Page 50 of Hold Him Like Gravity

“Someone else was handling it while you were home recovering. They can do it again for a few days. There’s plenty other shit to do around here,” I told her as I tossed the saline and reached for a new small roll of gauze wrap. “Gonna wrap it for now. But you’re gonna want to check it occasionally, make sure it’s not looking red or puffy. It should be fine, though.”

“Okay,” she agreed, watching me as I squatted in front of her and started to wrap her finger up and secure it with some paper tape.

“You’re on a bad luck run lately, huh?” I asked, pressing her hand onto her thigh when I was done, my hand still resting there, even though I knew I should pull it away, move away.

“You have no idea,” she said with a deep exhale, her gaze looking haunted for a moment before her expression went blank.

“Anything you could use some help with? I’m good at a lot of shit,” I added. I’d been the Jack of all Trades for the family almost since the beginning.

“No, it’s just… no,” she said.

“It’s something. You’re tense as fuck. Been jumpy too.”

She looked stricken at that for a moment before shaking the look off.

“No. I’m fine. Just too much coffee lately, I guess. I haven’t been sleeping well,” she said, and that, at least, rang true. “Just, you know, can’t shut my mind off, I guess.”

“Been there,” I said, nodding. I’d spent most of my life worrying about the family, about every small cog in the wheel of the whole operation. There were many sleepless nights when shit was going sideways and we were struggling to keep things in line. “If you ever want to talk,” I added.

“Thanks,” she said, suddenly getting to her feet, making the chair slide back hard enough to hit the wall. “But, I, ah, want to do anythingbuttalk about it,” she said as I got to my feet.

We were close.

Just a whisper between us.

We seemed to both realize it in unison.

Up this close, I got to watch her pupils blow wide as she looked at me, her gaze doing a triangle from my eyes to my lips and back again.

There was a litany of reasons why I had no business putting my hands on Kick.

Yet not a single one came to mind right then as my hand lifted, sliding to the back of her neck, and pulling her against me.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Kick

I had eight-hundred dollars wrapped up in a sweater in my locker to bring home and add to the three-thousand I’d already stolen.

Not, in the grand scheme of things, a lot of money. But enough to get my brother fed. I hoped.

Every nerve ending felt fried.

Especially when Rico caught me on the way to my locker. When his keen eyes took in the abnormality of the lock I now had on it. How he saw my nervousness, my jumpiness.

I hadn’t lied to him. I hadn’t been sleeping. And I had been guzzling pots of coffee to combat the sleeplessness.

It wasn’t helping things, I knew, to not be getting rest. But anytime I started to nod off, my mind was full of nightmares of watching my brother being tortured to death while Kyle held onto me, forcing me to watch.

Since it wasn’tjusta nightmare, but the possibility of my future, the potential of Jake’s present moment, there was no going to sleep after that.

So I stress cleaned and tried to think of a way out of this situation. Like, I don’t know, getting a second or third job to make extra money to give to Kyle.

The thing was, I knew how that would go. He would grow to expect that exact amount of money while I burned my body out trying to keep making it. The second I let the ball drop and was short one week, Jake would pay for it.

I did notice someone following me to and from work, but when I was running out to do errands, I didn’t spy anyone. So I had plans after work to finally sneak back out and try to followthemto see where they were going.

If I could find and free Jake, all of this would be over.

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