Page 86 of Crave Me

Before I could even begin to take her words in, my dad stirred.

I tensed, anticipation thrumming through me.

A groan escaped him.

And then it happened.

He slowly opened his eyes.

They fixed on Riley right in front of him and a weak smile played on his lips as he took her in. “Hey there, Riles. Long time, no see.”

Riles? What was happening?

I didn’t have time to think much on it when my dad turned his head and took me in.

I rushed to his bedside and perched on the edge of the bed, reaching out and taking his hand in mine. “Dad, thank God you’re awake. How are you feeling? Can I get you anything? Are you—”

“Shh, I’m fine. I’m just fine, pumpkin,” he assured me, giving my hand a gentle squeeze back.

“Fine may be overstating it, Frankie,” Riley groused.

“I’ve had worse.”

“Not the best yardstick to judge this by,” I told him.

“Definitely not,” Riley agreed.

He smiled, then tugged me closer. “I missed you, baby girl. I missed you so much.”

Emotion clogged my throat and I only just managed to respond. “I missed you too, Dad.”

He tightened his hold on me.

“I’m sorry this is what brought us back to each other.”

He let go of me, then scrubbed his hand over his face in clear distress.

“Dad?”

“Sorry, I just… what Jer did to you… I didn’t know… I can’t believe I missed that in him. I’m so sorry, Sky. So sorry he hurt you like that. I never should have left him with you. I shouldn’t have left.” Urgency took him over and then he was fighting to push out of bed, managing to dislodge the IV. “I need to see King. Now.”

“If you don’t take it easy, you’re going to be in far worse shape than you are now,” Riley warned him, shooting from her seat and tangling with him, trying to get him back into bed.

“This is too important,” he argued. He looked at me. “I have information you all need.”

“We’re aware that Jeremy connected with Elijah and told him Caspian was coming for him, information that not only made it possible for Elijah to evade the assault that night, but also for him to kidnap Bastian and Caleb,” I told my dad as I sat forward on the opposite couch to him, with Bastian stroking my back soothingly on my right and Damien leaning back on the left side with his feet kicked up on the coffee table.

Riley was beside my dad sitting ramrod straight on high alert and hanging onto every word that was being spoken, rapidly absorbing it all.

Dante and Asher were over by a couple of open windows smoking away.

Caspian was leaning back on one of the oversized armchairs, projecting a calm demeanor. But that’s all it was—just a projection. I could see his fingers discreetly digging into the arms.

“I figured you’d made the connection.” He looked out at Caspian. “Hence, you rescinding the kill order on Jeremy.”

“Yes,” Caspian responded tightly.

“Something that wouldn’t have been necessary if you’d made haste in the first place,” Dante commented.

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