Page 56 of How to Hack a Hellhound
He seemed content to leave it at that, but I wondered how often he’d been told he was loved. He said it so freely to me, and yet I was all shifty about saying it to him. My parents had told me all the time how much they loved me, and I’d told them in return. And Ididlove Liam. If I lost him, it would feel like a piece of my heart was cut out. I owed it to him to get over my stupid hesitance and give him what he probably hadn’t had from many people. Because yeah, he probably knew I loved him, but hearing the words was special.
I leaned back, looked Liam in the eyes, and said, “I love you, my sexy stalker.” Then I kissed him, morning breath be damned.
Eventually, we got up and made some coffee and breakfast. Or rather, Liam made coffee and breakfast while I hopped in the shower. He filled me in on the rest of the interrogation while we ate. He was going to do some more of his computer magic, andas much as I would have liked to watch, I had told Cass I would come in for a shift.
Liam offered to drop me off, and I texted Aiden to make sure he was already there. He was—Jude had dropped him off this morning. He made sure to mention that we’d been sleeping when he came back, so at least he hadn’t come in for some crazy sex noises. Not that I’d really be embarrassed, because I think my embarrassment meter was broken, but I didn’t want Aiden traumatized or anything.
Liam dropped me off with a kiss and a “Have a good day. Love you.”
I think I might have even been smiling when I walked in the shop.
“Oh god, did you kill someone?” Steph asked when I walked in. She was a snarky asshole just like me, and I loved her for it.
“I have a boyfriend,” I smirked.
“Did you kill him?” she shot back. Then, “Fuck—everyone has a dating life but me. It’s fucking pathetic. You’re a grumpy asshole.”
I raised my eyebrows at her.
She laughed. “Ok, yeah, I’m a grumpy asshole too.”
With that, we got to work, and it didn’t take long for my grumpy assholeness to come back. Because—people. The world would be such a nice place without people in it.
I checked on Aiden in the back when there was a break in the rush, and he was happily baking and listening to music. I probably needed to talk to him at some point about Liam being in our space so much. He didn’t seem to mind it at all, but it never hurt to check in.
I was thinking that when I went through the swinging door back into the shop, and I almost ran into Cassius, who grabbed onto my arm. He got all funny looking for a second, and then he pulled me over to the side.
Oh boy. “Listen, if some great aunt that’s dead has something to say about my life, I really don’t need to know,” I said.
He just chewed on his lip and stared at me. I shuffled from foot to foot. He was starting to make me nervous. He looked super serious. Was I gonna get fired or something? What the fuck?
“Just spit it out, Cass,” I grumbled.
He breathed a sigh out. “What if… what if you knew something bad was going to happen to someone. Something… unpleasant. But you could stop it from happening.”
“Well then I’d stop it from happening,” I said. I had no clue what the fuck he was talking about.
“But,” he added, “what if you stopped it, and then someone really evil got away because of your actions, and they hurt more people. What if the something bad happening was the only way to stop the bad person?”
I stared at Cassius. He was totally fucking serious, and I had the definite feeling we weren’t talking about a hypothetical situation here.
“How bad is the something bad? Are we talking death and dismemberment kind of bad?” I asked.
“No. No, not that bad, because death, dismemberment, and rape are not in this person’s future. But still, we’re talking scary and traumatic and fucked up,” Cass answered, looking totally serious.
I thought hard for a moment. Did I want anyone to go through something scary and traumatic and fucked up? No, of course not. But I thought about myself. I had gone through that, and it had ended up bringing down Marcus and his crew. It would hopefully save others. Toby had gone through some scary shit with his stalker, and it had saved Aiden.
That was what sealed the deal for me, because to think that Aiden could be dead or still locked up with that psycho who tookhim for a year? I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I knew Aiden wouldn’t wish that on anyone either. He was the sort of selfless person who would give themselves up to save someone else.
“Then you should let the bad thing happen, especially if it will save other people. That’s what I would do,” I answered.
Cass let go of my arm and nodded his head, but he looked hesitant and vaguely… guilty?
I went back to work. I couldn’t think about Cass’s weirdness or it would drive me insane, and I couldn’t worry about something bad happening to someone I cared about. For all I knew, Cass might even be talking about me and the past. That seemed to make sense to me. Maybe he had known what would happen somehow, and he hadn’t stopped it and felt guilty. It had led to bad people being stopped, but I’m sure he would still feel guilty.
I knew I was reaching, because he hadn’t even known me then, so I put it out of my head and made coffee for stuck-up assholes. Not that they were all stuck-up assholes. Some of the regulars were pretty cool people who found my attitude vastly amusing.
A couple hours passed when my phone rang, and I stepped off to the side to take it out. The number looked vaguely familiar, and I answered.
