Page 53 of Beyond Rosy Irish Twilight

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

I scoffed at his request. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. After what she just went through, you want me to deny her something that will help take the pain away?”

“Give her Tylenol,” he urged. “I’m telling you, this is not a good idea.”

“Yeah? Give me one good reason.”

“I’ve seen this before,” he said after a moment. “That look in her eyes is—”

“Is terror. She was fucking terrorized. She saw both Patrick and Chase shot. She ran for her life when I could no longer protect her,” I spat. “She was taken away from me!”

His head dropped as he ran his hand over his jaw. For a moment, I thought he would let it go, but then his steely eyes turned back on me. “Look, maybe I’m overstepping, but I think it’s a bad idea. I don’t think she’s in pain. I think she wants to forget.”

“Are you seriously fucking asking me not to give her what she needs?”

“I’m asking you not to let her take too many of those meds. They’re addictive.”

“It’s been less than a fucking day!” I snapped. “If it weren’t for the fact that I need to be there for her, I’d pop a few of them myself.”

“And you should,” he argued. “Sheshouldn’t,” he said, jabbing his finger in the direction of the room.

“Fuck you, man. I did this to her!” I said, slamming my fist against my chest. “I brought us back too soon. I didn’t protect her like I was supposed to! I—”

“You did everything you were supposed to,” he cut me off. “Aren’t you wondering how the fuck they found you when you changed your plans? Something else is going on here, and we need to know what the fuck it is!”

Truth be told, I hadn’t wondered about how they found us—not since Lock dragged my ass out of that mess. My head was too fucked up to think clearly, but he was right, we needed to find out what the fuck was going on.

“The guys are downstairs. Let’s go talk to them,” he said. “Can you handle the stairs?”

I glowered at him. “Of course, I can fucking handle the stairs.”

He smirked at me, but didn’t say anything as he turned on his heel and marched ahead of me. I turned back one last time, feeling like shit for leaving her side, but I couldn’t help her if I didn’t know who was after us. I pushed forward, wincing as I took the first step. It fucking hurt since the last time I had anything for the pain was immediately after Lock patched me off. It had worn off hours ago. I was about three stairs down when Lock came huffing back up to me.

“What are you—”

But I was cut off when he grabbed my arm and yanked me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. I bit back the pain as my side pulled, but soon enough, we were on the ground level. He didn’t set me down, though. He carried me all the way to my study, which I hadn’t even had time to set up. Scottie was lounging in my chair, and Edu was kicking Scottie’s feet off my desk, trying to get his own up there.

“You get the chair,” Edu argued. “The least you could do is give me some fucking space!”

“Fuck you, man. I got here first.”

“Because you shoved me to the ground like a pussy.”

“Because I’m faster than you. It’s not my fault you didn’t see my moves coming.”

“Hey—” Brock said as he walked over, holding a puzzle box. He shook it by his ear. “Anyone know how to get this open? I’ve been working on it for like fifteen minutes, and can’t figure it out.”

“That’s because it doesn’t open,” I snapped as Lock not-so-gently flopped me onto the couch. I grimaced, shifting into a more comfortable position.

Lock shut the door behind us, then turned to all of us, taking charge in my own fucking house. “Alright, what do we know?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Scottie said. “Aside from the fact that one of these guys used to work for Ambrose.”

“And another worked for some guy named Balthazar. Seriously, who gave these kids their names? They were bound to turn out evil,” Brock said.

I frowned at him. “He was bound to turn out evil because of his name?”

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