“It don’t matter what happens to me,” he mumbled.
Wrong thing to say, pal.
“Maybe toyouit doesn’t, but it does to the rest of us!” Ooo, I was hot! I stepped into his space and glared up at him.“And when we finally find Gemma, how do you think we’ll feel if we have to tell her you got yourself killed? That you didn’t care about her enough to stay alive and find her yourself?”
The tiger came out at that. With eyes like neon, he bent his head until we were nose-to-nose.
“Say that again.”
“If you get yourself killed,” I said through my teeth, “think what it would do to her. Can you imagine how she’d feel when she found out?”
“We were in the middle of a fight when she was kidnapped! For all I know, she’d berelievedthat she doesn’t have to put up with me anymore!”
Without hesitation, I slammed my fists into his shoulders with all of my fury behind the move. Obviously not expecting an attack, he staggered back and fell on his butt. He sat there and stared up at me with shock in his eyes.
I stood over him and ached to do it again.
“Come on, Harker! Get up and go supernova on me! Make me a pile of ash right here, right now!”
Gigi tried to get between us, but Kerry pushed her back.
“Don’t touch her while you’re upset!” Jax hollered. “You’ll hurt her by accident.”
Kerry growled, Rome growled, and Iwantedto growl.
“Gemma needs you,” I barked at him, “and you’re giving up on her!”
“I’m not giving up on her!” he roared and rocketed to his feet.
“Good! Because she wanted me to beg you not to!”
He turned into a statue, and the fight went out of his eyes.
“What? When? At City of the Future?”
“Yeah. In the church.”
“What— What else did she say?”
“She said, ‘Tell Kerry I love him. Sorry I hurt him. Beg him not to give up on me. He’ll always be my one and only.’ Does that sound like she doesn’t care?”
“Are you lying to me?” His face went paper white.
“Why would I? I have no horse in this race.”
He covered his eyes with a hand that trembled and dropped his head.
I felt awful and scolded myself for hurting him.
“Look, I’m sorry. I know you—”
“Don’t apologize. You’re right. I’m messing up.” His deep voice sank to a whisper. “I’m so angry, I feel like I’m gonna explode. And now that Chance isn’t here, I have to fight against losing it all the time. I can’t— I can’tdothis anymore!”
“What’s the alternative?” Gigi asked. “Even if you went smiting through the Dark World, how is that going to find her? All that would do it is slow us down. Plus, we don’t know what consequences that would have for her. We need to keep asking questions. We’ve found out a lot already. It’s only a matter of time now until we get her back.”
“My head hears you, but my heart is saying, ‘What are they doing to her?’ It’s killing me, Gigi! It’skillingme!”
“Amanda Greenaway owes you a favor, right? Let’s see if she can do anything.”
