Page 287 of Chaos Kills

ozzy

Bay looks sad.

And I don’t like it.

Her blue eyes are wet and dull as a tremble forms at her chin, and I don’t know what to do.

I don’t have a tissue to dry her eyes, only my shirt. And that’s lying in the middle of the floor right now, full of blood from one of Matteo’s guys.

“Ozzy,” she utters, her voice barely a whisper. It’s broken. “Please don’t go see him or go anywhere else around him again.”

I bob my head once, and she fixes her attention on me as if she’s still highly confused. I mean, I can understand. She knows nothing yet.

“Why did you do that?”

The reason for my injury lies safely in my hand. It wasn’t fully planned, but I took the opportunity and received a few bullets flying my way. Matteo has a safe house in the middle of the woods. Something that’s not in public records, but it took one lucky moment when I was trailing behind his posse, and I found it.

I found a lot of things.

But the USB was still shoved into his laptop and I’m hoping it holds all the hidden answers that will clear Bay’s name.

Which I uncover in the other palm of my hand.

She glances at it before returning her crystal blues back to me, and they plead for me to speak again.

To give her what she needs while I sit faithfully in a chair and wait for her to perform first aid on me.

“Judah.”

Her face immediately goes ghost white, taking the last bit of those rosy cheeks from her skin before she’s falling backward.

My reflexes are quick, lunging forward and gripping the back of her skull before it slams into the unforgiving floor.

Bay is out cold.

And I did this.

My chest compresses uncomfortably as I mentally berate myself for doing something wrong. I slide my palm from underneath her head, my fingers running through her soft hair, and I pause, never feeling it before and seeing my skin pucker with goosebumps.

I allow myself to do it again, wincing a bit from the contact, but the softness against the tips of my fingers only draws me to take more.

But she doesn’t move.

A sliver of fear fills my veins when it doesn’t need to be there.

She just fainted.

Thanks to you.

Tapping her cheek lightly, I receive no motor response at all, but she’s breathing.

I quickly stand and get to the bathroom for some water before Ellie and Mae see. The last thing I believe Bay would want them to see is their sister lifeless on the floor.

Finding a small cup, I fill it with water before returning to Bay.

And, without second-guessing myself and how she’s going to react, I splash the water onto her face and receive the reaction I was looking for.

Her blue eyes fly open seconds later in fright, before landing on me and calming.

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