Page 39 of Forged in Flames (Made of Steel 2)

Miles' mom? God, Miles didn't just think I stopped writing. He was probably worried that I was dead. Or was it possible that he thought I just ran away and never spoke to him again? Just the thought made my chest hurt. The other night when I had asked him to tell me about Summer, I had cut off his story after he said I had entered foster care. I thought that was all there was to validate. But if he had kept going, he would have told me about thinking that I had run away. That I had abandoned him, not the other way around.

I had to tell him the truth. Enough was enough. All of this had escalated beyond anything I had ever imagined. I needed to talk to the one person I could actually trust. "I...I have to go."

"You can't leave," V said.

Oh, yes I can.

"Don't leave me with this maniac," Eli called after me.

"You can't." V's voice seemed to rumble an octave lower than usual. He was mad.

Well, I was mad too. I was mad at him for thinking those thoughts about me. I wasn't weak. I had been in hell, but I was still breathing. Neithe

r one of them knew anything about me. I was almost at the window when I heard V loose another arrow from his bow.

"Fuck!" Eli yelled.

"Shit," V said.

I turned my head and skidded to a stop. An arrow was sticking straight out of Eli's thigh.

"What is wrong with you!" I ran over to them. Maybe V was right. Maybe Eli did take advantage of his position as a cop to be with me. But that didn't make shooting him okay. It also didn't just suddenly evaporate any feelings I had for him.

"It just slipped. I didn't mean to..." V's voice faded away.

I shoved V hard as I ran over to Eli. The fact that my shove didn't make him move an inch pissed me off even more. I crouched down next to Eli. The fabric around the arrowhead was already stained with blood. "It's going to be okay," I said, probably not at all convincingly.

He groaned.

I had no clue what to do. Should I pull it out? Would that make it even worse? God, this was all my fault.

Eli's head drooped forward. The pain must have caused him to pass out.

"V, do something! We're losing him!"

"We're not losing anyone," he said. "The arrow was laced with the same serum I use in the darts. It just knocked him out, that's all." He grabbed the arrow by the shaft and unceremoniously pulled it out. "You should probably stay the night to take care of him, though." He placed a medical kit at my knees and walked away.

"Are you serious? You shot him so that I wouldn't leave?"

He didn't respond. He just walked into the kitchen.

"What is wrong with you?"

"I said it was an accident." He opened up the fridge. "Are you hungry?"

Eli was right. The vigilante was a lunatic. I turned back to Eli, ignoring V's question. I looked down at the gash in Eli's leg and grimaced at the blood. Of course I wasn't hungry. If anything, I thought I might be sick.

Chapter 17

Sunday

"I want to go back to my dorm."

V kept his back turned toward me and didn't say a word. He was stirring something on the stove.

"V."

"Dinner will be ready in a minute."

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