Page 105 of A Thousand Cuts

“But this could be our only option! They won’t come out when I’m surrounded by people, but if we could somehow set a trap to catch them and use me as bait—”

“Absolutely not, Liam. It’s completely out of the question. We’re not risking your safety on a guess. Who knows what could happen to you in the time it would take to get to you.”

“But if we plan it—”

“I said no,” Fix said in his most authoritative daddy voice. It made Liam want to buckle, but he set his jaw, silently fuming as he pushed Fix’s arms away from his waist and stood up from his lap.

“This isn’t your decision to make,” he said, rounding on Fix and glaring as best as he could. Those kind eyes darkened to something Liam didn’t recognize.

“Yes, it is,” Fix said slowly. “Maybe not as your boyfriend, or your daddy, but as a professional whose job is to keep you safe from curses, it is absolutely my decision. You’re not going out there alone, Liam, and that’s final.”

“I’ll pitch it to Cyrus then,” Liam said. He didn’t trust the police, but he’d do anything to get this to stop. “PUMA has higher authority.”

Fix set his jaw. “Higher authority or not, we still work by the same rules. Cyrus isn’t going to risk a civilian either.”

Liam felt all the helplessness he’d been feeling rush to the surface, threatening to drown him. All the sleepless nights and nightmares and exhaustion from looking over his shoulder. Every single curse he had ever endured, captured in that useless notebook. Every second that passed, ticking loudly toward the final one. The one that would end him.

And here he was, being told he wasn’t allowed to do anything to stop it, by the person who should have wanted him to be free.

He stared at Fix, broken and betrayed.

“Liam…”

“No,” he said, turning his back on Fix and running from the room and up the stairs.

It was Fix’s room, but he slammed the door closed behind him, a clear barrier. He knew Fix wouldn’t open it without permission.

He threw himself down on the bed and screamed his frustrations out into the comforter, feeling so hot that he was bubbling over.

His phone notification filled the silence and he wanted to ignore Fix, but found himself pulling it out to read regardless.

Unknown:You can’t run from me

Unknown:I’ll always find you

Unknown:We’re meant to be together forever

His phone suddenly turned burning hot and he dropped it with a gasp. The curse and message mocked him, and the overwhelming fear and violation he felt transformed into a storm of rage.

He wanted to scream at them to leave him alone. He was so sick of this. So tired. He wanted it to be over, one way or the other, once and for all.

In that moment, he knew what he had to do.

Chapter 19

Liam

Dinner was quiet that evening. Liam was sullen and distracted and Fix didn’t seem to know how to bridge the chasm that had suddenly formed between them.

He broke the curse on Liam’s phone and Liam quickly snatched it before he could see anything on it. His mind was a riot of half-formed ideas and plans. They went to bed on opposite sides of the mattress, Liam turning his back and hugging King to his chest.

Everything in him wanted to roll over and beg his daddy for some attention and affection, but stubbornness kept him cold and lonely. His mind continued to spin, the messages on his phone taunting him.

There was no way he could sleep, but he feigned it because he could feel Fix staring at his back.

A hand sifted through his hair where it lay on the pillow behind him, and he schooled his body not to curl into it.

Fix sighed.