Page 140 of The Piece You Stole

He’s still half-asleep, which I guess explains the half-second pause before he speaks. At least, I hope it explains the pause, and it’s not him wondering why I’m crawling out of Aden’s bed this early to return to mine.

I’m the last one awake, regardless of whether I sleep with Aden or Kade. Kade lets me sleep, and I’ll wake to the soft clicks and taps of him sitting naked at his desk, monitoring the security cameras on his laptop.

Aden wakes me by wafting rich coffee and sweet vanilla into my face. Before my eyes are fully open, I’m already reaching for the mug on the bedside table as he’s helping me sit up. He always seems to know when I’m about to wake. Or maybe I’m wrong, and he had to toss out the first two cups he made before because I slept through their tempting smells.

But I doubt it.

Aden reads the tiredness on my face when I push myself to stay up late, trying to prove that I’m fully recovered, so it’s easy to believe he can read the small signs that would tell him I was fighting myself awake. It’s always a fight. If I could sleep until midday every day, I think I could. Easily.

But with the looming threat of Rylan hovering over our heads, I make myself get up.

I wait for Kade to ask me what’s wrong, quietly relieved he’s the one who woke and not Aden because if it were Aden, half-asleep or not, he would know.

But then Kade flashes me an easy, sleepy smile that makes me want to crawl back on top of him and go to sleep.

“Sure thing, angel.” He lays his head back on the pillow and closes his eyes.

I wait a little longer just to make sure he’s sleeping, but when he rolls onto his front, flashing me more of that lean muscled skin and a toned ass, I tear my gaze away before I give into temptation and demand a repeat of last night.

Turning my back, I immediately spot the shirt Aden unbuttoned from me and pick it up. My hands shake only a little when I start at the button on the bottom. But by the time I’ve reached the third from the top, I’m shaking so badly that I leave it and head for the door. A gaping top will have to do.

Ignoring the soreness between my legs as I walk, I step out of Aden’s bedroom and stop in the hallway to weigh up my options.

My room—or the bedroom I’ve started to think of as mine is on my right—furthest from the staircase. I can be alone there, but that’s not what I need right now. What I need is to be somewhere no one can hear me or see me fall apart. Kade will think he’s done something wrong—blame himself—and it’s not him. It’s me. I’m the broken one.

I angle my head to the left. And to the staircase.

Kade and Aden were sleeping with me last night, which means Dariel is somewhere down there patrolling, or whatever it is he does that means the only time I’ve seen him up on this floor is when he was standing at my doorway watching me sleep.

Not the best time to be thinking about that when you’re already on your way to having a panic attack.

If I go down there, there’s every chance that I’ll bump into him.

I lower my gaze to my shaking hands. They’ll stop soon. They always do, but I just need a minute, and I need to not let Aden and Kade see.

And if you bump into Dariel?

But even as I think it, I’m already moving.

I need to be outside. I need to breathe.

I hurtle down the stairs. Too fast. I know it, but I can’t go slow, not with the frantic tempo of my heart.

Outside. I have to get outside. Now.

My hands fumble with the backyard door.

Why can’t I get you open?

Feels like something hard is lodged in my throat. Feels like I can’t breathe.

With a soft click, the lock finally slips open, and I burst out into a misty, early morning.

I gulp in deep, long breaths as I wrap my arms tight around me and squeeze my eyes shut.

Why is this happening to me now?

Slow and steady, Saige. You remember how to breathe your way through this. Slow and steady.

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