Page 53 of Working Out West

Lucas smiled. He picked up a bowl and stuck a straw in it, bringing it to my lips. “It’s not too hot.”

I took a gulp before I pulled back. “I… I think he likes me,” I confessed. Everything he’d done and was still doing pointed in that direction.

Lucas threw his head back and laughed. Once he stopped, he ignored my glare and said, “Whatever gave that away?”

“Lucas,” I whispered urgently. “I can’t have him liking me.”

Lucas’s smile saddened. “From what I can tell, it’s too late for that.”

It wasn’t too late. I had to make sure of it. Adrik needed someone who wasn’t damaged, and I would push him to find that person, because it wasn’t me.

Chapter Thirteen

Adrik

He needs someone better. I’m not for him. I’m weak, dirty.

Those words seared my mind as I lay in bed. Neither West or Lucas knew I had been standing in the doorway and that I’d heard. My chest ached at those words. I wanted to drag West into my arms and tell him he was all I needed. Despite knowing he wasn’t ready to hear it.

Instead, I would stay and worm my way into West’s life in other ways. I would have him see me as the man who would be there for him, and eventually, he would not be able to deny what we could build on between us.

Rolling, I stared at the wall that separated us. The house was quiet since most of the men had left. I’d even sent Dimitri home to sleep, after I promised I wouldn’t leave the house. I thought sleep would pull me under quickly, but it had not. My worry for the man in the next bedroom was too pronounced.

How could West think I needed someone better when all I saw was him? Eventually, he would understand he was not weak or dirty. He was perfect, even with his new scars.

I had an urge to go to him, but he needed space.

Tomorrow, I would finish this for him. I would end the woman’s life and take pleasure in delivering her pain as she had. I had no doubt she’d been the one who had inflicted the agony on West. He was in and out of sleep on the drive to the house, and his mumbled words had begged his mother to stop.

Sitting up, I rubbed at my chest as the fury lit inside me. Waiting was not a strength I had. I had a need to wrap my hands around her neck and wait as the life bled out of her.

There were only a few lives I had taken, and all meant something. All had been to save another.

With a sigh, I flicked back the blankets and put my feet to the floor. I wished I could sleep. However, my mind refused to shut down enough for me to do so. Instead, I stood and pulled on my pants. I zipped the fly but did not bother with the button. After walking to the door, I opened it and stepped out, closing it behind me. I could not lie in that bed any longer. I had to do something, and I was sure Lucas had said there was a gym in his large house somewhere.

I took a couple of steps, then paused. A sound from inside West’s room had me pressing my ear against the door. He whimpered.

Would he want me to check on him?

Would he want me to ease him from his nightmare?

A shuffle from down the hall had me looking that way. Lucas stood with Wreck at his back.

“I thought he would have nightmares.”

“Da, it sounds as if it has started.”

Lucas nodded, frowning, while Wreck just glared. “Are you going in?”

Wreck gazed down at his partner but said nothing.

A scream ripped through the house.

“Da,” I called and opened the door before me. I walked to the bed and sat on the edge at West’s hip, resting my hand on his shoulder. “Shhh, moya lyubov’. You are not there. You are home. With your friend Lucas. Shh. Nothing will hurt you here.” I hummed a tune my mama used to sing when I was a little boy while I ran my hand over the top of his shoulders, neck, and hair. He settled, his breathing evening out. “Good, moya lyubov’. That is it, breathe easy. You are not there, but here with me.” I continued humming.

After a while, West whispered, “What’s that song?”

I stilled for a second but then resumed tracing my fingers over him. “It is a song my mama used to sing to me when I was little and had nightmares.”

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