Page 43 of Kylo
Or, of course, if they thought they were going to take over with Zayn for us.
That shit was not going to stand, that was for sure.
At this point, though, we had more questions than answers.
I could practically hear Huck’s voice in my head:Rue could get us answers.
The only thing worse than just questioning her would be trying to actually use her, force her to get more information than she already had.
There was one thing I knew. And that was the bait always ended up dead.
My stomach twisted hard at that thought.
It was fine.
I wasn’t going to let that happen.
She wasn’t going to get hurt on my watch.
—
I spent the next few days stuck in a hot car, guzzling electrolytes and eating shitty protein bars as I sat on Vital Greens and Rue’s house as well as followed her on any errands she ran.
They were few and far between, though.
And judging by how she seemed to be dragging her feet anywhere she went, I figured maybe the new meds were coming with an adjustment period that made her sluggish and tired.
To avoid any accusations from the club, I made no contact with her and kept a detailed notebook of all her movements. I fucking noted down when she went in and out of the greenhouses to water and when she let her dog out to pee at home, for fuck’s sake.
With watching her so closely, I could see things I might have otherwise missed about her, too. Like how she seemed to get tighter and tenser with each passing day. Like how she whipped around to look whenever she heard the chug of a large truck. Like how she jumped at shadows and hugged her arms around herself.
Each day it grew worse and worse until, finally, one evening… an unmarked freight truck pulled into the empty lot of Vital Greens.
My back stiffened as I reached for the binoculars.
It was go time.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rue
The new meds were making me slow. Not just my body, but my mind too. All my thoughts felt like they were steeped in molasses. The same went for my limbs.
All the extra effort just to get through my daily tasks—and think straight doing so—was making me the bone-deep kind of tired that no extra sleep seemed capable of fixing.
Traeger watched me with furrowed brows and insisted on making me endless coffees and doing all the heavy lifting at the shop.
As sweet as it was, having more downtime only let my mind travel. With how thick and sticky the thoughts were, it meant all I focused on was the upcoming delivery. And, of course, the fact that I hadn’t heard from Kylo since the whole panic attack thing.
I’d like to say I wasn’t expecting him to.
But some part of me was hoping he might reach out, ask if I was okay, or maybe stop into the shop for more plants.
As pathetic as it was, I just wanted to see him again. I wanted that little hookup and his sweet caretaking of me to mean something.
Obviously, he just wasn’t interested.
He had just been a nice guy.
