Page 8 of Always Watching

Sighing sadly, Olly kisses the top of my head. “It’s okay, love. I’m so sorry this happened. I got tons of messages from our mutual subs while I was doing my scene. I rushed to your place and didn’t find you, so I tried here.”

Olly and I have done joint jerk-off scenes before, though we don’t touch each other, and our combined scenes gave us crossover subs, so it makes sense that one of them gave Olly the heads-up on what happened.

“You’ll come home with me,” he says fiercely. “I’ll look after you. I have a gun. No one will hurt you, I promise.”

“I can take care of him.” I almost forgot North was even in the room, so stuck in the warmth and safety of Olly.

A shiver rolls through my body at the sound of his voice. I’m not sure why, but North is doing things to me. Things I shouldn’t be thinking after I was almost killed.

Maybe that’s why I have feelings for him. I almost died. I could have been wiped off the face of the earth. So why not allow whatever is happening to happen?

I look up at Olly in time to see his eyes narrow as he looks at North. That’s different. North is just Olly’s and my type—muscled, tatted, and handsome.

But from the way he’s looking at him now, you’d think he was his worst enemy. “Who are you?” Olly’s voice drips with disdain, a tone I’ve never heard from him. He’s usually so friendly and happy. I know it’s just his worry about me coming through, though, so I don’t admonish him. If the shoe were on the other foot, I’d give some random man who was in his hospital room the side-eye and a whole lot of attitude.

North raises an eyebrow—making him look sexier if that’s possible—but he answers Olly smoothly. “I found Ranen. Got him to the hospital after he passed out.”

It doesn’t escape my notice that North didn’t give his name.

Olly’s expression smoothes out, but only a little. “I owe you a thanks for saving my best friend then. But he’s coming home with me. He’s not safe there.”

“He will be,” North answers smoothly. “I’ll make sure of it.”

Chapter 4

North

Logically, I’m aware I’mnot making any sense.

Logically, I should have never been in Ranen’s apartment to begin with. So it’s probably a good thing I’m a monster who functions on impulse instead of logic, since I have a feeling the only reason the asshole who attacked him left was because he heard me coming into the apartment.

I told Ranen a lie—okay, maybe a few lies. They were small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things, especially when I realized exactly how much he needed saving… exactly how much softer he looked in person.

I’ve never held a body in my arms that was bleeding and felt anything other than a burning sense of satisfaction. When I’d picked Ranen up, some small part of me had felt that burn, yes. It feltright,holding him. It felt like some part of me had come home and made a nest between my ribs, sinking in hooks and nails and teeth.

But a bigger part of me was furious that I couldn’t follow the man who had disappeared through his windowjustas I came into the room.

If it had been anyone else, I would have left the bleeding, broken man on the floor and followed after that figure so I could spend days, weeks, months taking it apart and making it scream.

But it wasn’t anyone else.

It was Ranen.

And I found myself physically incapable of letting him go.

Now I find myself fighting the urge to murderagain. Whoever the fuckOllyis, he’s dancing dangerously close to me dragging him out of the room and seeing how creative I can get using hospital equipment. Honestly, it’s only Ranen’s tired eyes looking between us, so full of trauma and hurt, and knowing that Imightget in trouble if I kill someone in the middle of a hospital that holds me back.

I still make a point to stay in the only chair beside Ranen’s bed, so Olly gets the very clear message that I’m not goinganywhereas long as he’s here. He lingers for another half hour until Ranen finally tells him to go home and get some rest. He leaves, but his eyes are all for the man in the bed beside me.

I want to pluck them out and stomp on them. I manage to keep myself steady instead, but I do offer Olly a smug smile as he leaves.

His glare makes my chest feel warm.

“You can go too. You don’t have to stay.” Ranen turns his eyes on me next, and I shake my head before he can keep talking.

“I’ll stay.”

“You don’t—”

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