Page 55 of Cruel Possession
I force a smile, the room getting smaller and the air getting harder to breathe. Each inhale feels like the room is running out of oxygen.
Without another word, I turn and walk out, needing to catch my breath.
Royce will watch over Zoe and make sure she doesn’t pull anything. He might not be happy that I’m holding her captive, but he might be the only sibling who still has any loyalty left.
Besides, Zoe is in the one place she’d never want to run from, with her sister, waiting for her nephew to be born.
As I hurry through the halls, my chest tightens and my pulse pounds. Blood rushes in my ears. Though I’m trying to remain calm, there’s something about hospitals that unsettles me.
Maybe it began when I had to stand in the hospital morgue, looking down at my father’s dead body and trying to figure out how I was ever going to take his place.
The doors slide open, and I step outside, taking a sharp turn to the right and striding down the sidewalk. I hoist myself up onto one of the massive flowerboxes holding a tree and close my eyes.
“You know, if I didn’t know any better, I would say that you’re scared of hospitals.”
I open my eyes and glance over at Zoe.
Ellie hovers several feet away, watching us. With a nod to me, she turns and walks back into the hospital.
Why is she the one following Zoe? Ellie’s never liked this part of our lives.
Zoe makes a small noise in the back of her throat, waving her hand in front of my face. “Are you okay? It’s below freezing out here, and you have your ass on stone.”
It’s only as she says it that the cold starts setting in. Though the icy breeze doesn’t permeate the jacket, it does chill my fingers to the bone.
“I’m fine. Don’t know why you’d be worried either way. You should be in there with Gia.”
“You ran out of there like you’d seen a ghost.”
“Don’t like hospitals. Never have.”
“Odd. You think you wouldn’t mind them since you’ve sent so many people to them over the years.”
“And you’d think that you’d go back inside and sit with your sister instead of pestering me.” I get down from the planter box. “This is the most freedom you’re going to have. You should enjoy it while you can.”
Zoe gives me a half smile and shrugs, tucking her hands into her pockets. “You know, if you need someone to talk to, you can talk to me. I likely understand more than you know.”
I stand in front of her, and for just a moment, I consider telling her about the times I’ve been in the hospital. The way my father beat me within an inch of my life because I wasn’t living up to his standards.
The amount of damage her own half-brother did to me when he kidnapped me.
The bodies I’ve had to identify.
Shewouldunderstand it. I can see in her eyes that she would, but I can’t bring myself to tell her. Not when she’s looking at me like that.
“Why would I tell you anything?”
I let myself get too close to her the other night at the club. I can’t allow that to happen again.
Zoe recoils a little. “I thought there was something between us. Perhaps not the most functional thing ever, but something.”
The longer I’m around her, the more it feels like I’m losing myself. I don’t know who to be when I’m with her.
It would be all too easy to pretend like she didn’t kill my family and friends, and that I didn’t kill hers.
“Why would I tell you anything? You’re only going to turn around and stab me in the back with it later.”
Zoe glares at me, stepping forward to jab a finger into the center of my chest. “You seemed to like me well enough all those days we spent together before you kidnapped me.”
