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“Come on then,” Cruz said gently, taking my hand. “I’ll look you over in the bedroom.”
The other two didn’t like the sound of that but they didn’t argue, letting Cruz steer me from the room and along the hallway.
Once shut inside his room, he eased the shirt over my head and ran his fingertips across my ribs, making me suck in a sharp breath as a throbbing pain started.
“I don’t think they’re broken but they’ll bruise,” he said after a moment, gently pulling me against his chest to kiss my forehead. “Can I ask you something that’s been bothering me?”
“Sure.”
“How did you get to Ashburn Valley in the first place?”
I managed to keep the panic off my face somehow, praying he hadn’t found footage of me and Stone leaving together.
“I snuck out and walked along the road until someone gave me a ride.”
“You hitched a ride? Penn, that’s dangerous. We had system errors and some of the cameras weren’t working. What if someone had taken you? We wouldn’t have seen it.”
I was relieved to know there was no proof of Stone fucking me over, because that was going to tear this place apart and drag me down with it.
All I wanted was for Stone to accept me as one of them.
“Stone’s never going to let me in, is he?” I asked softly, a sigh leaving him.
“Honestly? I don’t know. I’ll talk to him but you really need to follow the rules, okay? He’s a real tyrant for them.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“Promise me that no one set you up.”
Discomfort pooled inside of me as I stared into his eyes. He knew, I could tell.
Stone’s hate for me was definitely strong enough to send me on a suicide mission, but I wasn’t going to be the one to tear them all down.
“I promise, I told you it was my idea,” I replied, giving him a small smile. “I thought I’d learned enough from the one time I went on a job. I was wrong.”
“You should’ve told me what you were planning. I would’ve helped train you some more and snuck you out on smaller jobs.”
“I just wanted to belong.” The words weren’t exactly a lie. “Can we just hang out for the rest of the day? I kind of hurt.”
“You’re lucky to be breathing,” he grumbled, sliding his hands over my skin absently as he peered down at me. “Stop getting yourself in trouble, okay? That’s twice I thought you were going to die today.”
“I’ll try and contain myself.”
“Good,” he chuckled, moving across the room to grab a pair of sweats and a shirt. “Put these on and come sit in the gun range with me.”
“Oh, I—” I didn’t want to go down into the dark room again. Not after Stone locked me in there.
“Shit, I forgot,” he said softly, cupping my cheek. “We can stay here, I’ll train tomorrow.”
“I need to get over it,” I replied on an exhale, a scowl taking over his face.
“You don’t just get over something traumatic. You learn to live with it, and it takes time. Be kind to yourself and only push it when you’re ready.”
“So we can get in bed and watch TV?” I asked lightly, relief filling me when he steered me towards the bed.
“Definitely. I’ll text Drake so he knows you’re alright.”
Knox
