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I couldn’t help it. I pulled his hands back to me and squeezed them. “You were seventeen.”
His eyes were miserable. “I was old enough to know better. I did that to him, Roach. I might as well have been the one planting my boot into his face.”
“That’s not true.”
He closed his eyes, like the memories caused him pain. “And now he hates my guts.”
I frowned at that. “Kian doesn’t hate anyone. Especially not you. I think you’ll find he doesn’t blame you for the attack.”
He sighed softly. “Maybe not. But he blames me for leaving. For staying away.”
“That’s probably warranted.”
Half his mouth lifted in a smile. “Probably.” He looked past me and over at the Fang-shaped lump on my other side. “Is Fang going to punch me when he wakes up and finds me here?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’m in his bed having 2:00 a.m. conversations with his girl. I’d punch me.”
I stifled a laugh. “It’s my bed. I’m free to invite anyone I want into it, thank you very much.”
“Does Kian sneak in here at night?”
“No.”
“Just me, huh?”
“Just you.”
Something flickered in his eyes. “I like being in your bed, Roach. This one. The one at your apartment. Your sheets smell like you.”
“I thought they smelled like Fang’s farts.” I could barely keep in my laughter.
Vaughn’s grin turned boyish. “Just said that to make you smile.”
I slapped his arm. “Is that how much you think of me? That fart jokes amuse me like they do three-year-old boys?”
“Was I wrong?”
He had a point.
A silence fell over us, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. I was warm with Fang’s heat at my back and Vaughn’s at my front. There was something nice about being sandwiched between them. Caleb couldn’t get to me here.
Unless I let him into my head.
I locked up.
“What just happened?” Vaughn squeezed my fingers. “Where’d you just go?”
I tried to push it away. Tuck it into some secret spot in my brain where it wouldn’t hurt me. “Nowhere. I’m squished between two huge bed-hogging men.”
He wouldn’t let me dodge the question. “You thinking about Caleb?”
A tremble shuddered through me. “Please don’t say his name.”
“We need to though, Roach. We need to talk about what we’re doing in the morning.”
I swallowed hard, forcing out the words I’d already decided on. “We need to go to the cops.”