Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
Loki turned her to face him, cupping her face. “Tink, you can do whatever you want to. Paint the whole house pink, put up Christmas lights all year round, and have whoever you want here.”
“Yeah?”
“Of course. You know everything I have is yours too.” Loki stared over at him. But this time he wasn’t angry so much as thoughtful and . . . sad?
Remy didn’t know him well enough to be sure.
“Then Remy can stay. Right?” she asked.
“Of course he can.” Loki even managed a smile. Of a sort.
“Thanks.” She leaned into him.
“Anything for you, Tink. I just didn’t realize that the two of you were friends.”
“Things have changed,” Remy said.
“Yeah, I can see that. You need to go to bed, Tink. You’re exhausted. Remy can stay out here.” Loki gave him a firm look before he gathered Isa up against his chest and walked away to her bedroom.
She shot him an apologetic smile over Loki’s shoulder before the door shut behind them.
It didn’t open again.
Yeah. He’d known Loki could be a problem.
Now he knew that he was going to be a big problem.
15
“What are you doing, Loki?” Isa asked.
Her voice wrapped around his frayed nerves, soothing him. Loki’s brain didn’t always work the way it should. It was different than it had been.
Before his friends and squad were all murdered.
Before he’d changed and returned home with a raft of fucking problems.
He was sick of this . . . of being this way.
When he’d first gotten home, he’d been kind of numb. Detached. Drinking too much, then getting into fights. Anything to feel. Yeah, and maybe he’d been self-destructive too.
He wouldn’t go as far as to say he’d wanted things to end for him. But perhaps it had been there in the back of his mind.
Big chunks of time were missing from his memory. Weeks where he couldn’t remember what he’d done or said.
It was only because he had Isa and his amazing friends that he’d really been able to come out of those days to the other side.
Some people might argue that he still wasn’t dealing well with what happened.
He’d tell those people to fuck the hell off.
He was doing the best he could. When things got too hard, he’d go camping in the woods. Where it was peaceful. His friends had taken him away for three months. They’d let him work through his emotions.
Gone was Lachie. Here was Loki.
He’d had to become someone else. A flip of the coin and he was Loki. That was what he’d needed to cope.
That and Isa.
She was his everything. His world. His anchor. There was no Loki without Isa.
So coming home to find fucking Remy sleeping on his couch?
Yeah. Hell of a shock.
Also . . . Not. Fucking. Happening.
He’d seen the way that cowboy watched his girl. Loki had held back from doing anything about it, because Remy had never made any sort of advances.
And because Ed told him that if he did, he’d have to lock Loki up.
Nobody locked Loki in a cage.
But now, well, it seemed he might well have to do something about Remy.
“Loki?” Isa asked again, staring up at him from the bed.
He was startled and realized he’d been pacing back and forth across the room. Walking over to her, he sat down with a sigh. He needed a shower. Food. Sleep.
But he couldn’t settle, knowing Remy was on the other side of the door.
“I’m sorry.”
The words surprised him and he glanced over to find Isa curling in on herself, her shoulders hunched.
“Tink, what is it? Why are you sorry?”
“It’s clear he makes you uncomfortable. I would never want to do that to you. Especially not in your own home.”
“Tinkerbelle. No. This is your home too.” He lifted her, settling her on his lap.
She shook her head and anger filled him. It was his fault she felt like this. He had to fix it.
You idiot.
Why did you react like that?
Always reacting without thinking.
“Hey! Hey, Loki. Come back to me. Lachie?”
That name ripped through the self-recriminations and got through to the soul of him. “You know I’m not him anymore.”
“You’ll always be him,” she whispered. She smiled, but it was a sad attempt. Shaky and small. “It’s just that now, you’re Loki too. But either way, you’re mine.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“Always, Tink?”
“Always.”
He breathed out a sigh. “Sorry I reacted like that. It was . . . a surprise. But this is your house too and you have the right to invite over whoever you like.”
“Well, I didn’t exactly invite him.”
Loki grew tense. “He forced his way in here?” He knew it!
He was going to kill the bastard!
“Um, well. The thing is . . .”
Why was she so hesitant to tell him? They told each other everything. Didn’t they?
“Isa? What is it?”
“I had some car issues,” she said. “Remy came along and helped me. Then he wanted to stay here so I wasn’t alone. And he helped me make the cupcakes. Made me dinner. He’s been really kind to me, Loki.”