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A shadow of shame and fear passed across his face as my words struck their target. He lowered his voice, unable to meet my eyes. “It’ll make me weak.”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s the point. It’ll take a toll on your body, but it takes a bigger toll on the cancer.”
A smile that seemed sadder than it should spread across his lips. “And I’ll lose all this beautiful hair.”
I laughed despite myself. Dad was already bald. The shiny pate atop his head hadn’t changed in all the years I’d been alive. Sometimes I wondered if he’d ever had hair. All the photos of him, even those of him as a child, he’d sported a shaved, bald head. If I ever saw a picture of him with hair, I’d probably faint.
My laughter made his smile grow warmer, and I could tell hearing it made him feel better. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head, then took me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes.
“All right, kiddo. No one has ever said Gio Francis was a coward. I’m not gonna let a doctor and his medicine turn me into one. I’ll have Mike call the hospital and get me into treatment as soon as possible. Sound good?”
Tears sprang to my eyes. I’d been so certain he’d refuse to get treatment, that he’d be dead this time next year. Knowing that he was going to get help took a massive weight off my chest.
I smiled and wiped at my eyes before wrapping my arms around him again. Being held in my father’s embrace was exactly what I needed to get my mind off Blayne.
THREE
BLAYNE
The sun was bright and the sky a cloudless blue when I pulled into the coffee shop’s parking lot. The fresh, early morning air smelled sweet. If it had been any other day, any other circumstance, I’d have said it was a beautiful morning. Instead, I had to deal with this shit.
After slamming my truck door, I jammed my fists into my jacket pockets and stalked toward the shop. Right before I stepped inside, a familiar silhouette appeared through the smoked glass of the front door. Tate and another broad-shouldered young man stood at the counter.
I sighed. Of course they’d be here. Tate
and Jared. My eyes narrowed at Jared’s back. Even after everything that had gone down, I still wasn’t certain he was on our side.
Jared was the adopted son of Antonio, the asshole who’d founded the hunter organization we were up against. Like Tate, he was a dragon shifter, but Antonio had drugged Jared to suppress the dragon inside him. That had been part of Antonio’s sick plan to create some sort of super soldier who would destroy every shifter. My suspicions of Jared stemmed from what an asshat he’d been in his adoptive family’s employ. His ass-hattedness had been the result of Antonio’s treatment of him
his entire life and the stress of his dragon being suppressed, but still…he’d assaulted Celina and had attacked a couple of our security guards.
The guy couldn’t really be blamed for being a little messed up. He’d been raised by a sociopath and had grown up with a psychopath like Mariana for a sister. I trusted him because the other guys did, but it was a slow and grudging trust that gradually increased with every passing day. Besides, he was just as much in the hunters’ crosshairs as we were because Antonio had disowned him when Mariana was killed.
I was pulled from my thoughts when Tate glanced over his shoulder. Frowning, he turned toward me. “Blayne? What are you doing here?”
“I could as you the same thing,” I said, nodding toward the two of them.
Jared raised a couple of boxes. “Tate wanted to grab some stuff for the office.”
“Yeah,” Tate said. “Muffins and pastries. Just waiting for the coffee. So, why’re you here? And why do you look pissed?”
I titled my head back and looked up at the ceiling as I composed myself. “I told Ava I’d meet her here. I’m gonna tell her about—” I stopped to glance around, making sure no one else could hear “—the curse. Once she rejects me, we can get on with our lives.”
Tate’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Already? Man, you work fast.”
“Not fast enough,” I grumbled. “The last twenty-four hours have been the worst I’ve had in the past few years. I’m ready to get back to work and put this curse stuff behind me.”
Tate leaned closer to whisper. “You sure you don’t want to wait a couple of days? Really let it sink in and think about it without your emotions clouding everything?”
I shook my head, grimacing in irritation. “No way. I need to get it over now. Save myself the pain. I saw the way it affected you guys. Aches, pains, nausea, nightmares, cold sweats. I’ll be damned if I put myself through all that pain because I refuse to claim my dead brother’s ex-girlfriend.”
Jared whistled. “Dang. That’s some heavy shit. I don’t know what I’d do if…”
Tate and I glanced at Jared, staring off behind us with an almost awestruck expression and faint grin on his slightly ajar mouth. Frowning, I turned to see what had him looking like a lovestruck teenager.
Ava walked through the doors. I sighed in irritation, but my panther felt wholly different emotions—anger and jealousy.
The look on Jared’s face got even more ridiculous as she caught sight of me and walked toward us. A growl caught in my throat when I saw Jared couldn’t take his off her. It actually made me angrier at my own panther than I was at Jared. Why the hell shouldn’t he look at her? Loath I was to admit it, Ava did look gorgeous this morning.
Tate, hearing my stifled growl, muttered, “You may be ready to write this off, but it sounds like your panther has other ideas.”
I rolled my eyes and hissed, “Well, that’s too bad. Sucks to be the cat. It’s not happening. He’ll just have to get over it.”
The panther hissed in my mind, angry and heartsick. I’d never felt such disappointment from it.
Tough shit, I thought, hoping it heard and understood the words loud and clear.
Ava didn’t look any more excited to be here than I was. I couldn’t blame her—I’d basically beaten down her door the day before and demanded to know why she was there. Then I more or less commanded her to meet me here. If our roles were reversed, I’d have looked a little irritated, too. We weren’t on great terms to begin with, and what I was about to tell her would only make things worse.