Page 161 of Illicit Games

That’s my punishment. I bite back tears as they sting my eyes.

“Iris?”

I blink rapidly, bringing Kian’s ragged face into focus. In broad daylight, I notice every little detail about him that I missed yesterday.

He looks like he’s aged so much in a week. There are dark bags underneath his eyes, his cheeks sunken and dull, and unkempt stubble covering his square jaw. The light gray color of his eyes has lost their stormy depths, replaced by depressing shadows.

Dragging my gaze lower, it hurts to see that he’s lost a lot of weight. Though he’s still broad and huge like a Viking. Yet, my wolf looks broken and beaten down.

He’s been battling alone, worried sick about me.

I imagine myself in his place, and it causes my insides to ripple in stabbing pain. While my heart is constricting like someone is slicing it into pieces.

Kian rubs my arm, lacing his fingers through mine. “Baby, what I told you-”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I shut him down. The angular lines of his face tighten. I shrug. “I was wrong. We can’t have it all.”

“That’s not true,” Kian argues.

“We’re the living proof of it.”

“Iris…”

“Water, please.” He sighs, but listens. Leaning over, he grabs me water in a cup and holds the straw to my lips. I drink it down, letting it fix my thirstiness. Once he puts it away, I cup his wrist. “Lie with me?”

Without another word, he climbs in behind me and gently pushes his arm underneath my head. I intertwine my fingerswith his where his hand is resting on my stomach and close my eyes again, drifting to sleep.

The one place where the cold and hard reality can’t touch me.

***

My best friends sit on either side of my bed the next day after my parents go home. Kian stands outside the door to give us some privacy. He hasn’t left my side, nor have I asked him to, other than to order him to go home and change. Pretty sure he switched his clothes somewhere in the hospital because he was back within half an hour.

“You gave us all a death scare, Iris,” says Bianca. “We came running as soon as we heard you were awake.”

“We missed you,” whispers Rosalie, gaze shimmery. “We’re so glad you’re okay.”

I’m not okay.

“I’m sorry for getting both of you caught up in my mess,” I softly say. “Were you hurt?”

“Why are you sorry?” Rosalie replies with a tilt of her head. “It wasn’t your fault. Don’t you dare blame yourself.”

“I shouldn’t have let her in.”

Bianca leans forward. “You were trying to help, babe.”

“We’re all safe now,” Rosalie reminds me. “Don’t think about what-ifs. None of us could’ve predicted what was going to happen.”

If only it were that easy. “Kian mentioned you both spoke to the police.”

They wanted to come to take my statement, but Kian firmly refused.

“Yeah, we did,” Bianca answers.

“Yukta spilled the beans herself. Plus, the gun had both her and Arjun’s fingerprints. She’s spending the rest of her life behind bars.”

It’s so shocking how Yukta fell for Arjun’s lies. Then again, we all did. He was a monster hiding in plain sight.