Page 64 of Bad Wolf

Ignore the fact that they’ve chosen her over me? Forget all the shit between me and Wren ever happened just to appease everyone else?

I reach onto the shelf for one of the grey mugs, they’re the largest, and then position it under the coffee machine spout. Selecting a dark roast pod, I pop it in the top and then let the machine do its thing.

“I did talk to her. Last week. And I was perfectly civil at Jack’s game show thing,” I mutter, “We were done a long time ago. Why does nobody get that?”

He just cocks a dark blond eyebrow at me, shaking his head again.

With the coffee finished brewing, I grab the mug and inhale it. It burns as it goes down, but it’s necessary if I want to get through this day. That’s all I’ve been saying lately.

Just get through this one day and then you can sleep.

Then it’s midnight all over again and I’m reaching for a bottle and drinking until I pass out, only to wake a few hours later, groggy and unrested.

Jason is right, even though I’d never admit it to my baby brother’s face. Now that it’s seeping into my game, there’ll be no denying that Wren Lindley is a giant head fuck.

I’m plagued by memories of her and dreams so vivid, it’s like I’ve been transported back in time. Maybe itistime to cut the head off this thing once and for all.

I’m tired of the monster that’s followed me around these past six years. Maybe if I understand her thought process, I’ll finally have some peace, like Jase said.

Maybe then I’ll finally be able to put it to bed.

She and Anna are all buddied up working together. She fuckinglivesat Scott’s, which also means Jenna’s bakery is out.

My sister and Jack have adopted her as their new fucking BFF, and she always appears out of nowhere.

No one ever fucking warns me.

A trade is the only thing that will work for me at the moment. She’s running me out of my goddamn city. After scrambling down in the AHL I’m going to have to leave the Wolves anyway.

Every home game she’s been sitting with Anna, and once she sat with Jack and Coralie. At least on away stretches I get a small slice of peace.

Other than that, she’s. Always. There.

She’s stalking me while I’m awake and invading my dreams when I sleep. It doesn’t take a shrink to work out I have some unresolved feelings when it comes to Wren.

And that’s why, ten hours later, I’m standing outside of my traitorous brother’s apartment when I know he’s on shift, to finally talk this out.

My fidgety left hand flips the baseball cap off my head, and then the right runs through my hair.

I rap my knuckles on the solid door of 802 a few times and wait.

Beyond it, I hear what sounds like a bump and then a squeak of pain as footsteps pad toward the door. My arms brace on the dark wood door frame, while the slide and rattle of metal sound. It flies open and she gasps when she sees it’s me.

Which means, and I say this through gritted teeth, she also didn’t check through the peephole before opening it.

“Knox,” she breathes, rubbing her upper arm. My eyes rove over her body without my consent and my brain short circuits.

Her glossy black hair is tied up in a messy bun, a t-shirt that says “fight like a girl” on the front, stops mid-thigh, a quarter inch above a pair of shorts, and her feet are bare. Nails painted in not quite pink or white, it’s somewhere in between, and it looks good against her sun-kissed skin.

She may not have liked living in a mostly constant state of summer, but it definitely agreed with her.

Christ.

“Let me in,” I growl as I step in past her and then take in my brother’s studio. I can barely contain the smile that wants to rip from my lips as I survey the scene. Wren is messy. Really,reallymessy and it serves him right.

“Why are you here? You had your say and you made it pretty clear that you didn’t want to hear my side of it.”

She straightens up, but I’m too distracted by the state of the apartment to say anything. Scott’s a neat guy. He’s got his shit in order, and this is just…nuts.

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