so it wouldn’t shine through the cheap curtains hanging from our windows.

I’d top off the petrol on the way home like I always did, so Dad wouldn’t realise I’d taken his car.

The roads were quiet and I could let my mind empty as I drove along the familiar route. I pulled into the deserted car park. It was illuminated only by a single street lamp, spilling its harsh white light onto the asphalt.

My breath deepened and the tightness in my chest loosened as I heard the first crashing wave against the shore. The tension rolled off my limbs the further I walked along the sand. I buried the bitter, caustic emotions and tried to focus on the fact that I was finally going to be starting my placement soon.

I had a future. I was working on it.

I continued to meander until it felt right and I sat down, staring out into the dark water.

This was one place I could come when it all got too much. Sometimes it was a winding hike up the mountains. A trek along a forest trail.

It was all I could afford to give myself — the sea, the earth and the quiet.

It usually worked, but something felt off today.

I got a fleeting memory of sultry sunshine and a free-falling sensation. Bold brown eyes and an impudent smile.

A quick blink and the bleak surroundings rematerialised.

Don’t even think about it, Aleks.

She doesn’t belong here.

10

BEN

“Pass me shelf…B,” Ollie requested, squinting at the flatpack instructions.

I found the wooden plank marked by the tiny round sticker and handed it to the bespectacled alpha. Juno and a few of her pack were helping me move into my new apartment.

I’d made the mistake of pairing up with my sister to build a simple side table and we came this close to having a full-on medieval duel with the legs. Miles, one of Juno’s bonded betas, carefully extricated the dowel-shaped wood from my hand and guided me towards a half-finished bookshelf.

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