𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐂 ❶

𝟔. ✭ 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐈 ✭

Throbbing. A deep painful throbbing in my head. Oh my God. My head is killing me. I wince as the pain spreads throughout my skull. Fuck. It hurts so bad.

I think back to the last thing I remember. Torey had been walking to the parking garage elevator and I'd gotten out of the car when my world had gone black.

Guns. Death. Darkness. Torey.

Where am I?

I go to sit up and groan out at the sharp pain that spreads throughout my head.

"You should take it easy. You hit the concrete pretty fucking hard, you probably have a concussion." The deep baritone of his voice is something right out of my dreams; my nightmares. I look over to the sound of it to see him sitting in a chair faced toward the bed. He's got his elbows on his knees, hands clasped between his legs, as he looks me over. After a moment of taking me in he says, "long time no see, Shaina."

"How'd you find me?" I thought I'd covered my tracks well enough.

"When you know the right people, anyone is easy enough to find, even if they don't want to be. Especially so when they're an amateur. Changing your hair and name aren't enough to keep the big bad wolf away." He gestures to himself then looks like he mulls something over in his head. "I suppose I should say wolves with the likes of who came after you tonight." He sits back in his seat, cocking both elbows up, hands clasped behind the back of his head now. He's wearing a t-shirt which makes me notice those muscles of his are even bigger than before. "Your boyfriend called. Told him you won't be home for the night."

"What!?" I launch myself up and feel the urge to vomit roll through me.

"Aye, aye, take it easy." Torey's hands are on my shoulders, making me look at him. "Don't be throwing up. You are already skin and bones as it is." The disapproval was thick in his tone, making me cringe away from him.

"Sorry I'm no longer to your liking. Kind of hard to keep meat on your bones when you're working two jobs, seven days a week, and you're impoverished." He grits his jaw at my words, backing himself up to his previous spot seated across from me. "What? You don't like the truth?"

"No. I don't like the fact that you left a perfectly good life and for what? For this shitty version of a life?" His blue gaze turns to ice. "You should've stayed in New York. At least I would've been able to keep you safe there, could've made sure you were taken care of." His words make something pang inside my chest. "You didn't have to move across the fucking country. You could've just moved out of the house and ignored your family. You wouldn't have even had to talk to them, me, but I would've at least paid your way when your father stopped, Dani."

"I wouldn't have taken that blood money and you know it. Just like you know that staying in New York and not being under his thumb would've been impossible."

"You were safe, taken care of. You would've never had to live like you are now."

"Yeah, I'd clearly be so safe. I'm being shot at in alleyways and whatnot. It would be the same thing in New York."

"No it wouldn't. I would be there. You would've been safe with me. I can keep you safe." The look in his eyes and the stern, protective tenor of his voice makes my insides roll.

"Why did he send you, anyway?" My father made it clear that if I disowned my family he'd disown me in return. He'd cut me off completely, didn't even try to check up on me. "I don't understand."

Torey lets out a wry laugh. "That's because he didn't. Your mother did, against your father's orders too." That confused me because Torey takes orders from my father, not my mother. For him to break protocol... "There was an attack on your family, the organization."