Page 36

Chapter

Thirty-Three

G ANNON

Abbie is still passed out when I reach the room. Clarice, however, stands in the hallway. My bedroom door is open as she stands by the door, watching Tyson while rocking Hunter in her arms and putting him back to sleep.

She glances at me, covered in vomit and chuckles.

“I am glad you find it so funny,” I tell her. She smiles at Abbie, who is snoring in my arms, her mouth open. She is out cold but won’t be once I put her in the shower.

“At least she had fun and got out of this room for once,” Clarice says, and I nod in agreement.

She’s not wrong. The moment she took off with Tandi, I had Liam looking for her, him promising to stay by her side.

She needed time with Azalea and Tandi. Even if I think Tandi is a little wild, she is familiar to Abbie, and this would give them time to hang out without me hovering around.

“Let me set him down in his crib,” Clarice says, walking off toward Damian’s room, only to stop when we hear voices. Or more like arguing. I roll my eyes, and Clarice pauses.

“On second thought, I might lay him down on your bed for a minute,” Clarice says when I recognize the voices to be Tandi and Damian.

I wander into my room, finding Tyson where I left him, fast asleep on Abbie’s side of the bed.

Clarice sets Hunter next to him, propping pillows around him before following me into the bathroom.

She turns the shower on for me while I pull Abbie’s soiled clothes off.

I place her in the shower. My chest pangs when I glance at her marred flesh.

Long slits run up both arms. My mark on her neck has covered and removed Kade’s, yet the guilt I feel about marking her without consent still coils inside me.

“She’ll forgive you,” Clarice says. The woman is too observant and can read me like a damn book.

“I know; it just doesn’t feel right,” I tell her, glancing at her. She nods, grabbing soap and a loofah as Abbie stirs under the water.

“She will forgive you. You were trying to save her,” Clarice says as I tug my shirt off, tossing it in the hamper.

“I am not worried about her forgiving me for marking her, that she will forgive,” I tell her, sticking my head out the door.

“Get it off your chest, son. I am not a mind reader. I know you tried to change her.”

“She said I tried to force her to live.”

“Because you did,” she tells me. No judgment from this woman ever come. I could tell her my darkest secrets; I know she would take them to the grave with her and not judge me for my mistakes.

“Yes, but I don’t think I can keep the promise I made to her if she tries to do it again,” I whisper.

“I don’t think she will try again, Gannon.

Whatever Azalea did, it made her want to live.

Abbie spent so much time trapped in her past that she forgot she now has a future, and that future is with you and Tyson.

You just may need to remind her of it occasionally,” she tells me, passing me the soap and loofah.

I take them, and she pats my cheek before walking out. “I will take Tyson for the night. I am taking Hunter for the night, too. I will have Dustin come and grab Tyson for me,” she tells me.

“Thank you,” I tell her, and she nods, closing the door and leaving me with Abbie.

I strip my pants off and climb into the shower.

Abbie sits at my feet, leaning against the shower wall while I quickly wash myself before kneeling to wash her.

She jerks awake when I pull her head under the water, coughing and spluttering. She wipes her eyes, peering around.

“You’re safe. It’s just me,” I tell her, and she sighs, leaning back against the shower wall. Leaning out of the shower quickly, I grab her toothbrush and mouthwash.

I put toothpaste on it, passing it to her, yet her eyes were already closing.

“Abbie, brush your teeth,” I tell her, placing the toothbrush in her hand and bringing it to her mouth.

She chews on it while attempting to brush her teeth.

I quickly wash her hair before tilting her head back while laughing at her when I try to pull the toothbrush from her mouth.

“Open your mouth,” I chuckle, scrubbing her teeth the same way I watch her scrub Tyson’s every morning and night.

“Spit,” I tell her when I am done. She does, mostly spitting it on herself, and I quickly wash it off her.

“Come on,” I tell her. She sluggishly peers up at me, returning to her surroundings and looking around again. It is clear she has already forgotten where she is. She is completely shitfaced, and she smiles lazily, and I roll my eyes, grabbing her under the arms and pulling her up.

“I think I drunkded too much,” she giggles, slurring each word and making me laugh.

“That you did,” I tell her.

“Did you find my bunny?” I raise an eyebrow at her, not knowing what she is talking about. I half drag her while she stumbles out of the shower. It takes me a solid twenty minutes to dress her because she keeps demanding her bunny, which I finally figured out is her damn slippers.

I place her in bed, tucking her in, her slipper tucked under one arm.

Shaking my head, I put my boxers on before moving toward the door I realize is slightly ajar.

As I close it, I catch movement and open it, wondering if it is Clarice and if she needs something.

Yet when I open the door, I catch a glimpse of something I wish I could unsee.

I blink at the scene before me. Damian had Tandi’s legs around his waist while he impales his cock in her while pressing her against the damn wall.

I clear my throat. Staring up at the ceiling instead of his white ass.

“We have rooms for a reason!” I call out, and Tandi shrieks.

“Noted, we are getting there,” Damian growls, quickly rushing to his room down the hall. I shake my head, shut the door, and fall onto the couch.

Abbie will freak out if she wakes up with me on the bed next to her.

She never lets me sleep next to her unless Tyson is between us.

Besides a few stolen kisses and brief hugs, that is it.

It is also what caused the incident the other day.

Tyson has his own room now and still. She refuses to sleep in the bed without him or when I have put him in his room, I wake up to her there with him or her creeping over to the couch.

Shutting the lamp off and closing my eyes, I drape my arm across my face.

The sky is already starting to lighten, yet sleep takes me.

A while later, I am abruptly awoken from oblivion by a loud crashing noise, which has me sitting up instantly. My eyes peer around the room, adjusting to the darkness as my night vision kicks in. I sigh, finding Abbie getting to her feet from the floor. She giggles, and I sit up just as she stands.

“Abbie, you should be asleep,” I groan, rubbing my eyes when I feel her body hit mine as she stumbles into me. I catch her to realize she has shredded her clothes in her sleep.

“Abbie,” I stammer. She only giggles, climbing into my lap, her lips attacking me. I grip her arms, but she pushes me back, straddling me. Her mouth crashes against mine, and I groan, kissing her back before regaining my wits and pushing her back.

“Abbie, you’re drunk,” I tell her. She slurs and mumbles while her hands continue to tug at my clothes. I remove my shirt, dragging it over my head.

“You don’t want me,” she pouts while sitting up.

“Not while you’re drunk, I don’t. Now lay down,” I tell her, patting my chest. She ignores me, instead trying to kiss me, and I sigh.

“Abbie!”

“I want you,” she whines, licking my chest.

“And if you still want me in the morning, you can have me, but not while you’re like this,” I tell her, yet still she insists, and I roll my eyes, tucking her beside me and locking my arms around her squirming body.

Her ass rubbing against my crotch, making me extremely uncomfortable as I trap her between the back of the couch and my chest.

I sigh and purr before realizing my calling will work on her now, and I take full advantage of it, letting it calm her and essentially knock her out.

I am not giving her another reason to hate me. And fucking her, while she is like this, will make me hate myself as much as she will hate me in the morning.

“Sleep, love, you’re safe with me,” I whisper, kissing her cheek. She squirms but gives up eventually, while I enjoy having her this close, loving the feel of her body safe in my arms.