Chapter 114

By the time I return to the Pyramid after class, my entire body is shaking. My nose is running. I feel burning hot one minute, and then freezing cold the next.

I pass through the living room. Beau spots me first.

“You look like shit,” he says.

“Thanks a lot,” I grumble, too tired to do much more than that. I’m still covered head to toe in mud. Most of it has dried now and let this caked-on brown pattern over my skin and clothes. My hair is in clumps.

“What happened to you?” Archer asks. He’s sitting on the couch opposite Beau. Both of them are watching me far too closely. I don’t know what they want me to say.

I’m not up for the inquisition, so I shrug and shuffle out of the room.

When I make it to the safety of my own bedroom, I shuck out of my crusty clothes and hobble to the bathroom. I turn the water in the shower on as hot as it will go, and then I stand under the scalding water, watching the dirt circle around the drain.

My skin tingles, but if it’s actually burning, I can’t tell. My legs are weak. I hold myself up by my hand on the wall.

After a while, I feel clean enough and turn off the water. I dry myself off on the way to the dresser. I’m too tired to take my towel back into the bathroom so I leave it on the floor.

It’s only mid-afternoon. I should put clean clothes on, but I just want to take a nap. So I put pajamas on instead. Then I make my way over to my bed and fall onto it. It takes great effort to pull the covers up over my trembling body.

My eyes close, and I’m pulled into blissful slumber.

I only mean to take a quick nap before I have to go pick up Mia from Steven and watch her the rest of the night. But when I try to open my eyes, they feel so… heavy. I can’t quite pry my eyelids apart.

I overslept. I can tell by the general darkness in my room when I do finally manage to peek my eyes open.

My whole body feels like shit. I’m shaking with cold, but my hands are clammy like I’ve been sweating. Do I have a fever?

No, I never get sick. And I can’t get sick now. Mia is depending on me. She’s waiting for me.

I look at the clock. I’m an hour late to pick her up.

Groaning, I throw back the covers and pull myself from the bed. I take two steps toward the door on shaky legs. But after those two steps, my ankles can’t hold my weight anymore, and I collapse down, down onto the ground.

I’m nothing but a boneless heap now, unable to move forward or back. My strength is totally depleted.

I try to cry out, but my voice is weak too. I can’t do anything but stay where I am on the ground, shivering with cold.

A knock sounds on the door. I can’t answer it. I can’t call out.

The door opens anyway. Footsteps come to be, then a hand touches my cheek. I lean into it and whimper. I’m too hot now, and the touch is cool on my skin.

“You’re burning up.”

I recognize that voice.

“I have… to… Mia…”

Archer huffs a harsh breath. “Worry about yourself right now.” He scoops me into his arms with ease. I roll toward him, pressing myself as closely as I can to his cold body.

So gently I must be imagining it, he lowers me down onto my bed. I try to keep holding onto him, but it doesn’t take much effort from him to unthread my fingers from his shirt. He lowers my arms down to the bed, then pulls the covers up and over me.

“Mia…” I say again.

“She’ll be fine,” Archer says. “Trust in the training you gave us. We can take care of Mia until you get well.”

“I’m not sick,” I say through my sniffles and sore throat.

“Tell that to the doctor,” he says. He already has his phone in his hands. Is he texting his brothers? A doctor? Both? I’m too tired to keep up. My consciousness is dimming again.

“Thank… you…”

My eyes flutter closed. A hand touches my forehead and lightly brushes back some damp hairs from my skin.

“Get better,” Archer says. And I’m definitely hallucinating now, because I’ve never heard his voice that soft before.

I drift away with thoughts of Archer, and wake up to see Steven sitting at a chair pulled up beside my bed. He’s reading a thick textbook. It takes him a moment to notice I’m awake.

“Chloe!” he says when he sees. He lowers his book. “How do you feel?”

I consider the question. I feel mostly numb. My throat is still sore and my joints ache but… “Tired.” That’s my biggest problem.

Steven nods. “That’s to be expected with the flu.”

“The flu?” I ask.

“Ah. You were pretty out of it when the doctor came,” Steven says. “Archer had to sit you up and hold you while the doctor inspected you.”

I might have blushed then, if I wasn’t already so hot.

“I’ve been keeping track of your medicine,” Steven says. “And then Beau sits with you most of the time in the evenings.”

Beau? Sits with me? That doesn’t seem right.

Steven laughs, looking at my face. “I’m serious.” He sobers then, facing falling. “You’ve worried all of us.”

“Even Neil?” I ask.

Steven looks away. He doesn’t say no but it’s clear in his body language.

I feel like hot garbage, but apparently there’s room to feel even worse, because now my heart breaks again on top of everything else.

“You should get more sleep,” Steven says. “Your body needs rest.”

My eyes close once more, on their own, not because I want them to. I’d prefer to stay awake and talk more with Steven. I have so many questions. I don’t even know how long I’ve been like this. Or how Mia is.

But darkness pulls me under too soon and washes everything else away.

When I wake next, it’s to Beau sitting where Steven was. Steven told the truth then. How sick am I that even Beau is worried about me? I’m pretty sure the guy hates me the most – except for maybe Wyatt. But he’s not far from that.

Although… he did tell Archer where I was at the dinner, saving me from having to find my own way home. He might have done that for Mia’s sake though.

Like Steven, Beau is reading a book, but unlike Steven, what he holds is no textbook. I would recognize that outlandish cover anywhere.

Chained By My Lover’s Relentless Pleasure.

Gods, I thought I’d lost it. How does he have it now?

Beau glances at me from the corner of his eye. “Oh. You are awake.” He lowers the book. He looks me over but doesn’t actually ask how I’m doing.

Honestly, I feel much better, so I tell him so. “I’m okay.”

“You do have more color in your cheeks,” he says. “It’s good to see you blush.”

“I’m not blushing,” I lie.

He doesn’t buy it and hums with obvious disbelief.

Now that my thoughts are piecing together, I have enough sense to ask, “How is Neil? Did his father hurt him?” I try to sit up.

Beau’s sharp glance stills me. He touches my shoulder and not-so-gently shoves me back into bed.

“I highly doubt you are well enough to go sauntering around.”

“But –”

“Neil is fine,” Beau says with a sigh.

Oh. Oh, okay. That’s good, then. I worry my bottom lip. My next thought is a selfish one. I’m too worn out to censor it properly.

“Has he been to see me?” I ask.

“No.” Beau doesn’t hold his punches.

I nod. It hurts, but at least it’s a straight answer.

Beau watches me with narrow eyes. I brace myself, preparing for a lecture similar to the one Archer gave me.

Instead, Beau says, “What you need is a distraction.”

I look up at him with surprise.

He smirks as he lifts the book in his hands.

“I know just the thing.”