Page 81 of Delirium
But the answer never came. Only his heavy breathing filled the line connecting us, his anger almost a palpable thing, a living and breathing organism.
“Tristan has been acting weird lately,” Kill murmured, piercing me through the heart with his own pain. “I have no idea what’s going on. I tried talking to him. I tried meeting him, but ever since I came to Winworth and left with Skylar, Tristan started avoiding me.”
“Maybe he’s just working on these things,” I tried reasoning, but even to me, it was too weird that he would be ignoring his brother. Cillian and Tristan always had a good bond, and this was obviously destroying Cillian.
“Maybe,” Kill breathed out. “I just can’t wait for Kieran to come back.”
“About that.” I winced as soon as the words came out of my mouth. “Kieran found Maya, Kill. He found her.”
“Holy shit,” he exclaimed. “That’s amazing, Phee. That’s fucking dope.”
“I know,” I murmured. “But they’re missing, Kill. I spoke to him the other day, but there were gunshots around them, and the line just cut off. That was the last time I heard anything from him.”
“They’re missing?” Cillian asked, the panic traveling from him to me.
“Yes,” I murmured, reining my emotions in. “They’re missing.”
I hoped we would be able to find them.
17
STORM
Ophelia wasn’t okay.
None of us were, not really. Stress was eating at everyone, and it was obvious that we were all worried about the threats living outside of these walls, but my Sunshine… she was struggling more than the rest of us.
I thought that bringing Lazar would help, or that talking with Cillian would, but after Lazar left, and everyone returned to their rooms and their homes, she shattered. A cloud of darkness seemed to descend on her, and no matter what we did, no matter how much Zoe tried to pull her out of her funk, nothing was working.
Even Kaiser’s presence and goofiness didn’t help, and the worry gnawing at me kept growing with each passing day.
We still had no leads on Kieran and Maya. Judah Blackwood was on the run and no one knew where his hiding spot was, and Belladonna stayed quiet. Too fucking quiet, and I didn’t like it.
My mind was being pulled in ten different directions—the need to find Belladonna, to stop this madness. The need to find Kieran and Maya to calm Ophelia down, which ended up with me being on the phone with my guys in Mexico almost constantly.
And most of all, the need to hold her close even though she didn’t want me to.
She didn’t ask for one single thing this last week, and I hated seeing her pulling back from me. I thought we were making progress. I thought we were heading in the right direction, but now there was a chasm between the two of us, getting wider with each passing day.
The gravel groaned underneath my boots as I walked in front of the house to my bike. Fiery red hair caught my attention, strolling toward me with Kaiser in tow.
“Zozo—”
“You gotta do something, Storm,” she said, before I could even say anything. “She’s not sleeping properly. She’s not eating properly. Hell, she doesn’t even want to come out to walk Kaiser.”
He yapped as if he knew what we were talking about.
“She’s either getting depressed or she’s trying to find a way to get her ass to Mexico, and that is nobueno.”
“Nobueno? Seriously?” I smiled.
“It’s not funny, Storm. You need to do something.”
“She doesn’t want me to do anything,” I replied. “She doesn’t even talk to me properly anymore.”
“Because she’s scared, dum-dum. Such a typical male,” she groaned. “Listen, Ophelia isn’t exactly known for her gift of communication. She doesn’t know how to ask for help, and it’s obvious that she’s drowning. Maybe non-pregnant Ophelia could handle things better, but those hormones, dude… Those hormones are telling her all the ugly things that could happen. You saw how she freaked out when she was at the doctor’s that first time. Do you really think that any of this is easy on her?”
“I know it isn’t,” I grumbled.
