Page 111 of Cruel When He Smiles

ThesecondLiamandKillian step out of the hospital room, I know Sage is about to rip into me.

That false sense of calm evaporates the moment the door clicks shut behind them. I don’t have to look at Sage to know what’s coming. I can feel the weight of it before he says a word.

He’s vibrating where he sits, hands gripping the arms of the chair like he’s trying to ground himself before he explodes. His jaw is locked so tight I’m surprised his teeth haven’t cracked. One knee bounces steadily, a nervous tell I’ve known since we were thirteen. It only ever means one thing.

He’s about to lose it.

I sigh, sinking back into the bed, wincing at the sharp pull in my ribs and the throb behind my eye. Everything hurts. My head feels like it’s stuffed with cotton and broken glass. But all of that becomes background noise when Sage finally snaps.

“What the fuck was that, Nate?”

I roll my head to the side, cracking open one eye to look at him. “What was what?”

Sage scoffs. “Don’t fucking play dumb with me. You know what. That—” he gestures wildly at the door, at the space Liam just occupied. “That thing with Callahan. The way he talks to you. The way you fucking look at him—”

“Sage—”

“No, shut the fuck up,” he cuts me off, leaning forward, his elbows digging into his knees. “You’re gonna tell me what the hell is going on between you two, and you’re gonna do it now.”

I drag a hand down my face like a dumbass, wincing at the pain. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Later?” Sage echoes, his voice rising an octave. “No, Nate. Now. Right fucking now.”

I shake my head. “Sage, I just—”

“Do you even realize what he’s doing to you? Do you even fucking see it?”

I do. I know exactly what Liam is doing, and I let him. But Sage won’t understand that. He’ll fight me on it, he’ll tell me I need to get away, that Liam is dangerous, that this is a fucking game, and I’m losing. But he’s wrong.

I clench my fists under the blanket until my knuckles ache. “Don’t do this.”

I stare at the ceiling, jaw clenched, trying to breathe through the pounding in my skull.

“You told me what he does to you, Nate,” Sage says, and the quiet way he says it cuts more than yelling ever could. “You told me how he gets in your head, how he fucks with your emotions, how he gaslights you, that he twists shit so you start questioning what’s real. Do you remember that?”

I sigh, shaking my head again. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous?” Sage’s eyes narrow. “He looks at you the way Luca looks at me.”

That gets me. I stiffen, my body tensing against the hospital bed, because no, that’s not fucking true.

It can’t be.

Luca looks at Sage like he fucking breathes for him. Like he’d carve the world apart just to keep him standing. Like there is no reality where he doesn’t belong to him.

And Liam—

Liam doesn’t do love.

Liam doesn’t feel things like that.

I scoff, forcing myself to relax, forcing myself to push past it. “You’re reaching.”

Sage shakes his head. “Am I?” His eyes burn into mine. “Because I also heard about what happened today. I heard how Callahan fucking lost his mind when you went down.”

My stomach drops, and he leans in closer, his voice lower now, more intense. “They said he was ready to rip the guy apart, Nate. That he was seconds away from losing his shit completely before someone pulled him back. That’s not normal.”

I swallow hard, turning my head away. “Sage, stop.”