The Beautiful and the Damned by Jessica Verday

Author:Jessica Verday
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Cyn woke up to a stiff neck and a raging headache. The last thing she remembered was talking to Thirteen. She glanced down, realizing that she’d fallen asleep at Father Montgomery’s kitchen table. The weariness that came along whenever the darkness took over sucked all the energy out of her.

A sound came from outside, and a light over the small shed in the backyard illuminated the outline of someone pushing a motorcycle into it. A couple of minutes later, Thirteen came inside the house. His hands were covered with little black spots, and a clump of something dark and brown stained his left cheek. He went directly to the sink and started washing up.

Oil. It’s just oil from his bike.

Finally, he said without looking up, “You’re still here?”

“I guess I was just on my way out.”

“Well, don’t let me stop you.” He dried his hands and then reached into the cabinet to his left and pulled out an empty glass.

A glass of water and some headache medicine sounded heavenly right about now. So Cyn said, “Can I get one of those?”

He left the cabinet door open instead of getting her a cup and walked away from it. Cyn gritted her teeth and moved slowly toward the sink, fighting the tiredness that threatened to consume her. Everything ached. Her back, her hips, even her knees.

Her fingers trembled as she filled the glass, and when she looked down, she saw that her shirt sleeves were rolled up. Exposing her arms and exposing her wounds. The bandages were missing.

Cyn stopped cold. “Did you do this to me?”

“Cut you? No.”

“I know you didn’t cut me. I meant, did you take off my bandages?”

“That was all you.”

“For some reason I decided to just take them off? Why the fuck would I do that?”

“You had your reasons.” He walked over to the door and held it wide open. “Now, you said something about leaving?”

“Yeah. Right.” Cyn shook her head in disbelief and dropped her glass on the counter. She’d actually thought he might be able to help her. So much for that. Carefully rolling down the sleeves of her shirt, Cyn doubled back into the living room and found her coat lying on the floor beside the couch, then she met him at the door. Her breath fogged up, and the cold night air bit right through her. Damn, it’s cold out.

“The funeral will be at the church,” he said.

“Yeah, okay.”

Cyn turned her back before she could say anything more. Before she could beg him to let her stay a little longer inside the warm house, before she could tell him how even sleeping on a lumpy couch was ten times better than sleeping on a concrete floor, before she could ask if he’d give her a ride back so she wouldn’t have to walk in the cold, before she could say that she didn’t know if Hunter’s brother would be waiting for her when she got back to her apartment and that she really, really, really just wanted someone to be there in case he was.

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