Page 42 of Delta: Retribution

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Half-asleep on his couch, Trace was numb and drifting in and out of a painkiller haze. It’d been time to change his bandage, and that hurt like a mother bear. So he doubled up the dose on the painkiller and drifted off to la-la land after Ryder dropped him off at home. But he was coming down from his Percocet-coated high when the doorbell rang.

An instant hope that Marlena was on the other side brought him to fully awake. After the surgeon had pulled the bullet out of his shoulder, he said, “Thanks for the work” to Titan’s docs and high-tailed out of there it to find Marlena. But he found out from a nurse that her father had checked her out. The thought made him both angry as all hell and jealous he couldn’t be there to take her home. He called her cell phone but it was off. Or maybe gone, like her last cell phone.

Before he could get up and to the door, it cracked open, and she popped her head inside. “Hey, you. Can I come in?”

Absolutely, she could do whatever she wanted. His chest felt warm, and he could finally breathe. He realized that he hadn’t been able to breathe since he’d left her side at the hospital. Trace wrapped his arms around her, and even when she tried to pull back from his wound, he hugged her tight, enjoying the fierce bite of pain. “I missed you, Cinderella.”

“You just saw me yesterday.”

“Lots happened.” Damn, he wished she’d spent the night with him after the hospital run. “How are you feeling? I tried your cell and your home phone.”

“I didn’t go home.” She sighed, slumping. “I ended up at Brian’s.”

His fists bunched. “Brian.”

“My father.”

Through the painkiller haze, that made more sense, but it was still shitty news.

“Yeah. Sucks. As it turns out, when you’re still on the college health-care plan, and you get shot, they place a call to an emergency contact. The fucker doesn’t even pay my tuition. I have no idea how that works. But he’s had a turn of luck lately, living large. Says my going missing is his good luck charm. Asshole.”

“Prick.”

She shrugged. “I told him he didn’t need to pick me up if he didn’t give a hoot about me. I have no idea why he’d volunteer to pull the father card. I even told him that, and he found the whole thing hysterical.”

“Guess that conversation didn’t go well.”

“The usual. I’m so smart, I’m stupid. Waste of space. No one would ever love me. Same stuff, different day.”

Trace’s heart beat faster. Listening to someone belittle her. He said she was unlovable? That was insane. If anyone was deserving of love… it’d be her.Fuck.

“Something about him was different. It’s right in front of me but I can’t…” Confusion erased from her face and her eyes narrowed. “Trace? You okay?”

Deserving of love…?“I need to sit down.”

“You look like you’re going to be sick.” She grabbed onto his arm as he staggered toward the couch. “Seriously, what’s with the look?”

He put his head between his knees. “Fuck.”

“Do you need a doctor? I mean, I can drive, and you look—”

Going upright so fast his head spun, Trace grabbed her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers. After she kissed him back to reality, he opened his eyes to see a very confused, hot-and-bothered Marlena. “I’m a total lost cause.”

She gave him a half smile. “So you say.”

“Mar.”

The half smile on her face made him want to kiss her again. “Trace.”

“This is ridiculous.”

She laughed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The TV was too loud. The AC blew too hard. Everything irritated him to the point of insanity at that moment. He jumped off the couch and paced the length of the living room. “Neither do I.”

“What?” Her cute face was scrunched.

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