Savage Love (Ash and Innocence 2)

Most days, there were a few adults around the site to help guide me along, but the current stage of the build was something even I could handle on my own. I’d spent the last hour checking the brackets used to hold wood joints together. Basically, I just needed to count the nails and be sure each one had enough.

I set the box of nails I’d been carrying on a board overhead when I heard footsteps approaching.

I saw Hugh and Marcus heading toward the build site with their hands in their pockets. Ominous air seemed to wash off them in waves, and I made a split-second decision between running or holding my ground.

I decided if I ran, they’d chase me. I’d been practicing my sprinting technique, but it didn’t mean I’d have the endurance to outpace two athletes long enough to get back to Cassian’s house.

Hugh stepped inside the framing and looked around, like he and Marcus just happened to be passing through. “I didn’t take you for a construction worker.”

Play nice. Just get them to leave without any trouble. “It’s for community service hours, actually. I’m not doing much of the building. More like grunt work—carrying stuff to and from trucks or checking that nails didn’t miss the boards.”

Hugh was still looking around, even though his body language said he had no interest in what he was looking at. Marcus was also standing behind him in a way that seemed too tense, like he was ready to chase me if I ran.

I took a step back from the boys, who were just outside my arm’s reach now. My back bumped into a wood beam, giving me nowhere else to go unless I wanted to start ducking through the half-finished walls. “Cassian should actually be coming back in a minute or two. He just had to go to the store to get an extension cord.”

Marcus raised his eyebrows and looked around in a slow circle. “Good. We were hoping to talk to your little boyfriend.”

“Why?” I wasn’t sure I particularly cared but talking was better than the alternatives.

Hugh stopped walking toward me when he was close enough that I could’ve counted his eyelashes. “Someone slashed my tires a few days after the game where I plowed his ass into the drink table. I wasn’t sure it was Cassian. But when he walked up to me at a party a couple days ago and asked if I wanted a coupon for a discount tire place…”

I found myself stifling a laugh.

“That’s funny to you?” Hugh pressed my shoulder with his index finger, which made me bump against the frame behind me.

“No,” I said. “But it is confusing that you’re here and picking on me when it sounds like Cassian is your problem.”

“Cassian has a soft spot for you. And me? I heard what Cassian told me at the party was bullshit. You haven’t slept with anyone at Parker. Hell, my money is on the fact that you’re a virgin. I could help you with that, if you—”

I tried to take a quick step backwards through the wall, but Hugh saw this coming. He gripped my shirt and pulled me back, pressing me against the wooden beam again. But this time, the force of it shook the framing. The heavy box of nails I’d set above me rattled, and the next thing I knew I was seeing white.

Hugh was standing over me with Marcus. All the cruel confidence they’d worn moments ago—or was it minutes—was gone. The box of nails was on the ground beside my head.

My head.

It ached, and when I put my hand there, I felt a lump already forming.

“…to the hospital?”

“Fuck, no. We…”

I blinked a few times, then realized I was in the back of a pickup truck. The trees and stars passed by overhead, and I briefly wondered if I was in Clint’s truck again, heading to the party at the log mansion.

No… That didn’t make sense.

Someone—Marcus, I thought—dragged me under the arms and set me down in a parking lot. I slumped backwards, lifting my head to see where I was. But moving my head made it feel like it might explode, so I set it back down carefully and rolled my head to the side.

Hospital.

Oh. That was good.

I closed my eyes, distantly hoping nobody decided to park their car on my head once I passed out.A steady, electronic beep rang in my ears.

I stirred, sitting up quickly and wincing because it felt like I had the hangover of the century once I moved. I looked around the room, blinking while the memory of what happened flooded back to me.

I was in a hospital bed, and I nearly passed out from shock when I saw Cassian Stone looming in the corner of the room, watching me.

He took a half step toward me, then hesitated. “You’re up.” He seemed to settle for trying to sound disinterested, but he was here. He’d come to the hospital and he’d been waiting for me to wake up, hadn’t he?