Page 41 of Stone Seduction
“I…I’m alright.”
“You’re not.” He patted my back. “Let it out.”
Gods, I wish I could. So, so much.“I’m…I…” What if I just told him? At least it would ease the pressure, give me a different perspective on things.
Our flip phones buzzed at the same time, killing the idea for now.
“Message from Carissa,” Dane said, checking his device. “Oh.” He looked at me, paling slightly as if he’d seen a Gula Wraith—a nasty creature from back home with a penchant for making your worst nightmares hop from your mind and move into your home.
A tricky curse to break.
I fished my phone from the robe’s pocket, reading the schedule for this week. Morning patrols for my team, along with their names.
Two names stood out, the shock of them hitting me like ten bulldozers at once.
By. The. Gods.
Eden and Billy. My sister and my ex-boyfriend. A name of joy, a name of pain.
“What the pissing hell is this?” I almost tossed my phone, but dropped it back into my pocket instead.
An ugly twinge in my stomach got me pacing. Panic tightened my chest, my hands balling again.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
Dane said something I didn’t catch, his voice distant, my anxiety drowning him out.
Rather than punch the air in celebration at my sister coming, Billy’s name overshadowed her. It slammed on every rage button, confused the shit out of me, dragged my soul across barbed wire in a pit of hot coals, and shoved me back to the past. Back to the old me.
“What the fuck is he doing?” My heartrate accelerated. “He can’t come here. He just can’t.”
Dane spoke again, the words muffled.
Billy. Billy. Billy. Gorgeous, a heart-stealer, the man I thought I’d be with forever. By the gods, he took my breath away, only to freeze it and stick the icy shards into me. He’d betrayed me, shattered our future by letting Seth suck him off.
He broke my heart, stoked my fury.
Fists slamming into Seth. Kicking him in the ribs, stomping on his hands, taking it too far. Wanting him to hurt like I hurt, wanting him to?—
I killed the trip down memory lane.
“Fuck!” I bellowed into the sky, head thrown back.
“Asher!” Dane’s voice boomed in my ears, almost perforating my eardrums.
I definitely heard him that time.
“What?” I snapped, trembling, ready to run for the horizon.
Not Billy. Please. Not him.
“Your G-phone is buzzing!” he yelled in my face.
With a growl, I took a step back and retrieved my vibrating device from my pocket.
It stopped.
Dane cocked his head. “Bro, you need to calm down. Your face is proper flushed.”
