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He tilted his head.‘I don’t?’

“No,” she said, unable to stop her laugh this time. “Darien and I already made up.”

Bandit blinked his glowing eyes.

Yep, he definitely hadn’t gotten the memo.

Boots pounded on the stairs. Down the hallway.

Darien appeared in the doorway.“Bandit,”he hissed. “It’s late. What the hell are you doing?”

‘Nothing.’

To Loren, Darien said, “Is he bothering you?”

‘I’m not bothering anyone,’Bandit said.‘I brought her a peace offering. It’s a good one, too.’He puffed his chest out with pride.

Darien came into the room. “A peace offering?”

‘I don’t want her to be mad anymore,’Bandit said.‘But she said you already made up and rutted, so I get to keep Cluckles.’

“Rutted?” Darien asked with a snort. “All right, that’s enough. Go on—git.” He pointed at the door with his good hand. “Unless you’d like to see usrutagain.”

‘Eww, eww!’Bandit scampered out, abandoning Cluckles on the floor.

When Darien faced her, he was fighting a smile. “Sorry,” he said.

“That’s okay. He could have stayed.” She tugged the quilts up to her chin, hoping he wouldn’t notice that she was wearing one of his shirts—a soft, black one. She’d stolen it from his bag while he was distracted with tracking. She could have worn her pajamas, yes, but they didn’t smell like him. “Are you leaving?”

“For a few hours.”

She scanned his clothes—the tattered long-sleeve henley, the ripped jeans, the combat boots. “You’re having a Surge, aren’t you?”

He didn’t reply. Instead, he asked her, “Will you be okay while I’m gone?”

“I think so.” Her tattoo was glowing steadily with a blend of blue and red light that illuminated the puffy white duvet. Blue—even just partial blue—plus no flashing meant she was in the safe zone. White would be better—but she hadn’t seen the ink turn white since she was a child.

“You’ll be safe here,” Darien said. “More than you would be if we were at Hell’s Gate. No one knows about this place but us.”

“Have you ever lived here before?” He’d told her about this place a couple of months ago, but they hadn’t talked about it much.

“No. We only bought it to use during emergencies.” He didn’t look impressed that the emergency that had finally prompted them to move here was his uncle. “If you need anything, you text me, okay? I’ll only do one round and I’ll keep my phone on me the whole time.”

“You’ll answer mid-swing?”

A smile flirted with his distracting mouth. “Anything for you,” he vowed.

She smiled back, but it was fading quickly.

“I don’t have to leave,” he said gently. “I’ll stay if you want me to stay.”

“No, it’s okay. I know there are things you need to take care of.”

“You’re one of them,” he said. Her heart melted. He gave her a minute to think about it, and then he asked her, “Would you like me to stay?”

Shedidwant him to stay. But she had things of her own that she needed to do, so she told him, “You can go. I’ll be fine for a bit.”

“Are you sure?”