“No names,” he cuts in sharply. “There are eyes and ears everywhere.”
A shiver runs down my spine as I glance warily around the room again. “Well, I got help.”
“Then they played you.”
My eyes dart back to him, and I freeze. “No.”
He steps to me, towering over me. “You did. Why else are you standing in front of me now? Like you said, you didn’t come for me.” A dark look passes over him as he gnashes his teeth, adding, “You came here, to hell, for someone else.”
“That’s not fair,” I argue on a whisper. “I didn’t know you were here—”
“Where the fuck did you think I was?” he hissed.
“Dead,” I answer, my shoulders slumping. I can hardly hold myself up as tears blur my vision. “I thought you were dead.”
He flinches, taken aback by my response like he doesn’t expect it. “I guess I have been,” he whispers back before turning his grizzly back to me. “Let’s go, Skye. We have to get cleaned up before they come.”
Tired, I begin to follow him when the bruised man stops him mid-step, telling him in a low voice, “Youmustperform if you intend to keep her.”
Savage doesn’t respond as he continues past him and to a closed door. He opens it and steps inside. “Strip,” he orders me as I follow him into a giant bathroom.
The room is already lit, but the light is dim. There’s a massive tub with steps leading down, filled already to the brim with water. The door slams behind me, but I’m so worn down and disturbed, I don’t even jump. On cue, my vision starts to blur.
“I’m tired,” I say softly, feeling my eyelids grow heavy. “I haven’t slept—”
“No one sleeps in here,” he retorts. “Get used to it.”
I still don’t move. I feel like I’ve been battered inside and out. Suddenly, it’s fighting to spill out of me. All that contained emotion. All that shock is setting in, and I didn’t think it could feel so heavy. “Give me a minute, okay? I just…I feel like I’m going to have a breakdown.”
It’s too much too soon.
I feel lightheaded and dizzy.
Vision spotty, I find the nearest wall and I slide down it, hugging my knees to my chest. I’m about to pass out. There is only so much fucking exhaustion one person can take. Only so much sudden emotion one can handle. The barriers I’ve put up all these years have crumbled to the ground like that explosion I was so close to dying from. I feel like I’ve been awake for a lifetime. I keep my arm outstretched, my palm open, my words nearly a slur, “Stop, okay? I’ll get up in a minute. Just give me a minute, Hunt…”
I’m very aware he’s not moving. He’s this mountain of a man, taking up most of my vision if I look up. He’s just—overwhelming. He’s all encompassing. He took up residence in my head for so long, and here he is, alive…He’s fucking alive, and I can’t—I don’t know how to compute.
I keep my eyes directed to the floor, and my mind is playing tricks on me because the grey floors look like they’re opening up beneath me. Am I hallucinating? Is exhaustion responsible for this sudden madness?
Panicked, I pat my imaginary pocket as the past comes roaring in.
“I FELT IT, SKYE!”
“Felt what?”
“I handed you my heart—I fuckingfeltit leave my chest! Ifeltyou put it in your pocket, and that’s where it’s been all these years!”
“Don’t worry, I got it,” I whisper, shutting my eyes as I tiredly pat my pocket again. “I got your heart right here, Hunt…”