Page 54 of Worth

“Get in line,” Zander grunts.

“Both of you can wait your turn until I’m done,” I sigh. “Zander, can I sleep now?”

“Yes,” he murmurs after glancing at Claire. He yanks a blanket off the back of the couch and drapes it over me.

And for the first time since coming here, as I drift off to sleep, I realize I am really fucking glad to see Zander.

Chapter 18

“Why was she locked up, Zander?”

I tear my eyes away from Blake’s face as she sleeps to glance at Claire, and settle back in the chair across from Blake that I’m perched on. Claire, in a world where I might have had friends, would probably be considered my best friend. She’s the one who helped Aiden and me after our escape, nursed us back to health, and made sure that we were stable enough to at least take care of each other. Right now, she’s looking at me like she’s so disappointed she doesn’t know where to start.

“She’s the Vetella girl,” I murmur, and Claire’s face turns ashen at my words. “I was trying to get information out of her and then Aiden got attached. He’s been training her, and snuck her out to go with him on the latest mission, despite me telling him not to.”

“That doesn’t explain why she was locked up,” Claire replies, narrowing her eyes like my bullshit is something tangible she can see through. Maybe she can. Claire isn’t just handy with the medical side of things; she’s heavily trained in psychoanalysis.

I let out a heavy sigh, letting my attention drift back to Blake’s face. “I was angry with her,” I admit.

She doesn’t say anything for a moment. “How come?”

“Her presence was causing issues with Aiden. You know how he gets when he decides something is his.”

“And you were angry with Blake because of that?”

I hesitate and then shrug. “I don’t know,” I mumble.

Claire scoffs. “Yes, you do.”

I lift my head and scowl at her. “Then you tell me if you think you know everything.”

She doesn’t back down the way most people do under my temper. “I think you are punishing Blake because you want her as badly as Aiden does.”

“No, that’s not it,” I insist, pretending that I’m not lying. “I took off without making sure evenoncethat Aiden had come back so that she was taken care of. I don’t even know where the fuck he is. I just feel responsible for her getting to this place because I failed to check in with Aiden.”

I had failed to check in with Aiden—on purpose. The longer my actions had sat with me, the guiltier I felt about them. It’s why I’d run off to the house where stolen Skins are brought while we wait out their thirty-day ownership transfer. At that house, I felt in control. My stay there let me put things in perspective; let me realize that, while my methods may have been shitty, I was attempting to bring not only Blake, but Aiden, under control.

I was convinced of that, sure I was right about everything I’d done.

I’d known something was wrong when I walked into the house. It had been too quiet. When I’d opened that door and found Blake lying on the floor, curled up and pale as a ghost, I’d lost that resolve to be right within a second.

“Right,” Claire says slowly, like she can hear every thought that just went through my head.

I feel like fucking blushing at the way she drags the word out. “Claire, just shut up,” I grunt.

She huffs a laugh. “Aye, aye, captain.” Her expression grows serious. “She give you any intel on Stephen?”

I shake my head. “Nothing we didn’t already know. Except that Mordecai had wanted Blake for himself.”

Flinching, Claire gets out of her chair and goes to Blake, checking over the IV fluids that are still dripping. She lets out a little sigh as she moves her away. “The glucagon shot should be helping. Her blood sugar had to have been way too flipping low when I got here.”

“Sorry,” I say quietly when she moves back to her chair. “I wasn’t thinking.”

She waves her hand at me in dismissal, but I see the very real pain in her eyes. “What are you going to do about her?” she asks, nodding at Blake.

“Make her go,” I answer gruffly. “She doesn’t belong here.”

She doesn’t. She deserves more than running around with a couple of conmen, making money off the pain of other humans.

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