“You stupid woman!”
Her watery eyes fixed on me and the dejection that wept from her engulfed me.
I took her cheek in the palm of my hand, and finally lowered my voice. “This isn’t love I feel. It isn’t soft. It isn’t romantic. It isn’t soul inspiring. It’s violent. It’s furious. A storm of rage that burns right down to my soul, Kloe. And it hurts. It’s fucking agony.”
Her gaze on me softened and her lips lifted into a smile. Her reaction threw me, confused me. I couldn’t understand what she found so pleasing in my statement.
“And you say you don’t love me,” she whispered. “Love isn’t soft. It isn’t romantic. But when it’s furious and engulfing, then it’s the only type of love that’s right. It’s meant to be a rage that devours every part of you, Anderson. It’s meant to be fucking painful. Because it is painful. Love is fucking agonising.”
I frowned. My throat dried and I struggled to swallow. Kloe looked at me, that fucking smile of hers making her pretty face all the more beautiful. Unable to resist, I took her hand and pressed it to my chest. We both felt the beat as though it belonged to both of us. “You think I have anything left in here to love you with? You think I’m even capable of love?”
“I know you are, Anderson.”
“I…”
We both jumped when the bedroom door flung open and Robbie’s silhouette carved a black sculpture against the bright background of the hallway. I blinked when he didn’t move, bewildered by his sudden entrance.
“Rob?”
Kloe’s breathing shallowed, and very slowly she uncurled her legs and stood from the bed. “Anderson?” Her voice was quiet and hesitant as we both stared towards Robbie.
When he finally fell to his knees, Kloe shot across the room. Instantly she lifted him onto her lap and lifted his face to hers.
“Call an ambulance,” she yelled. “Anderson, phone for an ambulance.” Her eyes found mine, her tears glistening in the soft light now spilling into the room. “He’s been stabbed.”
HOURS WE’D BEEN SAT IN the dreary and aged room within the hospital’s casualty department where we’d been ushered in as the sun broke through the black sky. Anderson hadn’t shifted from his spot by the window, the old and decrepit chair he sat in struggling to contain his huge body.
He hadn’t said a word to me as we waited for news of Robbie. He hadn’t even acknowledged me. I wanted to help him, to hold him and soothe the turmoil that spread through him like a wildfire.
“Do you want a drink?” I asked again, sick of hearing the sound of my own voice. And once again I was met with silence.
Blowing out a breath, I decided to stretch my legs and go in search of a vending machine. Just as my hand rested on the handle of the door, Anderson finally spoke. “Don’t think of running, little wolf.”
I wasn’t sure if it was anger that overpowered me, or frustration. “Are you kidding me?”
“Nope.” The tone of his voice was so different from the man I had woken beside; it was sharp, harsh and low, a growl of ice that made my ears hurt. The caring and soft Anderson was gone, replaced by a personality that confused me. I hadn’t encountered this one yet, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like him very much.
“Have you learned nothing? Haven’t you listened to a word I have said? The things I have told you?”
His eyes slowly moved to me. The cold, deep hostility in them made my breath catch. “You run, Kloe, and I promise that when I find you, I will shred every fucking inch of skin from your body.”
I couldn’t contain the gasp as my heart speared pain through me. “Why are you blaming me for this? I didn’t hurt Robbie. I wouldn’t. I liked him.”
“Liked?” he spat. “He’s not fucking dead!”
“I didn’t mean that!”
Knowing I would get nowhere while he was this closed off, I gritted my teeth and pulled the door open, leaving the grumpy fucker to simmer in his own bitterness.
The corridor was bustling, many nurses, doctors and people rushing past me. Trying in vain to find a gap in the body traffic, I stepped into the flow and moved with the river of rushing people.
Luckily, a machine distributing hot drinks was just around the first corner I came to. There was a small queue and I took my place behind a redheaded woman who was talking hurriedly into her phone. I closed off to her conversation after she started to bicker with whoever was on the other end. I just wanted something happy to centre on, something that would give me a much needed smile. But life was grim and I was starting to think that wherever I looked I would never find that ray of sunshine I’d been hunting for since I was a small girl.
“Kloe?”
I spun round and my eyes widened on the man who had moved into the queue behind me. “Ben?”