radio on. He reaches out and starts messing with the buttons, not settling on any one song.
"When we get home, you'll stay for your safety. Diablo will be after you."
His announcement drops like a boulder in my gut. "I can't stay at Twist Cabins. I'll find someplace else."
"You will stay with me in my cabin. You're not going anywhere alone. Not anymore."
It's nice of him to act like he cares about me, but we both know the truth. I'm not welcome at his family's refuge in the mountains. It's a deeply personal place for them, and they guard it carefully. Mace knows this deep down, and he may have temporarily forgotten, but he hates me for what I did to them. He doesn't even know the worst of it yet. If he finds out, he'll never talk to me again.
Chapter 9 Remy
Mace
The higher we climb in elevation the more confident I feel about my decision to bring her here. She'll be safe, and I'll have time to recover before we face Diablo together.
Lola, however, is white knuckling the steering wheel the closer we get to Twist Cabins. She pulls into the gravel parking lot and sighs. "We're here."
I reach for the door handle, but she doesn't move.
"I'll just stay here in the car."
"No you won't." My vision is still blurry, but I can see her face crumble when she looks at my eyes.
"Is it that bad?" I ask her.
"It's really red. I'm so torn. I want to help you with your eyes, but I can't face them. I just can't."
Looking up the hill, I don't see anyone outside, but my vision is compromised. "We go straight to my cabin. No one sees you, and they won't even know you're here."
She shakes her head, and her hands fall from the wheel. "I don't belong here."
"Listen." I lean over the console and bring a hand up to her cheek. "I want you to be with me right now. I need to recover, and I want you there. We'll deal with anything else later."
She blushes and looks down. Is it so hard for her to believe I want her around after all we've been through? "Okay."
I grin and we get out of the car. Luckily, we make it to my cabin unseen. My bed never looked so inviting before, and I plop down on my back.
"Can I get you some ice? A compress?" She stands next to the bed with a worried look on her face.
"Nah. It just needs time."
"I think we should rinse it out again so it doesn't get infected."
She's right. Good idea. I get up and run my eyes under the sink. The numbness is wearing off, and blood covers most of the white part of my right eye. My left eye was barely hurt. "It looks worse than it feels."
She stands behind me looking at my eyes in the mirror. "It looks like crap. Do you have any eye drops?"
"No. Nothing. My mom might have something."
She stiffens and backs up. "I can go hide if you want your mom to come look at it."
"You don't need to hide. Especially from my mom. She's the kindest soul you've ever met. She was offering to drive up and take care of you when you were in the hospital."
"Oh. Wow. That's nice of her."
"I can't promise my brothers will be so forgiving, but my mom? No worries." I plop down on the bed again, and she sits next to me.
I take her hand in mine. "I'm glad you got your memory back."
She looks down and nods. "Not sure it helps the mess I've created."
"We don't know yet how it helps, but at least we know your brain isn't permanently broken. That has to feel good."
She leans over me with one arm propped to my side. "Thank you for helping me get my memory back. You didn't have to."
I lift her chin with my hand. "I wanted to do it. I wanted to help you regain your memory and not just because I felt sorry for you. I wanted you to feel like yourself again, so I can spend some time with you. I like it when you smile."
"Oh."
"Come lie down with me." She stares at my hand patting the bed like I've offered her poison. "You've been through a lot today."
Her brows twist, and her lips mash together like she's pondering the great paradox. On the one hand, she has this big strong warm body to cuddle up to, and she knows