Page 130 of Heartless Heathens

He looked terrible. His skin was practically gray, all of the color had drained from his face.

I glanced over to the mirror hanging on the back of the door to see the bloody mess dripping from me. There was no distinction between what was water and what was inside my attacker's body anymore and the tub overflowed from it, pouring over the edge and onto the floor.

Sonny was drenched, sitting next to the tub with his back against the wall, his shoulders sagging heavily and his eyes hooded. His head dropped heavily, and I gasped, realizing that something was wrong.

“Are you okay? What happened?” I crawled out of the tub and into his lap, water going everywhere.

“J-just…tired,” He croaked out before his eyes closed.

“Sonny?” I cried out, shaking his shoulders. “Sonny!” I begged him again to open his eyes, but he didn’t respond.

The tears came and I couldn’t stop them. The feeling of crashing into a brick wall hit me while I settled into the realization of what had just happened. I sobbed onto Sonny’s chest pitifully, my body weak and unable to do anything but fail me. I laid there, naked and bloody on his lap for what felt like a lifetime. Just me, the sound of Sonny’s heart beating far too slowly, and the sizzling electric sound of the refrigerator in the distance.

I woke up with a cloud of confusion hanging over me.

I was no longer naked, but wearing one of Felix’s shirts, curled into a ball on his lap on the couch. I looked up at him and as if he could sense my gaze his arms wrapped around me tighter, surrounding me with his comforting embrace before he’d even tipped his chin down to look at me.

He took a stuttered breath before burying his face into my hair.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” He inhaled deeply before continuing in a cracked voice, “There was so much blood I didn’t know what to think.”

It took me a while to register what he was trying to explain, before I realized what kind of scene he must have walked into when finding me.

“Sonny?” I asked him, the worry rushing back into my body once I remembered the kind of state he was in.

“He’ll be okay. The asshole drugged him. He’s sleeping it off.” He squeezed me tighter and I melted into his embrace.

“He saved me,” I told Felix, though I knew he’d already known that fact, but for some reason I needed to hear it with my own voice.

“Mhm. He does that.”

“W-where is—” I began to ask but my voice failed me as I tried to ask about the intruder.

“Corvin is dealing with it,” he said in a soothing tone as he recognized my panic.

“What do you mean dealing with it?” I asked.

“He and the girl are digging a hole out back for him.” His voice turned cold and he brushed my hair out of my eyes. “Don’t spare a moment thinking about him, okay?”

“Reesa?” I asked, the tears reaching the surface again.

“Yeah, she found you both first. Came screeching down the soccer field like a banshee blubbering about the blood.” He chuckled a little before clearing his throat. “She’s an idiot, and possibly has a few loose screws but she might just be a decent friend. The guilt might be killing her.”

“I don’t understand why he hated me…” I said it with an exalted breath and Felix took a minute to respond, the silence almost overwhelming.

“Because he knew you’d never be his.” He looked down, his dark eyes burning through me. “A man’s biggest weakness is knowing they’ll never have something that they want.”

“Why would he want me?” I asked.

“Oh, Romina. Who the fuck wouldn’t?” He tightened his hold on me again and though his words were meant to comfort, I tensed up the minute they breathed air. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, ever again.”

I woke up still on Felix’s lap, his head tipped back on the couch so far that his snores were impossible to ignore. I lifted off from him and tiptoed my way down the hall. Corvin’s light was still on in his room, but I wasn’t even sure what time it was. If he’d been up all night digging a grave, it was likely he was exhausted.

There was no way Reesa actually helped him dig it.

She probably just complained and made jokes the entire time.

I hovered my hand over the door, as if to knock, but something held me back. I turned around to face the bathroom, gasping out loud once I pushed the door open. There wasn’t a trace of what had happened in the room. If anything it was cleaner than it’d ever been before and it smelled of pungent chemicals, making my eyes water.