I nearly rolled my eyes.
I was not, under any circumstances, going to a safe house.
I was not spending any time alone during this period, because I knew that was what would happen. They would dump me somewhere ‘safe’ and then I’d lose my mind while I recovered on my own.
No way, no how.
“No,” I told them all, my voice croaky with disuse. “I’m not leaving here.”
I was a social person. I thrived in social situations. Though, saying that, I thrived in social situations that I controlled.
I needed my family and friends around, or things didn’t end up going well for me.
There was just something wired in my brain that made me always need someone around.
Unless I was working, I was either always at my parents’ place, or Adam and Amelia’s place. If they weren’t available, I would hijack a couch at Sam and Cheyenne’s place, Blaine and Elliott’s, James or Shiloh’s, Max and Peyton’s, or Gabe and Ember’s. Or even my Uncle Tai and Aunt Mia’s place. All of them being my pseudo aunt and uncles, or actual aunt and uncles, who couldn’t care less if I was occupying their couch for long periods of time.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle being alone, I could.
I just didn’t like being alone. Being alone sucked.
Being with people made me happy.
My dad and mom liked to say that I was always in need of someone around because in the womb, I’d lost my twin. My forever partner in crime.
Anyway, the idea of being at a remote place, with nobody to talk to, seriously made me more worried than the bullet wound in my shoulder.
The bullet wound that was thankfully feeling much better. Thank freakin’ God.
“Cat…” my brother started.
“No,” I disagreed almost immediately. “I am not going to go someplace and sit there on my hands while y’all look for Thor. It’s not going to happen. And, just sayin’, but he’s not going to show his face if I don’t show mine. He’s not stupid. Plus, he knows I wouldn’t go to either of y’all’s houses because I wouldn’t want to put y’all in danger. He’ll expect me to go home. So I’ll go to a hotel. Or something.”
My dad sighed. “She’s right.”
“She can stay with me.”
My eyes blinked open as if I’d been jolted with a lightning bolt.
My head turned, and I saw Laric standing in the doorway, a dog at his feet.
A dog that had a muzzle on and looked really freakin’ scary.
Were Labs supposed to look that scary? Because this one did. He had some beady little black eyes that were staring right at me like he knew I was the weakest link in the room.
“Is that dog going to be with you?” I found myself asking, making it sound like if he was, I wouldn’t be going.
Only half kidding.
Laric looked down at the dog, then back at me. “Not with us, no. He’s too… volatile. He has a room that I leave him to rest in when we’re not actively working with each other. When we are, he always has his muzzle on.”
Volatile was one word for it, that was for sure.
“That the one that bit you and caused you to get stitches this morning?” I wondered.
“Yesterday morning,” he corrected. “And yes. This is Al. Al just got home from Iraq where a multitude of things have caused him to have PTSD. We’re working on them but… I don’t know if he’s going to work through them or not. If you catch my drift.”
If he’s going to be able to be reintegrated into society or not.
“What the fuck are you doing here, anyway?” Adam asked, sounding pissed as he finally had a chance to interrupt our chat. “How did you get in here?”
There was a long pause as Laric made his way into the darkened room and then took a seat without asking permission.
On the end of my bed.
His hard thigh sat right next to my feet that were surprisingly freezing.
I pressed my toes into his leg, unable to help it.
His eyes met mine, and I almost shrugged. Thank God I was able to stop myself, because seriously, whatever they had me on right now was working, and I was thankful for it.
“They’re cold,” I told him, explaining my weirdness so he wouldn’t move away. “Didn’t realize it until you sat down and let me know.”
His lips twitched as he placed the hand that wasn’t holding the leash to Al—Al who was still by the door, refusing to come any closer than he absolutely had to—and placed it on top of both of my feet.
Man, he had really big hands.
Like, so big that they engulfed both of my feet. It felt like I had my own mini heater.
I liked it.
A lot.
So much so that I missed the first half of Laric’s explanation to my brother, I was so focused on what was happening with my feet.
“…had a doctor appointment, so I thought I’d stop by,” Laric explained.
“Doctor appointment for what?” I found myself asking.
“Baby,” my mother piped in then. “You don’t really…”
“Ummm...” He hesitated. “An eye doctor.”
“They have an eye doctor in the hospital?” I asked curiously.
“Yes,” he answered instantly. “They have nearly everything in this hospital. It’s the only hospital in Kilgore, and with the college where it’s at, there’s really nowhere else for a professional, like an eye doctor, to go but the hospital.”
He did have a point there.
The college was massive and took up quite a bit of the town. And surrounding the college were all the restaurants. From there, there were the thirty grocery stores, and then the hospital.
There really was nowhere else for it to go unless a doctor’s office wanted to be surrounded by a bunch of college students or fast food places.
I yawned, unable to help myself, before I said, “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
He cleared his throat. “I’m color blind.”
I tilted my head. “No shit?”
“No shit,” he answered. “But don’t tell anyone. Especially my father. Nobody knows.”
“Well, you done fucked up,” I said. “Because I can’t keep a secret to save my life. Everyone will know before morning.”
“Really?” He actually looked amused, as if he didn’t believe me.
“Really,” I confirmed.
“Really,” Adam said. “There was this one time that I got home late, way past curfew, and I snuck in. Only, this asshole right here was doing the same thing. We both made it in, but then she tells our parents the next morning that we snuck in. Then we both got grounded for fuckin’ weeks.”
I snickered. “I feel really guilty when I lie. It’s why I try not to do it. I swear, I’ve tried. It just doesn’t work.”
“How about not offering up stuff unless it’s asked for directly?” Laric suggested.
Adam snorted. “That’s physically not possible for her to do. There was another time when she had sex for the first time, and then she told everyone and their brother that she was no longer a virgin. Like, if she didn’t offer that shit up, nobody would’ve ever known.”
My dad made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded a whole lot like distress.