Hothouse Flower (Addicted #4)(54)

Lo kneels and grabs her hand, not letting her go.

She’s stronger in these nightmares than she is awake because she’s driven by fear, an adrenaline rush that I can’t f*cking begin to imagine.

Her tears well and redden her eyes. I lean forward, my face close to hers, my fingers digging into her cheek. “Wake up!” I shout. “Daisy, wake the f*ck up!” Come on, sweetheart. Fight this.

“Her pulse is out of control,” Lo says, his voice flooded with worry.

I take my hand off her mouth and touch the top of her breast, her heart practically pounding through. She has to f*cking wake up and calm down.

“No!” she cries like she’s dying, like someone’s killing her. Sweat beads her forehead, hot tears dripping off her jaw. “Please,” she cries, shaking her head from side to side. “Please…”

“Wake up,” I growl in her ear, combing her damp hair out of her face. Wake the f*ck up.

“Be careful,” Lo tells me.

I’m not hurting her. Whoever’s tormenting Daisy in her head is. I glance over my shoulder at Connor. “Can you hand me a glass of water.”

Daisy is about to start screaming again, so I muffle her noises with my hand once more.

“You shouldn’t pour water on her face if she’s having a night terror.”

Lo glares at Connor. “You know what’s going on and you didn’t think to share?”

I stare hard at the mattress, ignoring the guilt that tries to f*ck me over. You’ve known all along what’s going on, Ryke For months.

“She’s asleep,” Connor starts to explain.

“Just give me the f*cking water,” I tell him. “I’m not going to drown her.” I’ve done this before.

Connor’s brows pinch as he scrutinizes me, and then he hands me her water bottle—I think more out of curiosity of what I’m about to do.

I pour some water on my free hand, and then stroke her hair out of her face again, cooling her down and hopefully waking her up soon.

She jolts at the new sensation and thrashes again. But I keep her pinned in the same position. Lo clasps her whole arm as she tries jerking out of his grasp. My muscles burn the longer I watch tears squeeze out of her eyes and fear wash over her face.

“How can she still be asleep?” Lo asks. “She’s looking at Ryke.”

“It’s a state between REM sleep and wakefulness,” Connor explains. His eyes meet mine. “How long has she had this problem?”

I shake my head, and Daisy’s leg slips beneath my knee, trying to f*cking kick me again. I shift her back. “I wouldn’t f*cking know.”

He doesn’t believe me. “You haven’t seen her like this before?” he questions with an arched brow.

“Why would you think I have?” I retort with a dark glare.

“Because you’re the closest person to her, and you don’t look surprised by this.”

“I am f*cking surprised,” I retort.

Connor shakes his head, still disbelieving.

“I just f*cking reacted, Connor,” I retort, my brother frowning between me and him. He’s trying to give me the benefit of the doubt, which is making this f*cking painful. “Stop turning it into a thing.”

And then Daisy’s eyes slowly focus on me. Her tense limbs slacken, but the panic stays in her gaze.

I peel my hand off her mouth. “Daisy?”

She blinks a few times, and Lo releases her arm. I sit up off her body, and she touches her head in confusion. When she truly meets my eyes, her face breaks and she starts crying again.

I immediately lift her into my arms, and she hides her face in her hands. “They were here,” she says. “They were stabbing me—”

“Hey,” I say roughly, stroking the back of her head. “You’re safe. No one’s here but me, Connor and Lo.” She’s on my lap, in my arms, where she’s been so many times before.

But it’s f*cking different now.

We’ve never been in front of other people. And we’ve never called ourselves anything other than friends.

Lo climbs off the bed. “Daisy, who’s them?”

Her hot tears wet my gray shirt, and she mumbles into my chest, “Bad guys.”

Lo frowns. “What’d she say?” he asks me.

“Bad guys,” I say. “It was a f*cking nightmare.” But no matter how imaginary her dream was, to her, in those three minutes, it felt real, more so than any kind of bad dream I’m used to.

I understand why she’d rather not take the medicine at all, but she has to sleep some. It’s trading one bad place for another.

Daisy’s arms wrap underneath mine, clutching onto me tightly. My brother gives me a single warning look like, You can’t lead her on.

His concern is warranted. I would feel the same f*cking thing if I was him in this situation. But no part of me wants to disentangle her from my body.

Still, I know I have to.

I whisper in her ear, “I’m going to tuck you into bed, and you’re going back to sleep.”

“What?” she breathes. She glances up at me with wide eyes, and she shakes her head. “No, Ryke. I can’t go back…”

“You’ll be fine,” I tell her, prying her arms from mine and setting her back against the mattress.