Page 38 of Harmless
Rori sighed, her body swaying as she finally allowed herself to be pushed by Torr. “Fine, fine. I’ll take a little catnap.”
“Nope, you’re getting eight hours minimum. Hopefully closer to ten.”
“I swear to God, if you don’t stop acting likeanotherfather to me…” Their voices faded as they went into the house, and I abandoned my chair to go in search of Devin.
I found him in a little copse of trees behind the houses. He was throwing knives into one of the skinniest tree trunks with Tezca hanging out near him. It was interesting, how the jaguar seemed to go wherever he was needed most. Since finding Rori, I didn’t feel like I needed as much of his guidance. I had found what I was looking for.
Devin, on the other hand, seemed far from content. He was on-edge, using all of his strength to sink his daggers deep into the tree trunks. If his targets had been men, he’d be decapitating them.
“Hey,” I said casually, keeping clear of his throwing zone. “You find a place to sleep?”
“I’m not staying here.” To any normal person he would have sounded calm, but I heard the seething anger in his voice.
“Where you going, then?”
“I don’t know, but not here.” He glanced at me, wiping one of his blades with his sleeve. “I don’t trust them.”
Tezca yawned then, as if he’d heard this conversation before and was tired of it.
“I trust them,” I said. “Torr was in the dungeon with me. Rori kept her word on coming back for us. That doesn’t mean anything to you?”
“No.” He let fly three blades at once, and they sunk into the wood in a perfect vertical line. “You’ve always been too quick to trust, Santos. To me, the only thing I’m sure of is that people act in their own best interests. They didn’t free us from the canyon out of the goodness of their hearts.”
Like Tezca, I wanted to yawn, and not just because I was exhausted. This was the same old argument and the biggest sore spot between Devin and me. Despite proving myself the deadliest fighter in the pit, not to mention fucking whoever I had to to survive, he thought I was too soft-hearted. Like I only trusted Rori just because she was pretty, or good in bed, or whatever. No, I was a realist. I could tell the difference between sincerity and manipulation. Tezca himself had told me Rori was the real deal.
Devin was just so damn prickly and such a cynic that all he saw in anyone were liars and manipulators. He probably wouldn’t recognize a sincere act of kindness if it stabbed him with his own knife.
“What about Nella, then?” I asked him. “You’re just gonna leave without taking your chance to kill her?”
He had brought his hand behind his head, ready to throw again, but ended up dropping that arm to his side. “That’s the main reason why I haven’t taken off yet.”
“Main reason, huh?”
He turned to face me, a smile pulling at his lips. “Like I’d leave you behind, dick.”
“Give them a chance,” I said. “I mean, we don’t have to fucking fight anymore. Can we just relax and celebrate that?”
Devin scoffed, his smile growing. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do tomorrow.”
“Anything you want. That’s the beauty of it.” My hands rested at my hips, hovering over the handles of my machetes. There was no doubt in my mind I’d be keeping them. The world wasn’t any kinder just because I was free. I was certain Devin felt a similar attachment to his knives. These weapons had been our only instruments of power, had kept us alive to see us through this escape.
“I think I’m gonna sleep in. Let the sun wake me up.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You know how damn long it’s been since I’ve gotten out of bed whenever the hell I wanted?”
“I don’t know if I ever have.” Devin dragged a fingertip along the edge of a knife.
“Stay a while then. And try it.”
Devin’s expression hardened, his dark eyes like obsidian as he looked up at me. “She gets one chance to fuck us over, got it? One. Maybe you’ll be able to forgive her or whatever, but that’s not me, Santos. I amdonewith women trying to control me.”
“I hear you,” I said with an affirming nod. “I think that’s fair.”
“Do you?” he challenged. “Because you look perfectly happy being a third-wheel boy toy.”
I glared at him. He could talk shit about me all he wanted, but I wasn’t about to let him slander Rori. “That’s not what it is.”
“No? I’m not blind, Santos. You hook up with her like three times, get locked up with her man for a few days, and now you think you’re part of a happy throuple? Come on, you’re notthatnaive.”
I started to regret coming out here, shaking my head as I looked at our surroundings. “You know what you sound like, Dev?”
