Page 37 of Dual Surrender

How was I going to explain this to Kevin? Things had just started to get good again, and I’d ignored his concerns, thinking I knew best. I sighed and looked at Foster. “Is he staying here?”

“What? No.”

“Foster.” I turned off the water and used my pants to dry my hands. “Put him in your guest room.”

“He’s not a guest.”

“He almost died on your floor.”

“But he didn’t. Thanks to you.” Foster gave me a smile that made me want to hit him in the mouth.

I offered the man on the floor a passing glance. “That’s yet to be seen.”

“If you think he’s going to die, he’s definitely not staying here.”

“I’ll help you move him to the spare room.” I squatted back down on the floor, assessing the best way to get Sage out of the kitchen and into a bed so I could get out of there.

“Ronan,” Foster argued

“Come on. I can’t do it on my own. I gave him a dose of a new painkiller and muscle relaxant combination and he’s a lot of dead weight.”

“A what now?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just get in here.”

I slipped my arms beneath Sage’s back, pulling him so he sat up. My attention flickered to the gun on the floor near my bag. It hadn’t moved, which I’d been thankful for. Though it wasn’t like I thought it would spring legs and shoot me while I worked. I didn’t know what I thought, though. The whole morning wasn’t anything I’d ever been prepared for.

Finally, Foster joined me and helped me carry Sage down the hall to the bedroom.

“Take his clothes off first,” Foster remarked, frowning at the blood all over Sage’s body and the white sheets on the bed.

“You can manage that part.” I shifted out from beneath Sage’s weight and patted Foster on the back. “I’ll expect answers tomorrow.”

“Expect away,” Foster said, and I frowned, leaving him.

My brain was blank the entire drive back home, and once in the condo, I stripped naked in the kitchen and dumped my ruined clothes in the trash. I washed my hands again for good measure, my knuckles already feeling dry and cracked from the soaps. I navigated through the condo, the walls reflecting the pinks and blues of the pending sunrise, and I climbed naked into bed, hauling Kevin against me without a word.

He grunted, his body stiff as his back collided with my chest.

“Did you sleep?” I asked, wanting the truth.

“Yes, Ronan,” he answered.

Another lie.

Chapter Twelve

Kevin

“Get up.”

Ronan pulled the blankets back and poked me in the side.

“I’m tired,” I grumbled.

“Get up,” he said again. “You don’t get to agree that we’re going to change the rules of our relationship and then lie to me twice in the same night.”

“You told me to go to sleep,” I grunted. “I’m trying to sleep.”