Raine (Gods of the Fifth Floor #2) - M.V. Ellis Page 0,99
sharp words.
“They’d known you all your life, and you weren’t enough to keep them here. Why do you think I’d be any different after a few damned weeks? Did it ever occur to you that maybe you’re not enough? Not good enough? Not nice enough? Not you enough. For them. For me. Or for anybody? If you were, maybe Lono and Kai would still be here today.”
I’d never had an out-of-body experience before, but watching as my hand flew through the air and connected with Raine’s face was as close as I’d ever come. I saw it happen as though it was a movie playing out on the big screen, and I was in the audience. As soon as my palm hit the slightly bristly skin of his cheek, I came tumbling back down to earth with a huge bump.
I withdrew my hand quickly and brought it straight to my mouth, eyes boggling. “Oh my God, Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean... I’ve never hit anyone before. It’s just... the things you were saying. I’m sorry.” I began backing out of the park, still in shock. My palm tingled from the impact of the slap, but that was nothing compared to the way my whole body burned with the fire and heat of the cruel truth of his words.
“Noa. Wait.” As I backed away, he reached for my hand, securing his long, slim fingers around my wrist and stopping me in my tracks.
“No. I need to go. You’re absolutely right. Everything you said about me is true. I wasn’t enough. I never have been, and never will be. Not for Lono and Kai, and not for you. No need to fire me. I resign. I’ll go right now.” Hot tears scorched tracks down my cheeks like trails of lava down a volcano.
I tried to carry on walking, but Raine wouldn’t let go of my wrist.
“No. I’m not right about you. It’s the opposite. You’re wrong about me. Apart from you, nothing in my life is worth living for, and even if it was, I’m not worth it. I don’t deserve you, or anyone. I’m not worth saving.” He was crying too, and it was just about the most heartbreaking sight I’d ever seen.
“That’s just not true. I love you, and I want you in my life for years to come, but please, if not for me, then for yourself, at least go and see the specialist, and find out what they have to say. Please.”
Chapter 38
Raine
* * *
Now
* * *
“Hey.” My voice sounded croaky and thin. I sounded frail, and I hated it. “What are you doing here?”
“Me? Oh, you know, I was just passing, and I thought I’d stop by and see if there was anybody I knew on the ward, and by total fluke and coincidence, here you are. What are the odds?” Her voice was light, and there was a gleam in her beautiful brown eyes as she chuckled softly. Fuck, she was beautiful. I must have been a fucking saint in a previous life to deserve knowing her, even for a moment, let alone after everything that had gone down between us.
“Very funny. But seriously, why would you be here after the way I treated you?”
“How much do you remember?”
“Ummm... I remember being an asshole to you in the park, then after that, it’s a little fuzzy.”
“Oh, okay. Well from what I’m told, during what was to be the final meeting with Carlisle, going over the last pre-production details before the shoot, you had a seizure, or something similar. According to Nate, when you came to after they brought you here, you were asking for me, so they called me.
“And you came...”
“Well, no, like I told you, I just happened to be passing. Of course I came.”
“But why? I was so disgracefully rude to you.”
She reached out for my hand and squeezed it, and something in the tiny gesture was so comforting, it reminded me of being a little kid again, when Mai would fawn over me when I was hurt.
“Agreed. You were almost unforgivably rude, and if I hadn’t known you were sick… you are sick… and that might have influenced the way you treated me that day, I might not have been able to overlook it. As it is, I figure we both have too much to lose to just give up now. Plus, I hit you, so that evens up things in the bad behavior stakes.”