motherfucking head!”
Yikes.
“Okay, okay. He grabbed me. I broke free. I ran and got lost. When I settled down, it was getting dark and I’d ended up in the city. I was too scared to walk back to yours in case Clint found me. I wasn’t thinking straight. The buses had stopped and my phone was dead. I had the key to work and decided to sleep here. But Angelica hadn’t left yet. When she heard everything, she invited me away with some of the other staff for the weekend. When we returned, Kyros offered me a place in his tower until I get on my feet.”
“I want to see where Clint grabbed you.” She’d calmly listened to my rambling. Which meant she didn’t believe a word. My girl was clever.
Her life could depend on me being cleverer.
Relenting in this instance, I shirked my white blazer. The silk blouse I wore beneath the white blazer was royal blue and sleeveless.
I held my arm out for Tommy’s inspection. She cursed when her eyes fell on the bruises. They’d faded from angry purples and reds to blues and yellows.
“I’m going to take an axe to his head. God, Basi. Why didn’t you come to me? You know Father and I would have helped.”
The hurt in her voice made me want to crawl under a rock. At least this answer was an honest one. “I just took off in a random direction, half out of my mind with terror. I’ve never run so fast in my life, Tom. I asked for directions back to Orange, but I must have looked insane. The woman I asked hauled ass and I mistook her arm swing for directions. I was in shock. And then the city was in sight.”
She released my arm, and I tossed my blazer onto the desk behind her now the game was up.
Tommy scrubbed at her face. “I feel like I’ve failed you big time. I promised to help you figure this out, and I haven’t done any of that. You were assaulted.”
“You can’t be responsible for me. I should have come to you when I couldn’t pay rent, but I was too ashamed after buying that stuff for the apartment. I couldn’t face you.”
“You can always come to me, Basil. Always,” she said softly. “I’m more offended that you thought you couldn’t.”
The last week had changed me. Because as we faced each other, I admitted something I’d always been too proud to speak aloud. “You’re so capable, Tom. I wanted to be like you. When I couldn’t, I felt stupid.”
And still did—even though being stupid shouldn’t mean shit when vampires existed and controlled me.
“… Is there more you aren’t telling me?”
Goddamn, she had a Basi Emotion Radar. “I’ve just missed you. Being around strangers for a few days has made me weepy.”
She snorted. “The day you’re weepy is the day I win the lottery. Back to the glamping.”
I held up a hand.
Tommy choked on a laugh. “Okay, Grandmother.”
Staring at my hand, I realised she was right. My grandmother totally did that. “Oh my god.”
When had I started copying her?
Tommy opened her mouth, and I held up a hand to stop her again, smiling wryly.
The truth was, my friend wasn’t a dumbass. She knew me better than almost anyone in this world. So I wasn’t going to treat her like a dumbass and crap on our relationship.
“Tom, do you remember my fourteenth birthday when Harriet stuck that note on your back? I grabbed it off as soon as I saw it and told you the note said gorgeous.”
Tommy rolled her eyes. “Such a terrible liar. I fished it out of the bin later and read it.”
The note had said poor, ugly bitch—because rich teens were about the meanest people out there.
“My point is that I lied to you to protect your feelings.”
She stilled. “What are you telling me, Basil?”
I had to be careful. “I’m telling you that if you ever need to know something important, I’ll tell you. If I don’t always tell you everything, it’s nothing to do with who you are—because I will always love you. You were worried when I didn’t get in touch, and I wish I could promise never to do that again—but Beast might have other plans.”
I felt quite good about how successfully I’d buried a warning message in babble.
My friend didn’t immediately reply. She searched my face with her keen chestnut eyes. Had she read between the lines enough there? I was protecting her. I didn’t