Page 82 of Dmitri

Dropping onto the sofa, I bury my face in my hands and sigh heavily.

“Dae?” Addie plops down next to me. “I want to talk to you about something, but I don’t want you to get mad at me.”

Chapter 22

Daelyn

My stomach plummets. This has already been a shitty day, and whatever Addie has to say will probably make it worse because she never says stuff like this. I’m never mad at her. I honestly can’t imagine her doing anything that would truly make me angry.

“What is it?” I keep my face buried in my hands, waiting for Addie to speak up. When she doesn’t, I glance over at her. “Addie, what is it?”

Her eyes widen, gaze sliding all over my face and then she does exactly what Ace had just done. She looks alarmed. “Holy shit, Dae.”

Shit, I forgot that I’m a mess. I immediately go into defense. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s notnothing.” She gets up, her hands balling into fists. “Did Kaleb do that to you?”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine!” she yells. “He’s such a fucking asshole, Daelyn. Why do you still hang around him?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Nothing can be that fucking complicated. He hurt you.” She tosses her hands up. “Again!”

I shrink in on myself, very aware that out of the two of us, Addie has the most sense.

“Oh my god, that’s why we got a new TV, isn’t it? He fucking love bombed you with a flat screen.”

I’m not about to correct her and say he only replaced what he broke in a fit of rage. It’ll further prove her point, which I don’t need.

“You have to get away from him,” she says. “Fuck that fucking dick. I’m gonna kill him.”

“I’m working on a way to get him out of my life. But it’s taking me time.”

“Likeyears?”

I hate that she’s entirely too accurate.

“It’s complicated,” I stress again.

“Well, it’s a good thing he never comes into this house. I’ll put a bullet in his head if he ever does.”

I bite my tongue and let her carry on, because she’s a stronger, better person than me. If one of us is going to die in the gutter, it will not be Addie.

“He’s such a psychopath, Dae. Ace even told me that—”

“Donottalk to Ace about stuff, Addie.” I stand up and jab my finger at her. “Ever. He’s just as bad as Kaleb.”

“He’s nowhere near as crazy as that monster.”

I once argued on behalf of Kaleb the same way she is for Ace. “Red flags are red flags, no matter what they’re made of, Addie.” She goes to open her mouth and argue but I cut her off before she has the chance. “Don’t defend him. He does Kaleb’s dirty work, and that makes him just as bad.”

“And what does that makeyouthen, huh?”

My heart collapses. “It makes me bad too,” I admit quietly.

“No. It makes you stuck. Just like Ace is stuck.” She fists her hair, frustrated and angry.

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