Page 59 of The Golden Receiver

I was back to useful.

I heard his steady breathing, and I sighed in relief. He was still okay. Nothing had gone wrong in the middle of the night. I hadn’t let him down by falling asleep next to him.

I turned my head, and I was taken aback at what I saw. I could see the bruising underneath his morning stubble. There was a cut over one of his eyebrows, exactly over the slit I’d always thought was so attractive. His lip had been cut open. I wanted to kiss him better. I wanted to kiss every single injury on his face, like it would somehow fix anything.

It would probably make it all worse.

I heard him grumble before his arms tightened around me, trying to hold me still. I could give him that. I could let him sleep for as long as he needed, even if it meant that I had to lay there when my body wanted to move. The need to do whatever I could to help him was greater. I needed to take care of him. I needed to make sure he was okay.

I laid there, watching the shadows of my room change as the sun rose higher. I didn’t know how long it was before he stirred again. Before his arms fell away from me and he rolled over, groaning as he did.

“Are you okay?” I asked immediately.

“Feel like I’ve been hit by a truck,” he admitted.

I wanted to find the people who did this to him and make them feel like they’d been hit by a truck. I wanted to force them to see the damage they’d done to Kieran, and then I wanted to inflict the same damage on them. I thought the feeling would dim overnight. I thought maybe it was just the animal part of me being in control, but it wasn’t. Thinking of the way I’d found him the night before was unbearable.

He’d looked so small on the concrete, curled up into himself. He’d sounded so wounded the night before, groaning every time Preston touched him.

Whoever did this to him needed to pay.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked softly.

Stupid Kieran. Why was he concerned about me? I wasn’t the one that had been beaten black and blue. I wasn’t the one who groaned in pain after rolling over. I wasn’t the one with a bruised face or a cut lip or memories of being attacked in the dark. I hadn’t needed to be rescued.

Why wouldn’t I be okay?

“Who was it? Do you know? Do you know what happened?”

I rolled over to face him as the barrage of questions fell from my lips. I needed answers. I needed to know what happened last night. Maybe when I had them, I could settle the rage boiling under my skin.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“How does it not matter?” I insisted. “You got attacked!”

“Drop it, Evander.” His voice was ice cold, and that told me everything I needed to know.

He knew who did this to him. Maybe he even knew why this had happened to him. Dropping it was not an option. Not when it wasn’t random. Hell, even when it was possibly something random, dropping it wouldn’t have been an option.

“I can’t,” I told him bluntly. “Someone hurt you.”

Didn’t he understand what that meant to me?

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine!” I didn’t mean for my voice to get so loud. Kieran winced away from me. He looked like he was trying to shrink into my small mattress, and I felt terrible. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to shout, but it’s not fine. It’s not.” How could I make him understand that nothing about this was okay? I sat up because I couldn’t lay down anymore. I propped myself up against the cold wall and looked down at him. “Kieran, whoever attacked you, they left you there. If I hadn’t found you, you’d still be out there right now.”

My voice cracked as emotion welled up in my chest. I was desperate for him to understand. What would have happened if I hadn’t found him? Maybe the injuries weren’t bad enough that he would’ve bled to death or anything, but nights got cold. He could have gotten sick. It might have gotten cold enough for him to freeze to death. Maybe. I didn’t know how cold it had to be for that to happen, but the fear was still there. Deep in my chest.

“Evie,” he whispered. “Can you please just drop it?”

He sounded so desperate. His eyes were pleading with me, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t drop it.

“Just tell me. Please?” I would get down on my knees on the dorm floor and beg if that was what it took. I needed to know. I needed to know what had happened so I could protect him from whoever had done this to him.

He let out a small sigh before shifting on the bed. He laid his head in my lap, and my heart nearly skipped a beat. Without thinking, I moved my hand down to rest on his shoulders. I was careful with how I touched him, not wanting to do him more harm than had already been done to him.

“I was walking back from the library,” he started. His voice was quiet, and when I looked down at him, he was looking across the room. I’d heard the phrase thousand-yard stare before, but I’d never known what it looked like until now. “They came out of nowhere. It was—it was five of them.”