Page 89 of Reverie

I immediately search for Hunter, except he’s not here.

Unease triples in my chest, and I find it hard to breathe. For some reason, his absence impacts me keenly right now.

One.

One-two-one.

One-two-three-two-one.

“I am so glad to see you well, Mrs. Brigham,” Rio says, his voice gruff. At the mention of the name, I tense, giving him a look.

“Winter,” I say, not correcting his use of my fictional last name but also wanting to engage him. “I think we can be on a first-name basis now, don’t you think?”

He gives a slight grin.

“Sorry for putting a gun to your head,” I say, my voice halting. He shrugs, and it’s a casual response.

“I wouldn’t have expected you to do any differently,” he offers.

Veronica shifts next to me, and I catch it when she removes her gaze from Rio down to Summer. The baby begins to fuss, and Veronica shushes her as she heads off to a quieter corner to nurse.

Rio’s gaze follows her across the room.

Jared clears his throat and stands, and when I take him in, my breath leaves me in awoosh. Even though I’ve seen him at least twice since arriving, I’m still caught off guard that he looks perfectly fine, given the fact that he’s supposed to be recovering from a shot near his femoral artery.

Veronica’s words about the “freaky shit” clang between my ears as I realize that neither he nor Rio look as if they’ve just suffered near-fatal gunshot wounds.

“Thanks for not shooting me too,” Jared offers, his voice teasing.

Jared has always been an enigma to me. He’s got a deeply Southern accent and a gentle presence, yet the sheer amount of bulk he carts around makes him an intimidating figure. He’s built a little like The Mountain fromGame of Thrones,but when he opens his mouth, he sounds like Rhett Butler.

Still, while they may be able to joke about that night, I’m not. I look at my shoes, and Rio’s soft, “Hey,” causes me to look at them again.

“You did good, Winter,” Rio says, and his smile seems genuine. But looking between them both again, I can tell that my confusion must show on my face.

“I feel like I’m living inThe Matrix. Or, I guess, out ofThe Matrix. Or maybe I took the blue pill?” I’m rambling, and I have to force myself to lower my hand from my mouth when I start to bite my already-ripped thumbnail.

Kitty jumps up on my calf.

“We could tell you more later if you want,” Jared says, sliding his eyes toward Rio, but Rio gives him an unreadable look.

“Yeah,” I say, feeling the urge to bite my nails. “That would be good.”

Veronica’s words come back to me again. There’s much I don’t know, and even if Hunter is willing to share with me now, there may be things that even he doesn’t know.

Knowledge is power, and without knowledge, we may face an inevitable death.

My hand goes back to my stomach.

The double doors open, and servers file in, each carrying a steaming dish in their hands. Different types of eggs, breakfast meats, and fruit are placed in the center of the dining table, and another set of attendants come through to lay place settings and fill glasses with water.

It’s a beautiful presentation.

But it’s the eggs that do me in.

The urgent need to vomit causes me to turn from the room and run down the hall. The only silver lining is that my stomach is empty except for the water I drank to take all my meds.

I’m a few feet from my room and potential salvation at the hands of the porcelain gods when I run into Hunter.