Page 65 of Bourbon & Blood

I wanted to run some of the thoughts and ideas I was havin’ through Hex. Then, I wanted to swing by my girl’s bar, see about pickin’ her up.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

Alina…

I was justdrainedby the time the tips had been counted out and closing was finished. Leaving the bar was a relief, and I couldn’t tell you why it was, but finding La Croix outside the bar when I got out was an even bigger one.

I felt my shoulders drop, and he cocked his head. He asked in that deep voice of his, “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head and was just so overwhelmed with all the things that despite my best efforts, tears sprang to my eyes and my lip trembled with the effort to keep it together.

He strode forward and put his hands on my shoulders.

“What’s wrong?” he repeated as I hung my head.

“Nothing,” I said. “Everything. I don’t know!”

He rubbed his hands up and down my arms and sighed.

“Somebody say or do somethin’ to you?” he demanded.

“No, nothing like that,” I told him. “I’m just so…tired.”

He swore softly and nodded, steering me gently but firmly by one shoulder in the direction of home.

“Parked the bike up near your place,” he said. “Should’a thought better.”

“No, it’s fine,” I murmured, and we struck out along the cracked sidewalk.

“Did you find anything out today?” I asked, and he pursed his lips.

“Yes and no,” he said. “Took a lead in a direction. It didn’t do much for us but put us on another one. We’re trying.”

I nodded and said, “I know, and I appreciate it.” He put an arm over my shoulders and tucked me into my side. I leaned into him. It felt good, and I wassotired, just absolutely dragging ass. No term was better apt to describe me right now thanwrecked.I was justwrecked.The stress of it all catching up to me and overwhelming me completely.

I mean, I really meant it. I didn’t knowwhyI was crying exactly, other than just being on emotional overload and just being so grateful to bedonefor the night, and to find him waiting? It really had done my heart good. It was such arelief, which I knew thathadto make me some kind of crazy… didn’t it?

It felt strange being his, whatever that meant. I mean, we clearly had differing ideas on the subject which was confusing in and of itself.

You wouldthinkit meant I was some kind of a slave, or that I would feel like some sort of trophy or object to him – but I didn’t. I mean, you didn’t go to the lengths he had to genuinelycarefor something you considered a thing – property in the traditional sense of the word.

In fact, I would even hazard to say that he had gone farout of his wayto care for me versusexpectingme to care for him, which honestly made me want to I just didn’t know how. At least, not yet. I understood through some of my own, personal healing journey from my childhood, and through deep discussions with my best friend, thatcaringandlovelooked different and felt different to different people.

It was why we had this whole love language thing, and everybody’s love language was different. Both giving and receiving… I didn’t know what his reception of love or caring looked like, but I did know that I was curious about it. Everything he’d done and shown me in the last day or two made me want to reciprocate something fierce. I just didn’t know what that looked like yet. Not with all the chaos going on around me.

“Here, give me that,” he muttered and took the keys from my hands, sliding it into the lock at the front of my building to let us in.

“Sorry,” I said, a little flustered at not getting my brain to cooperate and my body to function quite right. La Croix just shook his head.

“You’re tired,” he reminded me. We took the stairs in the old building up to the third floor where he keyed us into the apartment.

Everything was untouched and just as I’d left it, whichboy, was that both equal parts a relief and soul-crushingly disappointing.

“What was that?” he asked me, shutting the door behind us, and tossing my keys into the bowl by the door.

I set my purse by it and took my tips out of my shallow hip pocket, tossing them into the bowl as well.

I hada lotof money stacking up and I needed to do something with it like take it to my damn bank.

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