Page 77 of Sawyer

“No bites,” I tell him. I never should have accepted the video call.

“Fuck.” Bryn sits back on his heels, his eyes darting between mine. “Sawyer…”

“It’s okay. I’m not asking for a bond. I’m not asking for any of that. Shep is worried about my life with the gammas’ deaths.” I flick a tear off my cheek. “He just wants me to be safe.”

“He’ll have you paired with a beta,” Sin snarls. “Not even in a pack.”

“I suspect he will.” My voice is hollow, numb.

I allow the silence to swell, to linger, and not once do they offer me more. They don’t offer a bite, a bond…anything.

My heart cracks a little. I expected something, some kind of empathy, but not this silence. I won’t allow my brother to think he’s right, even though he might be.

“What—” My voice cracks. “What is on the agenda today?”

“Shower first,” Bryn says. “Get the scent of Sin off of you. There’s de-scenter in the shower.”

“Then what?” I swipe at my eyes again. With each breath I take, I imagine the walls around my heart rebuilding.

“Vacation,” Bryn replies. “Go shower, and we’ll fill you in.”

I stand on shaky feet and hold my head high as I enter the hall. Rumor and Sin step out of my way, but I can feel all of their eyes on me as I move.

I keep it together as I enter the bathroom and lock the door, and even as I turn the shower on and let steam fill the room.

Once the hot water hits me, the sobs rush from my body. This time, I keep them quiet, and then I scrub the saline evidence away.

In a matter of a week, my entire world crashed down around me.

It’s then I realize my brother never told me how he knew I took stimulants.

Sawyer

“Hey, sleuths, it’s been a while.” I address the video screen on my phone, give them my best smile, and push my glasses up my nose. After days of keeping my contacts in, it took almost an entire bottle of saline solution to get them unglued from my eyeball. Ten out of ten, do not recommend. Besides, I need my eyes to reset before we leave later tonight. “I mean, maybe it’s been a week.”

Truth is, when I finally logged in to the app where we can share videos and mindlessly scroll for hours, I found hundreds of messages from viewers, all asking if I was alive.

“I appreciate all the messages checking in on me and asking if I’m okay.” Really, their support humbles me and makes me feel like an imposter. “I am well, however, a few things have occurred that I can’t talk about yet, and a few other things that I can talk about.” I track Sin sitting beside me in the backseat of Rumor’s SUV as he unbuckles his seatbelt and slides closer.

I didn’t tell them I was doing this, but why not throw it out there? Also, it’s going to piss off my brother and any beta he contacts to marry me off to, so it’ll buy us a little time.

Sin slides in close and kisses my temple. It’s a sweet, caring gesture that will make my viewers lose their minds.

“Meet Sin.” I give the screen a cheeky smile, then flip the camera around to show Bryn, who’s looking back at me with a raised brow and an unspoken question gleaming in his eyes. “Bryn.” Rumor throws the vehicle into park and twists in his seat to glance at the camera. “And Rumor.”

Sin chuckles beside me and tosses an arm over my shoulders, just as I flip the screen back to us. “Hello, Sawyer’s sleuths,” he purrs, sending a shiver through my entire body.

“As you can see, I’ve been a little busy, and I’ve taken some time off of work.” Lie, lie, lie. “So, if you don’t hear from me, I’m all right, just…” I pause and glance at Sin. “Busy.”

Sin grabs the camera with his free hand and presses his lips to mine for a brief, savage, and possessive kiss that makes my toes curl.

Damn, he is good at that.

From memory, I turn the video off and pull away.

“Food,” Rumor scolds me when I go to edit the video. “Then you can fiddle with that video.”

I hum under my breath because I still haven’t recovered from their lack of support this morning when it came to me, especially Sin. I should have known that he wouldn’t say anything.

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