Page 40 of Acid

The woman is a klutz, but she’s Piston’s klutz, and he needs her back.

Steal chuckles, and I turn. Piston won’t be out anytime soon, and I need out of these fucking walls.

“Where are you off to?” Steal questions as I walk out the door, and I shout back, “To see Aurora, explain the situation; otherwise,she’llbe the one shooting us.”

Steal curses, and I sigh because, fuck me, is she going to be mad.

“How is she?” I ask as I walk into Natalie’s room a few hours later, feeling fucking drained after holding Aurora as she cried.

Instantly, my eyes go to Nat’s sleeping form, and I swallow hard.

Fuck.

Her face is swollen, there’s a tube down her fucking throat, and there are wires hooked up everywhere….

“Stable,” Cass whispers, and I look her way. She gives me a slight smile while I raise a brow at her. She sighs. “You know I had to go radio silent.”

I shake my head and exclaim, “Not with Perrie, Cass. She needed you, and after you left, she changed, got harder, and then pushed everyone away.”

She swallows, pushing her dark red hair behind her ear as she looks at Natalie.

“If I’d called, I would have wanted to make myself known,” she whispers, then looks at me. “What is it Piston used to say if you wanted to run?”

I frown in confusion before it hits me, and I deflate, muttering, “To hide in plain sight.”

She nods once and admits, “I managed to rent a small one-bedroom apartment on the west side, where the Huntsmen rarely go. I’d gotten my internship here, and I-I….” Her words trail off, and I sigh.

“You need to speak to her,” I tell her, and she flinches but nods.

“I was going to go see her after work,” she admits, “but once her shock had worn off, she left.”

I furrow my brows. “You know where she lives?”

No one fucking knows. She has all her mail delivered at her parents’ house.

Cass gives me a sly smirk and says, “I’ve always known where she’s lived, Acid, but clearly, she didn’t wantyouto know.”

I narrow my eyes at her, but she chuckles before she gently squeezes Nat’s hand, and then walks over to the edge of the bed, placing the clipboard in the pocket before squeezing my arm.

“I don’t know what happened between you two, but I can guess. Fix things, Acid….”

That said, she leaves me with my thoughts, all while I look at my sister-in-law, feeling helpless.

I can’t fix things; there’s still a chance Andrea is pregnant, and even though I know it can’t be my child, but I still may have fucked her, and that, well, that’s something Perrie will never fucking forgive me for.

14

Perrie

I wince at the pain shooting through my ribs as I gently unroll the wrap from around my body.

I really shouldn’t have allowed the Dodger—yes, that was his name—to get that last hit in, but I needed the thoughts to leave.

Natalie’s in a coma, and my sister is back, oh no, not back, she’s been here all this stupid ass time. My body shakes with anger at that notion but flinch.

Dammit….

Taking a deep breath, I brace myself to continue wrapping my ribs, refusing to think of Cass, refusing to think of Acid, when the front door opens and instantly, and I mutter, “I knew I should have changed the locks….”

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