Page 85 of Us Dark Few

Takeshi’s body went rigid, and he immediately clenched his fists, glancing away, but not before she noticed the unhinged turbulence in his expression.

“After I brought you here, I notified a couple guards. I told them Barron attacked me, and I retaliated. When we went to retrieve Barron’s body and hold him accountable to the Warden, he was already dead.” Takeshi pressed his lips together in a thin line, not a hint of regret in his sinister tone.

She didn’t know how to respond. Takeshi repeatedly put his neck on the line for her when all she did was leave a mess of destruction in her wake. Maybe everything was her fault.

Maybe she deserved what happened.

“I’m sorry.” Khalani glanced down at her hands.

Why was she so messed up?

“Look at me.”

Khalani shook her head.

“Look at me, Kanes.”

Her mouth twisted, but she peered up.

Takeshi’s obsidian eyes pierced hers. “Youdon’t apologize for anything. I am the one who is sorry. I should’ve been there, but I was running late with drills. This is my fault. You…like this. What that worthless piece of shit did. What he tried to do. I’d kill him again if I could,” he cut himself off, gaze shifting away as he nearly shook with incensed rage.

She leaned forward, daring to place a hand on his shoulder. He refused to look at her, as if the guilt coursing through his body wouldn’t let him.

“That’s not true, Takeshi. You saved me.Youdid that. And not just at the end. When I was about to give up back there, your voice from training was what gave me the strength to fight back. I’m more grateful than you could ever know.”

Khalani meant it with every ounce of her being. All those times, she hated him for being hard on her…she was such a fool.

Takeshi’s forehead creased at her words, and his gaze flickered up to meet hers. He opened his mouth to speak but abruptly closed it, nodding instead.

As if words weren’t needed.

And for once, she understood the silence.

Takeshi pointedly glanced at the hand Khalani still had on his shoulder.

“Sorry.” She quickly pulled it back, blood flooding her cheeks.

“Worried I’ll still kill you, Kanes?” His dark eyes glinted. “I could’ve so easily with you in my arms.”

The way Takeshi’s magnetic voice stroked her skin made her shiver. Khalani almost thought that part was a dream, his arms wrapped around hers. Because being held by Takeshi felt better than it had a right to. Those details should’ve been inconsequential, an afterthought, but her mind kept returning to that moment, like it was a centerpiece.

“You might still be considering it. Hope my body wasn’t too heavy for you,” she added.

“Hmm. Maybe I should take you to the doctor,” Takeshi mused. “The day you’re too heavy for me is the day my arms have fallen off.”

Khalani’s pulse quickened, and she momentarily forgot how to breathe. “How long was I out for?” she asked, desperate to change the subject before verbal nonsense came pouring out.

Takeshi threw the damp cloth on his desk. “Just a few hours. Lights out happened not long ago.”

She nodded, and an uncomfortable silence ensued. This was surely the part where Takeshi would escort her back to her cell. And despite how crazy the thought was, Khalani found that she wasn’t ready to leave.

She could explain the irrationality away by being shaken about her encounter with Barron, but deep down, in the parts of her that weren’t meant to be exposed, she knew it was more than that.

Takeshi’s presence comforted her. It wasn’t solely due to the warm energy he carried with him. It was the way he listened, as if her voice truly mattered. It was how he commanded the area around him and urged her to take up space too. It was the way he gazed at her with concern, like he wanted her to be more than just okay.

Maybe she stopped hating him long ago and never truly noticed until now.

Takeshi tapped his finger on his legs as he studied her. “So, you have a couple options.”

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