Page 75 of Eat You Alive (Court Legacy 4)

My gaze hit the ceiling when another roll of noise slammed through the room. It accompanied lightning through the curtains, and Fawn didn’t even move this time. Like she was frozen and too still.

“No.” Another gritted word fell from her lips. “I’m not a child, Ares.”

She didn’t have to be a child to be scared of storms. I mean storms fucking sucked and could be scary, loud. “Well, what’s the problem, then…”

“Just go back to sleep,” she growled, her head shaking. “I’m not scared of storms. I just don’t like them, and they suck.”

I smiled a little, thinking the same thing. I waited a beat, still on my elbow.

“Are you still awake?”

“Yes.”

She growled again, turning around, facing me. She’d rubbed her face before she did, but even in the dark, I made out a face charged with color. Not to mention, her eyes were bloodshot.

“Red,” I started to reach for her, but resisted. My jaw clicked. “Tell me what’s going on.”

She could very well tell me to fuck off again and had before. Her eyes escaped. “Why?”

“Because I asked.” I did touch her then, stupider than shit, but I couldn’t help it.

She looked so sad.

She was sad, and her eyes closed when my fingers flicked her hair. A tear squeezed out of them, and she didn’t stop me when I touched that too.

“Red,” I repeated, so close to her now. We were even sharing the same pillow. “Talk to me.”

She didn’t, sighing. Her skin flushed, so red under my fingers.

“It’s my dad,” she admitted. Upon opening her eyes, she rolled them back. I figured she did this to avoid looking at me. “It’s my dad. It’s my… It’s my…”

Her voice cracked, her face all screwed up. She pressed her sleeve to her face, but I got a hand there. I got her tears for her and whatever they surrounded.

“What about him,” I said, going there. I didn’t want to push her, and at this point, she was crying so much she couldn’t even talk.

She mashed her palms into her eyes.

“I killed him,” she croaked, gasping. Her shoulders shook. “I killed my dad, Ares. It’s my fault he’s gone.”

Confused, I just lay there, waiting. Another clap of thunder ricocheted off the walls, and when Fawn curled up, I wanted to enter the heavens and strong-arm that shit down myself. I spread a hand on her face, making her focus on me. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I was the one driving,” she admitted, causing me to blink. She nodded. “It was me behind the wheel. You didn’t know?”

I hadn’t. The only thing I’d found out was that her dad had passed in a collision. I’d read the byline about it, but it hadn’t gone into details about the who and what.

I swallowed. “You were behind the wheel? But you were only like…”

“Fifteen. I had my permit.” She sniffed. “A lot of good it did me.”

I cringed. “Your dad obviously thought it was okay.”

“Yeah, but he shouldn’t have. It was a storm just like this.” She glanced up, wincing. “It was raining so bad, and I couldn’t see… I couldn’t see…”

She was talking to herself, and I let her. Her focus was on everything but me again, and though I tried to capture it, she wouldn’t allow it. My throat flicked. “It was an accident, Red.”

“Yeah, and I survived, and my dad didn’t.” Her head shook, angry now. “The thing is, that trip had been my idea. They wereallmy idea. I had to go take pictures. I had to get the story, and my dad always took me. It was the thing we did together. He taught me everything.”

“Because it was your thing, the two of you,” I said, and obviously something they shared. “But it was an accident, Fawn.”

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