Tangent (A Liminals prequel novella) by Maree Anderson

Tangent: Chapter Nine

Tangent

By Maree Anderson

Chapter Nine

Rooted to the spot, Rix stared at the couple. Kade and Lily? The breath he'd inhaled rasped painfully in his chest. He felt bruised inside and out, like he'd been pummeled to within an inch of his life. His gut pitched and rolled, and he ordered himself to calm the fuck down. He had no right to be angry or feel betrayed. Because Lily and Kade made sense—a helluva lot more sense than Lily and Rix. Lily couldn't be more than a year or so older than Kade. And Kade....

Kade had been her protector after she'd been taken. Kade had been the one she'd confided in, the one who'd helped her survive the nightmare. The one who'd been there for her.

Kade's eyes narrowed to blue slits and then rounded, eyebrows winging upward. His lips curved, his bark of laughter a spike through Rix's heart. Because there was nothing amusing about this whole cluster-fuck—about realizing he'd left it too late to tell Lily how he felt about her. That he loved her.

Only now could Rix admit the bald, unadulterated truth. He'd been lying—telling himself that he saw Lily like he would a little sister, refusing to admit his true feelings because she was so very young, had been through so much awful shit, and in any case, why would she ever be interested in a hulking great lummox like him in that way?

Kade groaned. "It's not what it looks like, dumb-arse. Lily's cute and all, but she's so not my type."

Lily's chin lifted and bruised, tear-drowned eyes fixed on Rix. "Rix?" Her brows knit as she worried her lower lip between her teeth. And then a choked gasp tore from her throat. "You can't think—? I would never— Me and Kade? Ewww! No way!" She pushed Kade away and edged sideways.

Kade pressed a hand to his heart, the theatrical gesture losing all impact given that he was grinning like a loon. "Charming. And after all I've done for you." He mock-punched her arm. "Ungrateful little sod."

Rix gnawed the inside of his cheek, hardly daring to hope—

Kade rolled his eyes. "FYI, dude, the only reason I'm sitting here without a shirt is because that gown thing they'd put her in gaped in all the wrong places. It was bloody indecent, so I felt compelled to do the gentlemanly thing and loan her my t-shirt."

"Oh." Rix blinked at stared at Lily's attire, for the first time registering that she wore a white t-shirt that was far too big for her overtop the gown. And his next thought was that he wanted to rip off the t-shirt and throw it at Kade... and then give her his shirt, wrap her in his scent and—

Don't be a dick, Rix. No need to act like a dog marking its territory. Kade was only thinking of Lily. Rix shrugged out of the stolen lab coat and handed it to Kade.

Kade's eyes glinted with amusement as he donned the coat. "I have something for you, too—I swiped it from Liam's office." He fished something from a pocket and tossed it at Rix.

Rix snatched the object from midair. His fingers closed about it, relearning familiar lines and curves. His carved kiwi—the one Liam had stolen. "Thanks." He shoved it in the pocket of his pants, too distracted by other things to truly appreciate the return of a talisman he'd put his heart and soul into.

"Again, no problem. Lily told me you always carried it around with you."

Rix couldn't stand it any longer. He needed to hold Lily, needed her in his arms, where she belonged. "Lily, come here."

She scowled up at him.

"I need to...." Aw, hell. He screwed up his eyelids, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was making a complete hash of this.