Page 30

Kai

O h God. Oh fuck.

Ridge demands to know what's going on, but I’m not sure how to answer his question. Nina's curled into a ball on the floor between the tub and the fucking toilet while we're all kneeling around her like a bunch of idiots.

Like some fucked up confetti, bits and pieces of wood and paint litter the tiles from me kicking the door in. The sound of Nina gagging sent my body into overdrive, then when she shouted my name, I lost it.

Brute force has never been my approach, but the distress coming from inside the bathroom forced my hand. Or foot actually, because there was no hesitation, just me kicking the door as hard as I could.

Guilt chews at my throat, keeping me from consoling my woman. My thoughtlessness sent Nina spiraling, and now she's cowering away from us. From me .

I don't know what this panic attack is or what's wrong, but it's so much worse than any of the other ones we've witnessed.

She's trembling, choking, sobbing, and fucking naked, with the towel slipping further and further from her scarred skin. My eyes begin to burn, and the knowledge that I am no good for the woman I love right now forces the tears over the edge.

Feeling like I have no choice, since I've only made everything worse, I retreat. For once, Trevor also looks lost and scared. Ridge is pissed, and Henry? Well, he does what we're all failing to do.

"Shhh," my fiancé coos, shuffling toward Nina on his knees. He looks into the toilet and grimaces before closing the lid silently. "It's Henry, sweet."

She softens ever so slightly at Henry's use of Will's nickname for her.

Ridge rushes out of the room and is back a moment later with a blanket. Why the hell didn't I think of that?

Henry takes Nina's favorite blanket and wraps it around her shoulders. Her flinch feels like a stab to my heart, yet Henry continues on like it didn't happen.

"I'm going to pick you up now." Henry doesn't leave room for any argument and doesn't hesitate when she turns still as a board. It's awkward and hard to watch them inch out of the small space together, but they manage with Ridge's help. Christ, I'm a piece of shit right now.

With my soul in my throat and tears wetting my cheeks, I follow behind Henry as he murmurs in Nina's ear about my surprise. Instead of taking her to bed like I assumed he would, Henry aims for the stairs.

Trevor grumbles something about safety and rushes forward to grab Henry's arm as they descend. Numbness is settling over me like a safety net, but when Henry makes eye contact with me in front of the small door beneath the stairs, I jolt out of it.

"Go in, Kai. I'll hand her to you," Henry whispers, eyes intent.

Me? "I don't think?—"

"Go." Trevor pushes me.

Shit . Crouching, I fit my way through the new door and spin around to help Nina inside with me. Thankfully, the new custom sized cushion on the ground saves my old man knees from the hardwoods.

The string of lights in the highest point of the short ceiling are already on and light my way as I cradle Nina to my chest. I shimmy backward and attempt not to collapse, but I do anyway because this little nest is only meant for the tiny woman in my arms.

"Oof!"

Ridge's head pokes through the doorway with a raised brow. "Good thing you have a whole pillow store in there."

"Says you!" I hear Henry sass beyond the door.

Then Trevor says, "If anyone buys any more pillows, I'm blocking Pinterest, Amazon, and Etsy from all of your damn phones."

Ridge's face goes from laughter to sheer horror as he disappears from view. " You wouldn't!"

A soft giggle against my pec shocks me, sending dopamine and a whole fuck ton of relief through my body. "Flora?"

Nina nods and sniffles but doesn't look up at me. "I-I'm okay."

"Fuck, Nina," I breathe and wrap my free arm around her upper body to cradle the back of her head. "What happened?"

"Shit, baby!" Trevor booms, fitting part of himself into the updated nest.

At the sound of his voice, Nina lifts off of me just enough to look over at him instead of the pretty flower wallpaper I put up myself. "You all s-swear too much," she hiccups.

Trevor grins, but his humor doesn't hide the stress lines on his face or the shadows in his eyes. "Sorry, baby girl."

"Me too," she whispers, the tears starting back up again. "I'm s-sorry."

I'm already shaking my head. "No apologizing. Just tell us what happened so we can fix it."

She sniffles and pushes against me. I'm reluctant to let her go, yet I help her sit up and snuggle into the mountain of pillows beside me. Her voice is so small when she says, "You can't fix it."

I scoff. "Like hell. I'll do anything for you."

The smile she gives me is sad, but at least she's not cowering away from me in fear. Gray-blue eyes glance around and take in the small room I designed for her. Trevor helped with the new door since not having a way to escape from the inside was scary.

"I love it in here." Pride fills my chest, but it's squashed as soon as her attention finds Trev again. "Don't get mad, okay?"

Trevor stiffens. "Come out of there, and we can chat as a family."

"I don't know..."

She's killing me. I pet her arm that's holding the blanket to her chest. "Ridge and Henry need to see you too. Please?"

Nina sighs and chews on her lip when it starts to wobble. "Can I...Can I snuggle with Ridge?"

"FUCK YEAH!" Ridge shouts, and it's as if his swearing flips a switch. Nina laughs and chokes on that snort while Trevor's expression turns thunderous.

"LANGUAGE!"

"Shit, sorry!" I can hear the cringe in Ridge's tone, but thankfully he goes quiet when Trevor disappears back out there again.

Shifting and wiggling, I shimmy my way out too, and look back at Neen to see if she's okay. She isn't . Tears are filing in her eyes again and she's zoning out on the pictures I taped to the other wall.

They're a collection of ones we've taken these past few months of all of us. I've added two group photos from when we were teenagers but tried to keep it focused on the here and now.

"Kai..." she says my name with awe. So not zoned out then . Almost like she doesn't want to stop looking at the photos, she tears her gaze away from them to look at me. "Thank you. I can't—This is?—"

"You're welcome, flora. I hope this can be a true safe space for you."

She crawls toward me, only catching on her blanket once. "I love you."

I swear my heart literally swells and I can't hold back from kissing her salty tear-soaked lips. "I love you too," I murmur when I pull away. "Now come on, the others need to make sure you're okay."

I hope she really is okay...