giving me a quick glance from the side of his eye as he drove. As mad as he still was, he cared. He understood. I was far from fine. Lucas knew it too. But it was sweet of him to ask, anyway, just in case I felt like talking about it all.
"I'm fine," I agreed with a heavy sigh. I shook my head, trying to clear the gut-wrenching images of shooting Cass that had just resurfaced, and scrubbed a hand through my hair. Fucking hell, I was one step away from a mental breakdown.
Lucas was silent a moment, then undid his seat belt and leaned over to pop open the glove box in front of me. "Here," he said, grabbing out Zed's flask of whiskey and handing it to me.
"Hey," Zed protested, shooting Lucas a scowl as the grinning stripper sat back into his seat. "How the fuck did you know that was there?"
I turned my face slightly, so I could see Lucas roll his eyes.
"You guys seriously underestimate how observant I am, huh?" He gave me a soft smile, showing he wasn't actually offended.
I unscrewed the cap of the flask and took a long drink of the liquor. It barely even burned as it joined the whiskey already in my stomach and did nothing to shake my melancholy mood. Not that I was surprised. There really was only one thing—one person—who had any hope of improving my mood, and we'd just left his funeral.
"I'm just tired," I admitted in a whisper. "I need a vacation."
Zed snorted a bitter laugh. "You can say that again."
I took another gulp of the whiskey, then passed it back to Lucas. It wasn't a long drive back to Zed's house, but the relief I felt on passing through his heavily secured main gates was palpable. It was weird how rapidly I'd adjusted to thinking of Zed's house as my home, but it was. More, even, than my apartment had ever been.
"Have you spoken to Seph?" Zed asked as he waited for the garage door to open.
I gave a small nod. "Briefly. She sent me a message yesterday to let me know she was still safe at Demi's and to tell me I was dead to her."
Zed grimaced. "She needs a solid dose of truth to pull her head out of her ass." It was an old argument where Zed felt like Seph needed to be told the whole sordid story of the real Timberwolves and why I'd eventually murdered our father and his whole loyal inner circle.
I snapped a sharp glare at him. "She needs nothing of the sort," I growled. "Leave her be. Ignorance is bliss; leave her that much."
Zed just grunted, and I knew he was far from in agreement with me. But he wouldn't directly disobey. Not over this.
Irritated, I climbed out of the car without waiting for him to turn it off and started into the house without another word, but Zed called out after me, nonetheless.
"Dinner will be ready at seven, Dare."
I just flipped him off over my shoulder and continued inside ahead of him and Lucas both. My shoulders ached, my head was throbbing, and my heart hurt. I wanted nothing more than to get back to my room, so I increased my pace until I was just a step off running and all but crashed through my door.
Only after I closed it and turned the lock did I feel like I could really breathe again. Like the tense, depressing day was all worth it.
4
A strong arm banded around my waist, lifting me slightly off the ground and making me gasp.
"You couldn't have cried even a little bit?"
I melted into the broad, hard frame at my back and gave a soft laugh. "Hell no. I've given you enough of my tears to last a lifetime."
His teeth scraped my neck in a teasing bite. "Damn, Angel. Not even crying at my funeral. Tough crowd."
I twisted in his one-armed grip and smiled up at his ruggedly handsome face. "Because you're not really dead, you asshole. You can only get me to cry when I think maybe you are, and I'd really, really prefer we didn't play that game again. Okay?"
Cass's lips pulled up in a lopsided grin. "I think we can agree on that one."
I blew out my breath in a sigh as I smoothed my fingers over the dressing that covered the side of his head and part of his ear. Then I stroked my palm ever so gently