Page 41 of Reckless: Collision

I’m not good. I’m broken. Held together by scar tissue and spite. My soul’s so fractured even the pieces have pieces.

“You aren’t good.” He stays across the room. Smart omega. Beautiful, brilliant omega who knows exactly how dangerous I am right now.

Get out. Get out.Get OUT.

“I need to run.” My legs shake as I stand, the past and present bleeding together like watercolors in rain.

“Jinx.” His voice carries a weight I can’t handle. Now I remember—we passed out together after bringing her back.Cayenne. All lemon-sharp defiance and too-sweet submission.

You don’t deserve her either.My father’s ghost laughs from the corner.

Sometimes I see him there. But he’s not real.

We made sure of that.

He’s dead. Just memories now. Just the ghost I can’t seem to exorcise from my fractured mind.

“We should talk.” Theo lingers in the doorway, freshly showered and holding a steaming mug. He’s wearing nothing but leather pants, dark tattoos stark against pale skin like a roadmap of beautiful corruption.

Fuck, he’s beautiful.

And I’m his disaster.

“I can’t.” My voice splinters as I pull on sweats and running shoes. The sun’s setting already—how long was I lost in the nightmare?

My legs itch. My skin crawls.

Everything screams run, run, RUN.

Go. Run. Leave them because they deserve better.

The voices never shut up. My father’s ghost conducting a chorus of self-hatred in surround sound.

Exhaust them out.

I step close to Theo, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I need...”

“I know.” Unshed tears shine in his eyes. He won’t let them fall. Not for me. “Go.”

Stepping into the hall feels like another failure. Another crack in my already shattered psyche. One too many concussions as a kid, they said. But it wasn’t the hits that broke me—it was watching my mother’s light dim day by day until?—

Stop.

The house is quiet as I move through it. Too quiet. Where is everyone?

Where is she?

STOP.

Walk out the door. Exhaust your brain. Exhaust your demons.

The mantra loops as I step into twilight air. Cold bites my bare chest, shocking some of the past away. Not enough. Never enough.

I take Ryker’s path around the property, forcing myself to focus on each step. The crunch of gravel. The burn in my lungs. The way my breath clouds like smoke signals spelling SOS.

Some days the nightmares stay buried. Others?—

“Wake up, boy.”

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