Breathe You - C.R. Jane Page 0,1

a taxi honking at me for not being careful at crossing the road to the hotel entrance. I throw him both my middle fingers and keep to my hurried pace. Valentina is all alone in the suite, therefore, it’s the perfect opportunity to demand she explain herself, once and for all. I’m done with her games. She needs to tell me just what the hell she was thinking in calling us to her side after ten years of being MIA. If it was to toy with our hearts, then she’ll never lay eyes on me again, and I’ll make it my mission to make sure Quaid and Logan stay away from her, too.

The one silver lining in all of this mess was finally seeing my friends after all this time. I might have acted like a total asshole when they were around, but it was only to keep my protective barrier up. I missed them just as much as I had missed Valentina.

How fucked up is that?

They had been my family for so long that I forgot how it felt like to even have one. But now that they are back in my life, I’ll go to the ends of the Earth to keep them. It’s what I should have done when I was eighteen, instead of pushing them away. But back then, I was licking the wounds Valentina caused us, blaming them for her turning her back on us. I did a shitty job at being the friend they needed, but like hell I’ll do that a second time. I’ll protect them, even if they are willing to go into the viper’s den just to be swallowed whole by the woman they love. They don’t see the danger, but after this morning’s spectacle, I think they are finally wising up that this trip will do nothing but end us once and for all.

I can’t let that happen.

With a new resolve setting in my bones, I push the elevator button to take me back to the scene of the crime. My anger grows stronger with each floor passing by, and when the elevator doors finally open, I’m a man on a warpath. I walk fuming to our door, passing the key card to the suite and rush inside, my venomous words ready to make an appearance. But when I pass the threshold to the room where Valentina is, the furious wind is knocked out of me.

Sitting on the floor, naked as the day she was born, Valentina’s head is bowed down, focused on a shattered piece of glass in her hand, her wrist beckoning to be sacrificed. My knees fall at her side, my trembling hands gently tearing the illicit thing away from her, but she doesn’t even register my presence.

“Baby, what are you doing?” My voice is hoarse and full of panic at the sight in front of me.

She doesn’t look up at me, but just stares at her empty hand, almost as if she still sees the shard of glass in her grasp. I inspect her body thoroughly to see if she’s hurt, her scraped up knees and bloody arms telling me all her cuts are superficial.

Thank fucking god.

Gently, I lift her chin up with my knuckles, and my heart stops when I see her gorgeous hazel gold eyes are in a daze. So unfocused and blank, I’m not sure she even knows it’s me in this room with her.

“Baby, you’re hurt,” I say, my voice uncharacteristically quivering in the end.

Again, there is no reaction whatsoever from her. It’s almost as if her soul has left her body and all there is left is an empty shell.

“Valentina…” I whisper again, my eyes prickling with despair.

When she doesn’t say anything but keeps looking at her empty hands, my stomach churns as if I’m going to throw up.

“You’re hurt, baby. I need to take you to the hospital.”

Sure, her lacerations aren’t enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room, but that’s not why I want a doctor to see her. Valentina—my Valentina—is no longer here with me, and I need to know how I can bring her back.

“N-No hospitals,” she stammers, her body beginning to tremble.

I’m washed with relief that some life is coming back to her, but my gut still insists I take her to a doctor. I’m about to protest when her hands latch onto mine and her eyes start to clear from the heavy fog they were under. “No hospitals,” she repeats, and this time, her