Page 2 of Pretty When He Bleeds

I laugh, licking the blood from my teeth. “Like you care about my pretty face.”

He turns and shoves me towards his SUV, the one he keeps spotless despite the fact that it’s full of hockey gear most of the time. He opens the passenger door and points to it. “Get in.”

I lean against the side and cross my arms. “What’s your fucking deal? I had it under control,” I growl.

“Under control?” he barks out a laugh and shakes his head. “You’re bleeding all over the place.”

“So what? It’s not like it’s the first time.”

At this, Kill gets right in my face and I watch the light in his eyes fade slightly, revealing the part of him thatdoesscare me shitless. “You really wanna fucking test me right now, Rome? Get in before I make you.”

I know he’s serious. Kill doesn’t bluff about shit like this, not with me. So I climb into the seat and slam the door behind me.

The second he gets in on the driver’s side, he cranks the engine and glares at me from the corner of his eye. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Gotta be more specific,” I grumble.

He white-knuckles the wheel. “You let some fucking asshole use you as a punching bag—again.”

“It’s not like I asked him to hit me,” I say with a shrug.

“Don’t bullshit me, Roman. You may not have asked, but you sure as shit didn’t stop it,” he growls.

I stare out the window and refuse to look his way. “So what?”

Kill slams on the brakes at a red light and the sudden stop would have fucking thrown me against the dash if I wasn’t buckled up. “The fuck—” I turn toward him, and the look in his eyes makes me shut up.

“You’re gonna get yourself killed one of these days,” he says, gritting his teeth. “And for what? To feel something for five fucking seconds?”

The rawness in his voice makes me clench my jaw, suddenly feeling guilty. “Maybe that’s all I’m good for.”

He lets out a sharp breath and shakes his head. “That’s bullshit and you know it. You think I don’t see through it? You’re not some self-destructive martyr, Roman. You need to start facing your shit!”

The light turns green but Killian doesn’t move, he just stares at me and waits for a response, which I won’t fucking give. “Drive,” I mutter and turn away from him.

He listens for once and pulls off, taking the route toward the house we rent with some of Blackthorne U’s top athletes. But the silence doesn’t stay for long.

“You’ve gotta stop this man,” he says in a softer tone. “You can’t keep letting whatever’s eating you alive, kill you. It’s not gonna bring him back.”

My stomach tightens and I turn to glare at him. “Don’t.”

Killian doesn’t flinch or look my way. “You think I don’t know why you’re like this? Why you play like it’s your last fucking time on the ice and have a death wish off of it? I know you better than you know yourself, Bishop.I was there.So don’t act like you can handle this shit on your own.”

“Why the fuck do you even care?” I say through gritted teeth, my jaw hurting.

“Because you’re my fucking best friend!” he snaps. “And I’m not just gonna stand by and watch you slowly kill yourself over something that wasn’t your fucking fault!”

I clench my fists. Not my fucking fault? Of course it’s my fucking fault!I saw himand I—

My thoughts cut off abruptly as we pull up to the house and he parks in the driveway but doesn’t get out. Instead, he turns toward me and sighs. “You’re not invincible, Roman. One of these days you’re gonna push someone too far and it won’t just be a drunken idiot. It’ll be someone who won’t stop until you’re in the ground.”

“Maybe that’s the point,” I mutter, the words slipping out before I can stop them.

Killian stares at me with that look back in his eyes before he grabs the back of my neck and forces me to look at him. “The fuck it is,” he says, the tone of his voice deadly calm. “You don’t get to check out, Bishop. Not on my watch.”

I shake him off and open the door, putting some distance between us. “Whatever.” I hate that Killian has gotten close enough to me to care. Everyone who cares about me dies.

But that’s the thing about Killian King: he doesn’t fucking stop even when you ask him to.

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