Page 94 of Kylo
He swooped down, snagging my chunky dog around the middle before he could rush off the blanket. Then he picked him up and carried him. Ernest’s front legs went over Velle’s shoulder. His tongue lolled out, then licked Velle’s ear.
“Yeah, nice to meet you too, bud,” Velle said, moving out of the room with him.
“Hey, you’re okay,” Kylo said, watching me with growing concern in his eyes.
It wasn’t until he said it that I noticed my body was shaking head to toe, all the adrenaline seeking an exit now that the danger had passed.
“Yeah,” I agreed. Even my voice sounded shaky as I dropped back on my heels. Tears pricked my eyes, and I lifted my hands to try to hide my face, saw the grime coating them, and dropped them with a pathetic sob.
Kylo, hesitant before, dropped down with me then, reaching for me—filth and all—and pulling me until I was on his lap, my legs on either side of his, my head buried in his neck.
The familiar scent of him, the feel of him, only seemed to make me cry harder.
His arms tightened around me, squeezing me almost to the point of cutting off my air.
“You came,” I choked out.
“Of course I came. I’m not gonna let them do anything to you,” he vowed.
I believed him.
No matter what had happened between us, no amount of trying to repaint him as the bad guy could make me believe he was a bad man.
He wanted to protect me.
“Why are they looking for me?” I managed, my voice thick with tears.
“I don’t know,” he said, rubbing his hand up and down my spine as if to try to ease the upsetting reality of those words. “My best guess is they found out you’re linked with us somehow.”
And wanted to punish me for going behind their backs.
Thank God I had a hiding space.
Because there was no way there wasn’t some awful torture in my future if they’d located me.
I expected the tears to drag on and on like they had the night of the delivery. But maybe my system was adjusting to the fear, the uncertainty of my life now. Or maybe the meds were evening me out, letting me get more control over my emotions faster.
All I knew was that I didn’t completely soak through Kylo’s shirt this time. Though I probably did smear him with the dirt and grime from the crawl space.
“You don’t smell bad.”
“I… what?” Kylo asked, his hands pausing in their path up and down my back.
“Teddy said Huck said you smelled bad.”
A weird, short snort escaped Kylo at that.
“I guess I did for a few days. I’ve taken showers since then,” he admitted. “You talked to Teddy?”
Neither of us moved to pull apart.
And I was choosing to let myself think it was because I was still scared and vulnerable. Even if I knew the truth; it just felt good to be held by him again.
“He came to the shop.”
“To talk to you about the plants?”
“No. Well, that was mentioned in passing. But no. He came to talk to me about you.”
