Page 121 of Stitches

She licked her lips and looked at her feet.

“Why? Did you go and look for him by yourself?”

She remained silent. I was just going to assume that was what happened because anything else was unacceptable. There was no reason for her to be out alone this late at night.

I’d been terrified.

I’d been just about ready to wake Ashes and go look for her. The fact Church was gone too was the only reason I hadn’t done anything. My assumption was they were together, and he just hadn’t told me.

“Sirena, what’s going on?” Fear clawed at my chest.

“I’m sorry,” she finally whispered before she pushed past me. I snagged her hand and pulled her to a stop.

“I’m scared. I don’t like being scared, angel. If you need to tell me something, do it now.”

She shook her head at me, tears clinging to her lashes.

I sighed. She wasn’t going to open up for me. Not yet anyway. I knew better than most that sometimes it just took time. I’d give it to her, but we’d definitely be revisiting it at some point. As long as she was safe and home, that was all that really matter, even if I was brewing with anger thinking about the possibilities of what could have happened to her out there alone.

I hugged her and kissed her soft lips. “Go to bed, OK? We can talk later once you’ve had some sleep.”

She kissed me back, sighing against my lips, her body relaxing.

Good.

“Go.” I released her and caught the sad smile on her face before she retreated to her bedroom upstairs.

I sank down on the couch cushions and stared at the wall for what felt like hours, lost in my own thoughts. I hated to be stuck in them because they were fucking ugly. The rage, fury, and disgust made me volatile. More than once I had to shove the thought of just going to Sully and using him as a reference point with my fists out of my mind.

I held back, focusing on my breathing.

Ashes had showed me some breathing technique shit he’d been doing when he was upset. He said it helped to calm him. So far, it had been working for me, but that didn’t mean it always would.

He also told me to try to turn the negative into a positive. He said I had to see the other side of the equation.

Ashes sucked at math though, and the only side I could see was me stringing all those fucks up by their entrails and watching them hang just like I’d done in my fucking closet.

I looked up as the front door opened and closed and Church came into the room. He was wearing all black and his hands were bloody.

He’d been in the woods.

“Hey,” he greeted me, going to the kitchen sink. “What’s wrong? Why are you awake?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” I said, running my hands up and down my thighs in a meager attempt to calm myself.

He finished washing and came to sit on the couch. “Want to talk about it?”

I was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know. Maybe. Out of curiosity, did you take Sirena with you?”

He scoffed. “No. Why would I take her out in the cold to hunt?”

I shrugged. “Just wondering.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t actually know. She came in from outside. I was worried about her. I thought maybe you’d taken her since you were gone too and just forgot to tell us.”

“I’d never do that,” he said, sitting forward, his elbows on his knees. “What else?”

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