Page 87 of Breaking You Open

I recall nuzzling into Louis’s arms and falling asleep right away.

His warmth is gone when I wake up. Still a bit dazed from sleep, I rise from the bed and drag my feet into the living room.

Louis stands shirtless by the stove. It’s strange how he can do something so mundane after what we did last night, though given his profession, maybe it’s not so strange for him. It should be strange to me, but the more I think about it, the more right it feels.

The box is where I left it on the coffee table. I look forward to watching TV with it always in sight. Maybe the contents are going to rot if they stay inside the box though…Realistically we should bury it in the yard or something, but there’s no way Aaron is going to tattle on us, anyway. His shame will prevent him, and if not that, then the risk of our retaliation—ours as well as the Black Claws’.

The memories come back to me frame by frame. After we were done with him, we patched him up somewhat—just enough so he wouldn’t bleed out—and Ravi dropped him off at the hospital. Knowing Aaron, he’ll be on his way out of town as soon as he can.

But the man who leaves this town won’t be the same as the man who entered it.

Louis and I stole something precious from him, and now he won’t be able to hurt anyone else the way he hurt me. We let him live, however, and it’s more than he deserves. You could say we’re even.

Louis and I eat in silence as we often do. Outside the window, a couple of birds are pecking at the bird feeder Louis must have put up. The snow will come soon, I think.

“We should talk,” Louis says once he’s finished his plate.

“About what?” I ask distractedly, still gazing out the window. “About him?” I point to the box on the coffee table. Thoughts of Aaron used to make my insides shrivel up in fear, but now they almost make me giggle.

“No. About us. About our fight.”

I suck my lower lip between my teeth. “Okay.”

It’s fair, I suppose. I’m still mad at him for lying, but what he did for me yesterday far outweighed his mishaps, at least temporarily.

Louis scratches his beard and runs an agitated hand through his scraggly hair. “I have something to tell you.”

“Okay, but can we move to the couch first? I want to be close to it.”

Louis stares at me for a second, then he sends his head back in a laugh.

“What?” I ask, a little peeved.

“I knew you were messed up and a bit deranged,” he says with glittering eyes, “but I didn’t know you weremykind of deranged.”

“But you like me like that, right?”

Louis rises to stand next to me, and he scrunches up my hair. “Yeah. I like you like that.”

I smile up at him, anticipating a kiss or something more, but all he does is go sit on the couch. When I sit next to him, his face stiffens into the grim expression I know so well.

“I want to tell you about Justin,” he says.

“Your ex-boyfriend?”

“How did you know?”

My cheeks heat up. “I…might have checked some of your photographs.”

His jaw clenches. “I’ll have to punish you for that later.”

Yes, please.The urge is so strong that I almost beg him to do it now.

“Focus,” he says. “This is important, okay?”

“Iamfocused,” I say, and I fold my legs underneath me, hands resting on my thighs.

“As you probably can figure out, Justin broke up with me,” Louis says.

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