CHAPTER THREE #3
Cora had been keeping her distance, but I didn’t miss how her gaze flicked to me every so often. Checking in? Or maybe just wanting to know more about the woman her fiancé had held captive for over a year. But now, she finally crossed my way.
“Insoles.”
My brows drew together. “What?”
“Insoles for your shoes. They save my back. I can show you the ones I order when we’re done with our shift or things quiet down.”
Things had been surprisingly busy. But after an hour of working with Brae, I had been ready to go out on my own. And that was a relief and a half—just like this small act of kindness was.
“Thank you,” I said, giving Cora a small smile. “You’re a lifesaver.”
Something flickered in her expression. Pain, I realized. I wanted to kick myself for my choice of words.
“Hey, babe,” a voice called out.
I winced at the moniker. The table of three guys who were packing away some beers with their lunches was my least favorite table of the day.
“I’d better get that,” I mumbled.
Cora nodded, turning back to her own table.
I straightened my shoulders and turned to the three guys who wore T-shirts for a landscaping company. The idea of them pounding beers and then operating heavy machinery didn’t fill me with joy. But maybe they had a half day.
“What can I get you?” I asked the man who’d bellowed. They all had their food, and no one had an empty glass.
His gaze raked over me in a way that had me fighting a shiver. “I missed you, babe. You’re leaving us hanging.”
My back teeth ground together. “Well, here I am. Do you need a soda or a water?”
The man’s friend snickered, not helping the situation.
“Shot of Jack,” man number one demanded, leaning in closer. “Don’t make me wait. I wouldn’t want to miss you.”
Miss you.
Those two words clanged around in my head, shaking something loose.
Hot breath on my face. Hands closing around my neck. Squeezing. “No one even misses you. They’re not even looking. They don’t care at all.”
A wave of dizziness hit me, right along with the memory. Or was it something my imagination had conjured up? I had no idea. And that only made the disorientation worse.
“Nova. Everything okay over here?” Wylder’s deep voice cut into my spiral.
“All good,” I forced out, the words sounding rough. “This gentleman needs a shot of Jack.”
Wylder’s dark-hazel gaze narrowed on the man, surveying the beers and doing some sort of mental calculation. “I’ll get you that as long as you’ll also let me call you a cab.”
The idea of a cab in such a small town was comical, but Brae had told me there was exactly one cab company with two to three drivers at any given time.
Bellowing man stiffened. “I can hold my liquor just fine, Archer.”
“Might be the case, but I’ve got rules to follow.” Wylder turned to me. “Why don’t you take your break? I’ve got this table.”
Shit. I didn’t want Wylder thinking I couldn’t handle myself. But as I opened my mouth, another wave of dizziness hit. “No one even misses you.”
“Sure,” I croaked, already moving despite the guys’ protests.
I wove through the tables, my vision going a little blurry. Shit. Shit. Shit. I needed to breathe. But the air in here wasn’t the right kind of air. Too warm. Too stale. The scents all wrong. I needed to get out.
I fumbled down the hallway until a voice pulled me up short. “Nova.”
Two syllables, roughly spoken. Like a gruff command or a barbed lasso.
I turned as if I had no control over my body.
And there he was.
He tended to do that: show up exactly when I needed him. Like he had some sort of radar for my trauma responses.
He moved in closer. Just close enough that I caught the scent of him—pine and cedar and fresh air. Like the mountains clung to him. Maybe because he practically lived out there and rarely came inside.
I looked up into the eyes of the man who’d saved me.
Some might think his dark-hazel eyes were identical to his four brothers, but they’d be wrong.
His were different. There were flecks so dark they were almost black, and then flecks of light.
The kind of gold that held hope. He was a balance of both—the light and the dark.
Kol Archer. His name had that same balance: the light and the dark. Everything about him was a blend. Brains and brawn. Gentleness and power. Stillness and movement.
“Are you okay?” His question was low, barely audible over the music and voices, yet deafening at the same time.
Maybe it was the powerful blend of all that was Kol that had me answering. Or perhaps it was the fact that he’d brought me back from hell itself and we’d bonded there. Either way, my lips spilled my secrets to the man with the haunted eyes.
“Everyone’s watching.” Another wave of dizziness hit me.
“There are eyes on me all the time. I can’t flounder for a single second without them all rushing in and trying to fix it.
I know it’s because they care, and I should be grateful, but I—” The dizziness intensified.
“I—” The right words wouldn’t come. “I can’t even … ”
“Breathe?”
It was a single word that Kol supplied, but it was the exact right one.
“I can’t breathe.”
It was the ultimate confession, and he was the only one I could admit it to. But it was the truth. I couldn’t breathe.