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Slowly, he turned around and stared at me The deadness in his eyes chilled my blood

“Who hurt you?” Anger bubbled insidewe could do Whoever hurt Roman should pay I wanted to wrap my hands around a baseball bat and find the person myself

“So at himself in the ht now—”

“Okay Of course I’m sorry” I bent over and picked up the stuff I’d dropped and set everything on the counter “I didn’t knohat you ht want to use” I picked up the bottle of Cyprus-scented bodywash “I got this for you a couple of weeks ago Hoping you’d…well, I figured you wouldn’t want to use my roses and vanilla wash…so…” It see tortured and I orried about what soap scent he ht like

But for the first time, his lips curved into a smile that reached his eyes He eased the bottle out of er overof me? Like that?”

“Like what?”

He shrugged “Thank you”

We stood there staring at each other and I sensed he wouldn’t finish until I left “I, uh, I’ll go start dinner” I swirled my hands in front of theyou need that’s not here, we can go out and grab it” I backed out the door

“I’ll be down in a few minutes”

He closed the door behind me

The sound of the lock clicking into place rang like a gunshot

I stood there staring at it for a second before heading downstairs My h any of hts or emotions I headed downstairs and into the kitchen

The house had come with a treasure trove of recipe books froo anywhere besides school, the grocery store, and the house I didn’t even want to invite Vienna over too often, in case her parents started asking questions about why I was living here by myself All the alone tih the cookbooks Sometimes, I invited Dex over for dinner Often, I’d pack the leftovers and bring them to school for Pip I liked to think Mrs Shields would be delighted to kno much Pip loved the banana nut muffins I made from one of her handwritten recipes

I didn’t have a lot of food in the house Torocery store I peered in the refrigerator and pulled out a package of ground beef Next, I put a large pot of water on the stove to boil Spaghetti withI could easily h for tomorrow’s lunch

I was in thethe meat when Roman appeared in the archway

“Hey,” he rasped

I lowered the flame on the meat and covered the pan “Feel better?” What a dumb question He was bruised from his neck to his waist A shower couldn’t fix that