He shrugs, and I mull over the facts that don’t add up. My head actually starts hurting from trying to squeeze in all the variables and coming up with… nothing.
Maybe Aaron was just a fluke. Maybe Eve landing here really was a coincidence. Maybe all this is just the universe’s sick joke or a dash of karma for all the hell we’ve spread.
Or maybe I just want there to be another reason Eve is here so that I don’t feel like shit for keeping her when I know I’m going to seal her fate just by being in her life.
Chapter 28
EVE
“Your pussy must be made of fucking gold. No wonder Drex wants you away from me,” Drake grumbles, shifting awkwardly in his bed and wincing. “I’d be scared of taking a dip in the damn haunted thing at this point. Men seem to go crazy around it.”
I glare at him, and he laughs, then he groans because laughing hurts him everywhere.
For the past three days, I’ve been sneaking into his room, thanks to Axle pretending to sleep while I slip out of my own room. Drex only comes around after I’ve gone asleep, and I wake up to him every morning just in time for him to withdraw from my side and mutter a “See you later.”
I’ve spent the past three days trying to talk to Drake for a few hours, but it’s been packed with people coming to see him now that he can finally talk and not want to strangle anyone in the room with him. Rush has hauled me out of here twice on behalf of Drex. Asshole.
But today, I finally got to tell him everything. And he’s also an asshole. Not that I expected him to be different, because… Well, it’s Drake.
“Ben was always a friend, and now you’re mocking me after I’ve been betrayed?” I hiss.
He cocks an eyebrow. “The fuck nugget crashed us, kidnapped you, and has a twisted version of romance because he thinks he was going to get you in the end. Drex has probably started skinning people alive in your name, and there’s no doubt he’s been tracking that cunt puddle to make him pay. I’m not mocking you. I’m praising you. Well, I’m praising your pussy.”
I roll my eyes while he grins that cheeky smile of his. Drex is anything but obsessed with me, but this isn’t about my relationship issues.
“My vagina has nothing to do with this. Ben’s mom always said he was sick, but I thought she was just a bitch and wanted to console her conscience by making an excuse to leave him. Maybe he was sick. I… I think he killed her.”
“Probably. He was more than likely killing kittens and eating their entrails from a young age,” Drake deadpans.
That vivid imagery makes my stomach churn. Ben did hate kittens…
“Anyway,” I say, shaking my head and getting out of Drake Land. “The feds still don’t fit in. I can’t make the puzzle pieces go together because it feels like I’m working with two separate puzzles.”
“You’re assuming Ben would know a fed only if Benny did,” Drake says around a hiss of pain, trying to adjust again.
I go to help him by adjusting a pillow under his elevated leg, fixing it so that his leg is higher. He curses when I move him wrong, but I ignore his glower. I’m not a nurse, so he can get over my lack of finesse. At least his leg isn’t sliding off anymore.
“True,” I say, thinking that over. “But Ben wouldn’t want a fed working inside the Hell Breathers if he was planning to takeover. It would just put instant heat on him.”
“Instant heat,” Drake grunts. “Listen to you.”
Rolling my eyes, I sit down on the edge of his bed, ignoring my “gown” issues. I really freaking wish they’d let me wear my regular clothes here.
“I can see your ass,” Drake confesses, grinning as his eyes roam down my back. I continue to ignore his words while looking over my shoulder at him, because I’m sick of fucking with the backless gown, and putting two on at once is a pain in the ass—no pun intended. And my robe is in my abandoned chair because I’m burning up.
At least I’m cooling down now.
“What about Drex’s guy? Think he’s a part of it? The fed he knows, I mean?”
“Your ass is actually very nice. Well, at least what I can see of it. If your ass is that nice, no wonder they have an obsession with your—”
“Concentrate,” I grumble, snapping my fingers in front of his face.
“I’m trying,” he lies, still staring down at my ass. I start to turn to face him instead of sitting comfortably on the bed, just so my ass will be facing the wall, but the door flies open and slams into the wall.