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“Go, I will do it,” Trey says, walking toward the doors, he grabs the plastic bin, and I move to help him, but he shakes his head.

“Bed, my Queen. We are leaving for Landeena this afternoon once we hear back from Larkin. His deadline is today. I can handle this. Go get some sleep.” Trey says, but Kyson is already steering me out the door before I can protest further.

Chapter

Thirty-Three

GANNON

Abbie is still passed out when I reach the room. Clarice, however, stands in the hallway. My bedroom door is open as she stands by the door, watching Tyson while rocking Hunter in her arms and putting him back to sleep.

She glances at me, covered in vomit and chuckles.

“I am glad you find it so funny,” I tell her. She smiles at Abbie, who is snoring in my arms, her mouth open. She is out cold but won’t be once I put her in the shower.

“At least she had fun and got out of this room for once,” Clarice says, and I nod in agreement. She’s not wrong. The moment she took off with Tandi, I had Liam looking for her, him promising to stay by her side. She needed time with Azalea and Tandi. Even if I think Tandi is a little wild, she is familiar to Abbie, and this would give them time to hang out without me hovering around.

“Let me set him down in his crib,” Clarice says, walking off toward Damian’s room, only to stop when we hear voices. Or more like arguing. I roll my eyes, and Clarice pauses.

“On second thought, I might lay him down on your bed for a minute,” Clarice says when I recognize the voices to be Tandi and Damian. I wander into my room, finding Tyson where I left him, fast asleep on Abbie’s side of the bed. Clarice sets Hunter next to him, propping pillows around him before following me into the bathroom. She turns the shower on for me while I pull Abbie’s soiled clothes off. I place her in the shower. My chest pangs when I glance at her marred flesh.

Long slits run up both arms. My mark on her neck has covered and removed Kade’s, yet the guilt I feel about marking her without consent still coils inside me.

“She’ll forgive you,” Clarice says. The woman is too observant and can read me like a damn book.

“I know; it just doesn’t feel right,” I tell her, glancing at her. She nods, grabbing soap and a loofah as Abbie stirs under the water.

“She will forgive you. You were trying to save her,” Clarice says as I tug my shirt off, tossing it in the hamper.

“I am not worried about her forgiving me for marking her, that she will forgive,” I tell her, sticking my head out the door.

“Get it off your chest, son. I am not a mind reader. I know you tried to change her.”

“She said I tried to force her to live.”

“Because you did,” she tells me. No judgment from this woman ever come. I could tell her my darkest secrets; I know she would take them to the grave with her and not judge me for my mistakes.

“Yes, but I don’t think I can keep the promise I made to her if she tries to do it again,” I whisper.

“I don’t think she will try again, Gannon. Whatever Azalea did, it made her want to live. Abbie spent so much time trapped in her past that she forgot she now has a future, and that futureis with you and Tyson. You just may need to remind her of it occasionally,” she tells me, passing me the soap and loofah.

I take them, and she pats my cheek before walking out. “I will take Tyson for the night. I am taking Hunter for the night, too. I will have Dustin come and grab Tyson for me,” she tells me.

“Thank you,” I tell her, and she nods, closing the door and leaving me with Abbie. I strip my pants off and climb into the shower. Abbie sits at my feet, leaning against the shower wall while I quickly wash myself before kneeling to wash her. She jerks awake when I pull her head under the water, coughing and spluttering. She wipes her eyes, peering around.

“You’re safe. It’s just me,” I tell her, and she sighs, leaning back against the shower wall. Leaning out of the shower quickly, I grab her toothbrush and mouthwash.

I put toothpaste on it, passing it to her, yet her eyes were already closing. “Abbie, brush your teeth,” I tell her, placing the toothbrush in her hand and bringing it to her mouth. She chews on it while attempting to brush her teeth. I quickly wash her hair before tilting her head back while laughing at her when I try to pull the toothbrush from her mouth.

“Open your mouth,” I chuckle, scrubbing her teeth the same way I watch her scrub Tyson’s every morning and night.

“Spit,” I tell her when I am done. She does, mostly spitting it on herself, and I quickly wash it off her.

“Come on,” I tell her. She sluggishly peers up at me, returning to her surroundings and looking around again. It is clear she has already forgotten where she is. She is completely shitfaced, and she smiles lazily, and I roll my eyes, grabbing her under the arms and pulling her up.

“I think I drunkded too much,” she giggles, slurring each word and making me laugh.

“That you did,” I tell her.