Thrive (Addicted, #4)(40)

“And you know what we decided at the end of it all?” Lo asks me.

“That Magneto and Rogue should never be allowed to date—in any universe.”

His lips rise. “Yeah, and that alternate universes usually have the worst endings with the unhappiest conclusions.” His warm hand slides to my cheek, and his eyes bore into me, intense and unyielding. “But we’re in Earth-616, love. We’re going to have our happy ending. It just may take us awhile to get there.”

My chest lifts at his rare optimism, stirring something powerful inside my heart.

It fills me with so, so much hope.





{ 16 }

0 years : 05 months

January





LOREN HALE


I check rat traps that Connor, Ryke and I set in the crawl space. Daisy found two dead ones in her room, not surprising since we saw droppings on the basement stairs when we first arrived.

“Your cat isn’t doing her job,” I tell Connor while I squat by the small door, a trash bag in hand. Ryke has already crawled through, and I wait for him to return with hopefully a dead rat or two.

“She’s already killed three of them,” Connor defends his pet. He leans his arm against the wall, staring down at me. “Anymore and I’d question her domestication.”

“I hate to break it to you, Connor,” I say, “but your cat is feral.” In private, Lily calls her the orange beast. I mean, Sadie scratched the hell out of Rose when she tried to put a collar on her. I thought Rose was impenetrable to almost everything.

“I found Sadie, you know.” He cups a mug of steaming coffee. “She was in the rain outside my boarding school. The mother was dead. So were the three other kittens.”

I don’t know how many other people he’s told this to. “I never pegged you as the nurturing type.”

“I’m not,” he says honestly. “It wasn’t like she tugged at my heart in that moment.” Of course not. “I just knew I had the power to save her life, so I did.”

That was fairly conceited, but I try to dig around that. “And now that she’s older and angrier?”

“I raised her exactly how I wanted,” Connor says. “She doesn’t need me to survive anymore. Though she loves me most.”

Huh. I scrutinize the way he rests against the wall, tired. His body isn’t stiff and straight like usual. Dark rings lie beneath his eyes. “You look like shit,” I say. Seriously. I’ve never seen him so worn down before.

He sips his coffee. “I’m a grad student trying to take over a multi-billion dollar company. If I didn’t look like shit, I’d be on drugs.”

I forgot that he’s been trying to take the reins of Cobalt Inc. I almost mention Scott, but even the thought of him irritates every nerve in my body.

I look back through the crawl space just as Ryke hits his head on one of the pipes. “Fuck me,” he curses.

“Fornicating with the rats already?” Connor asks with a grin.

“Fuck you, Cobalt.” He’s on his stomach, using his forearms and legs to army-crawl through the small area. “The shortest one of us should have crawled through here.”

That was directed at me. “If I knew you were going to bitch, I would have done it myself, and I’m only one inch shorter than you, bro.”

Ryke bangs his forehead this time. He makes an animalistic noise. “I’m still six fucking three.”

I watch him move at a snail’s pace. “Besides being a giant, what’s taking you so long? You set the trap. You should know where it is.”

“It must have carried the trap with it.”

“Just use your nose,” Connor says. “Dogs have the best sense of smell.”

I actually laugh.

“Fuck off,” Ryke retorts.

I’m pretty sure that Ryke can handle Connor’s digs. Even when Connor pisses him off, it seems like the comments never really eat at him. Ryke is the strongest person I’ve ever met. Stronger than me.

It’s why Connor taunts Ryke and praises me.

I don’t know if Ryke realizes it or if Connor recognizes how well I understand his relationship with me. But I see how Connor spends his time trying to build me up—so I believe that I’m just as worthy as my brother.

I’m not. I won’t ever be as good as him, but it’s nice to have a friend try to remind me of it.

Connor pulls his phone out of his pocket and starts texting. Less than a minute later, he asks, “Is Lily having more sex than usual?”

I stiffen. Keeping a secret from a guy ten times more intelligent than me is hard. But not impossible. I spent three years pretending to be in a relationship with Lily. I’ve got this.

“She’s not having it, but she wants it.” I fist the black trash bag and rise, my legs aching in this position. “This whole fucking reality show puts her on edge.” It’s the truth, but we’re fucking a lot more than people would like. Most of the time, we screw in her car, away from cameras and thin walls where people can overhear. I layer on everything he’ll expect, “And she medicates her anxiety with sex, which means I’m not getting laid for the next week, and she only gets my fingers.”

I find the nearest camera, hanging on a ceiling rafter, and I wave my fingers. And wink, just for further effect. Maybe it’ll distract Connor.