“You’re ill,” Wolfe stated. “You can’t be alone. You need someone to look after you.”
Then her humiliation was complete as she heard a female voice.
“Oh dear, is she ill? Perhaps you should keep some distance. It could be contagious.”
That bitch.
Even though she’d just been trying to convince them to leave her, she felt anger flood her as Marilyn tried to do the same thing.
“We won’t be doing that,” Aleki told her coolly. “But you should leave. Now.”
There was stony silence. She hoped that bitch was gone.
Then her stomach rumbled again.
“Everyone out!”
“I’m not leaving you.”
/> “Wolfe, please. Caleb!”
“On it,” Caleb told her. She glanced up at him with blurry eyes and he gave her a sympathetic gaze. “We’ll be outside if you need anything.”
He grabbed Wolfe and whispered something to him.
“Ahh. And she wants us to leave because of that?”
“Yes!” she cried, glaring at him.
“I thought there was no line,” Wolfe grumbled as he followed Caleb out.
“There’s a line!” There was most definitely a line.
* * *
Wolfe paced back and forth in front of the bathroom door. The sound of running water plus the plane’s engines drowned out all other sounds. She’d obviously turned on the tap in the sink. But the occasional groan coming from her made his stomach ache.
Fuck.
This is why he’d always worked so hard not to care. Not to get involved.
He couldn’t lose her again.
Wolfe knew he had abandonment issues. As a child, he’d been sent to see a psychiatrist after he’d stopped talking for two weeks. Had that been when he’d lived with Aunt Clara or Uncle Harry? No. It was Clara. She’d actually cared enough to try to fix him. Harry wouldn’t have noticed if he’d stopped talking for a year. Not that he’d lasted that long living with him and his horrid children.
He didn’t give a shit what label they gave it. All he knew was that he wasn’t letting anything happen to the people he let close.
He was furious with himself for letting her leave them eight years ago. He should have done whatever was necessary to keep her with them. But he’d been angry that she could just walk away. He’d told himself she wasn’t worthy.
But she’d proved that she was.
She’d put them first. Their safety.
Time for her to learn that wasn’t going to fly anymore. She came first.
“I don’t like this,” he stated.
“I get it, Wolfe,” Caleb replied. “None of us like to see her sick or in pain.”