Page 47 of Hunting Little Hope
“I’ll handle it,” I said more firmly than I meant to.
Inside, something had shifted. It wasn’t panic... yet. But I’ve always been a fan of following my gut instincts, and my gut was screaming at me that something big was wrong.
Even though it made absolutely no sense, because Hope had been bright at dinner last night. Other than a brief moment ofhesitation she had spent the evening laughing and flushed with something that could be described as nothing other than joy. She’d seemed alive in a way that had made it impossible to keep my eyes off of her.
Maybe her no-show had to do with the Doms she was seeing, too.
Troy and Archie. I didn’t miss the way her voice had changed when she’d mentioned them. She might be fighting with the fact that she had a Little buried inside her, begging to come out, and that meant that these Doms were a definite temptation that I wasn’t completely sure we’d be able to counteract.
Tyrell’s gaze met mine over the breakfast table. He didn’t need to ask what I was thinking.
If she’d decided something?—
No.
I shut that down immediately. There was no point in speculating about something until we had all the facts.
Facts that we wouldn’t get if we stayed here, waiting.
“You know, little nuggie, she’s probably still sleeping,” Tyrell said to Perry, giving his hand a squeeze before placing a tender kiss on his brow.
“I’ll go check,” I repeated. “You two stay here in case she shows up.”
What I didn’t say out loud was... if she’d made a choice, I didn’t want her cornered by three sets of eyes when she had to say it.
My heart felt heavy in my chest as I made my way to her room. The hallway outside her door was eerily quiet.
I knocked once.
No answer.
I waited a few seconds before knocking again, softer this time. “Hope?” I called out through the door and was met with nothing but silence.
Then… the faintest sound.
A sob. I was sure of it.
My jaw tightened.
I knocked a third time, more insistently that time. “Hope. Open the door,” I ordered.
There was a pause long enough to scrape against my nerves before I heard some shuffling from the other side. Then the lock clicked and the door slowly opened.
And every defensive thought I’d built on the walk down the hall dissolved.
Her eyes were swollen, and the skin surrounding them was red and blotchy.
And her long, luscious lashes were clumped together from crying.
She was still in her pajamas, clutching the bear the Ranch was giving away to new visitors as if it were a lifeline.
Her lower lip trembled when she saw me standing there.
“Hey,” she said, and it came out wrecked, her voice all wobbly and cracked.
I stepped inside without waiting to be invited and shut the door behind me.
“Come here, sweetheart.” I pulled her into my embrace, and she moved immediately, her arms clutching at my sides as her weight settled against me.
