Page 69 of Explode
When the footsteps came to a stop, I opened my eyes to find Kaistaring down at me.
“Riley, I know you’re upset-”
“Kai, stop,” I said, resignation heavy in my tone. “I can’t deal rightnow. I just need to be on my own.”
His jaw clenched, but he gave a nod of his head. “Look, I can’t giveyou time on your own now, we need to go to the clinic so I can have my bloods done, but after, we’re flying out. I promise to give you some time on your own on the plane.”
He held my eye, letting me know he was serious. The fact that he’dpromised meant he wouldn’t go against his word. Reluctantly, I got to my feet, accepting that I would just have to suffer through the next few hours until I could finally get some peace to think things through.
What happened at the other end of the plane journey though, thatwas another matter.
“When we get back, I want to stay with Sofia again,” I said.
Kai’s eyes darkened, but to my surprise, he didn’t flatly refuse me.“We’ll talk about it when we get back,” he replied gruffly.
It was the best I was going to get.
For now.
By the time we reached the clinic, as predicted, my thumping headhad turned into a migraine, and I wanted nothing more than to lie down and go to sleep.
On the drive over, Kai made me call Graham, and after somepersuasion, mainly in the form of assurances that he would be made chief once Max was dealt with, he’d agreed to ‘see what he could do’ with regards to getting Max’s coffee mug. We’d agreed he’d contact Miles once he had obtained it, and as I’d hung up, I’d found Kai watching me with pride shining in his eyes, and a warm feeling had cascaded through me.
And didn’t that make me feel even more fucked in the head?
As soon as we stepped inside the clinic, we were ushered into a roomby a nurse, who aside from confirming she was there to take blood, remained quiet.
Why the hell I needed to be here, I didn’t know. But Kai had made itclear he wasn’t leaving me alone in the car, so here I was, watching as the nurse tied a tourniquet around Kai’s bicep before tapping his arm and inserting a needle into his vein.
I was no stranger to blood. Hell, I’d seen someone’s fucking insidesafter Miles had disemboweled one of Hendrix’s men, so the sight of blood didn’t bother me. But the second Kai’s blood started running into the vial, I froze.
Images of Kai bleeding out all over me swam in my mind, and nomatter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the bright red blood trickling out of Kai’s body.
The blood that was his life force.
The blood that his heart pumped around his body to keep him alive.
His precious blood that he’d lost so much of.
My heart raced like a speeding train. Somewhere in the room, a noiseechoed, a sound like someone letting out a choked sob. It was only when a figure came to stand by my side, that I realized the sound came from me.
“Riley, you okay?” Ash said. He crouched down so he was at eyelevel with me, his brows furrowed in concern.
I couldn’t answer. My throat was tight, like a snake had wrappedaround it, and was squeezing so hard that I couldn’t breathe or form any words. The only thing I could do was stare where the nurse continued to take more blood from Kai.
“Ash, get her the fuck out of here,” a voice rumbled. It sounded likeKai, but he was far away, or my head was trapped in a bubble. Either way, the voice was muffled to my ears.
A warm hand landed on my arm snapping my attention away fromwhere the nurse was withdrawing the needle, not made easy by Kai attempting to rip it out himself.
“Come on, Riley,” Ash said, lifting me out of the seat, and practicallycarrying me out of the room, back into the fresh air. I went willingly, needing to get away from the sight of Kai’s blood.
As soon as the evening warmth hit me, I sucked in a deep breath, myburning lungs expanding once again, and my entire body shaking. Ash didn’t let me go. Instead, he held my arms, making sure I didn’t fall.
“Better?”
“Yeah,” I replied when I was sure I could speak again.
I glanced down to where his hands held me, and I took a step away,my skin tingling as if it had been stabbed with a thousand needles. Ash frowned when his hands dropped, but before he had a chance to say anything, the whirlwind that was Kai Wolfe stormed out of the clinic.
