Page 77 of Whenever You Call

Exhaling heavily, I studied her face, bringing my forehead closer to hers for just a moment, and I whispered, “Tomorrow. I’m telling you everything tomorrow. I can’t do this to you anymore. I can’t do it to myself.”

Hannah wokethe next morning in a mood far darker than the day before. The sadness had disappeared, replaced by a soul-sucking rage that became a third presence in the room.

The first thing she’d done was phone Bella to make sure everything had been okay through the night, which it had, apparently, but since that phone call, Hannah had barely looked at me. There’d been no awkwardness between the two of us, but my chest pinched enough already knowing what I had to do, and Hannah stalked around like a small bear with a very sore head before she went to change after refusing to eat any of the breakfast I offered.

Then it hit me…

What if she’d heard what I’d whispered to her in the dark?

Fuck.

When she finally walked out of the bathroom, back in her workout clothes from the day before, all I could do was sit on the edge of my bed in nothing but my shorts and stare at her, silently pleading for her to talk to me.

Her eyes caught mine, and she did a double take before she came to a halt, and her shoulders sagged.

“I’m sorry,” she said with obvious defeat in her voice.

“What for?”

“Waking up like this. Unable to strap on a smile and say thank you for everything you’ve done and continue to do.”

“I don’t want your thanks. I’ve already told you.”

“But I don’t want you to see me like this anymore.” She gestured to herself. “It’s frustrating to have all this anger inside me, Logan. I have nowhere to put it. I thought escaping and sleeping might help but…” She shook her head before walking over to the bed and dropping down beside me. I turned to look into her eyes, and of course, my heart began to race ahead of itself, the same way it always did when she was close. “What can I do? I’m so tired of trying to hold everything in. I’m drained. Emotionally ruined. Yet, I can feel all this energy flowing through me like I… like I need topunchsomething.”

I raised a brow as I leaned away from her.

She rolled her eyes and laughed softly. “Like I’d hit you when I need you the most.”

More fucking guilt piled on top of more fucking guilt.

I brought my hands between my parted thighs, noticing the way Hannah’s eyes had drifted to my naked torso before she blinked quickly and looked down at her feet, clearing her throat as subtly as possible.

Tell her. Tell her now. Put her out of her misery. Put yourself out of it, too.

“I may be able to help you unleash some rage,” I said, bringing her eyes back to meet mine.

“Don’t sacrifice yourself for me, Logan.”

“Maybe I want to.”

Her brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“Get your sneakers on. I’m taking you somewhere. Somewhere you can unleash whatever the hell you need to on whoever offers themselves up, and when it’s over, you’ll either feel better, or you’ll feel the same. What have you got to lose?”

We pulledinto the parking lot of TKO Gym, and Hannah’s sudden laughter had me grinning to myself when I brought the SUV to a stop.

“I see where this is going,” she said with a smile I fucking loved to see. She turned to me. “Will there be a lot of people inside?”

“A few, but they won’t care about us. They’re not like that here. Just in case, though, I called ahead and spoke to the owner. Remember him? The guy with me that night at the club with Jasper.”

She nodded. “I remember.”

“He’s got a room in the back he rents out for all different reasons. Films, stunt work, one-on-one training. That sort of thing. I asked him if it was free and if I could call in a favor. He was happy to help.”

She looked back at the gym again. “You did that for me?”

“It’s no big deal.”

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