Page 121 of Twisted Fate

“Lukas was out of line. I don’t know what’s going on with him lately but…”

“He’s trying to hate me so when I get myself killed, it won’t hurt so bad,” I mumbled, making him frown.

“Who said that?”

“Jense. Lukas is shit scared of me getting hurt, so he’s distancing himself dramatically to save himself from the heartache. He and Jense had a fight this morning over me.”

“That explains a lot, I guess. Did you want to crash here tonight? You can have your old room, or mine. Whatever you want.”

“Nah, I have to be at the shed soon, so I’ll probably stay with Hunter or Diesel at Slash’s,” I shrugged, watching him nod.

I didn’t want to be alone at Slash’s, but I didn’t want to sleep anywhere else.

“Okay, but you can come back whenever you want for some space, okay? Even if I’m not home. Hey, I’m sorry about Slash, baby. I know he was one of the closest people you’ve had in your corner lately,” he said gently, making me smile.

He always thought of me.

“Thanks. For everything, Caden.”

“Anything for you, Aurora Donovan,” he murmured, running his fingers through my hair before suddenly tensing up after a moment of silence. “Has anyone cleaned your arm?”

“It’s fine, it’s just a graze. Skeet looked at it,” I shrugged, but a scowl took over his face.

“Doesn’t matter, it still should be cleaned and disinfected. C’mon.”

He stood with me still in his arms, carrying me up to his bathroom and plonking my butt down on the sink.

I watched him as he cleaned the sad excuse for a bullet wound, speaking softly to him.

“I miss you, you know? So much shit went down so quickly, and everything went to shit. It feels like only the other day I moved in here with Dad, but now look at us.”

He met my gaze, an affectionate smile tugging at his lips.

“A lot has gone down, but how I feel about you will never change. You’ll always be the only girl I’ve ever loved.”

I hesitated before dropping my gaze, wondering who they’d buried themselves in to deal with me walking out on them.

Everyone knew that Skeeter had, after all.

“Has anyone else, other than Skeet, fucked Claire since we split?”

He cringed, obviously not expecting that question.

“No. Who told you about Skeet?”

“Diesel threw him under the bus yesterday. How could he…,” I started, but he cut me off with a sigh, defending his apparent new best friend.

“Baby, you know Skeet hurts differently to anyone else. In his mind at the time, hurting you was worth it after you left him. He only wanted revenge to try and calm his emotions. Now he’s had some time to think, he regrets the hell out of it.”

I snorted.

Skeeter never regretted any pussy that he stuck his dick in.

He was a notorious playboy.

“Doubt it.”

He cupped my chin, tilting my face up to look at him.