Page 84 of Gambler's Conceit
“Hey,” he says quietly. “It’s okay. Just… Breathe.”
I cover my eyes and take a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m sorry, Seven.”
No fucking wonder everybody else dumped me. No wonder I’m still living with my piece of shit stepfather, because we’re two peas in a pod.
I blink hard and fight against the burn in my eyes.
Seven gets into my personal space and presses his head against my chest. “It’s okay,” he says again, wrapping his arms tightly around me. “He deserved it. Caleb… Caleb will understand.”
I’m not sure he will.
But the idea of someone else hurting Seven was more than I could stand.
I look down at Grant, who is sobbing incoherently.
“Stop fucking bullying people,” I tell Grant darkly. “Or next time, you won’t be lucky enough to have Seven save you.”
Grant immediately starts nodding. “I won’t… I won’t…”
“Come on,” Seven says, tugging at one of my wrists. “Let’s go upstairs. I’ll take care of you.” He scowls at Grant. “This was your own fucking fault. Andyes,I’m going to go tattle. You should just quit while you’re only a little behind.”
Grant flinches as we walk past him. We take the back exit, and I avoid looking at any of the staff on duty. The freight elevator gets us to the top floor without any interruptions.
Neither of the guards bar my entrance, so I guess Caleb hasn’t heard about what happened yet. I need to take advantage of this before I do get kicked out.
Fuck, I left the apartment listings downstairs.
Seven leads me into his bedroom, where Nacho is napping at the top of the brand new cat tree. He stirs long enough to blink at us before going back to his nap.
Seven smiles absently at him, but his attention is primarily focused on me. “Let’s take care of your hands,” he says. “Then…” His brows furrow. “Then I guess we should probably call Caleb, huh?”
“Shit,” I say. “He’ll regret having hired me now.” Then I laugh. “I told him he’d be the next supervisor I’d beat up. I didn’t factor in Grant.”
Letting out a slow breath, Seven tugs at my wrist again, leading me into the bathroom. He grabs a first aid kit from beneath the sink, starting to assemble supplies with surprising ease.
This piece of the Seven puzzle doesn’t fit, and it’s almost enough to distract me from the fucking mess I’ve made of my life.
Again.
“He was going to put his hands on me,” Seven says pragmatically as he gets me to wash my hands. “He might’ve been the one to beatmedown.”
The idea of it sends a dark wave through me, and I itch to go back downstairs and beat Grant up some more.
“Don’t,” he says with surprising authority as he starts to disinfect where the skin has broken and torn around my knuckles. “Grant has been bullying people for long enough to where I don’t think Caleb will be surprised. He…” He frowns. “I don’t know what he’ll do, okay? But I’ll fight for you to stay.”
My eyes start to tear up again.
“Nobody has ever stuck by me,” I whisper.
Seven tenses, but he keeps tending to my hands.
I need him to know though. I need him to understand what this means to me.
“Back in the army—I was stationed at the big army base just a few hours north. Did a rotation in Germany at one point, but I guess there was nothing for us to do, so they sent us back.Anyway. Two years ago.” I let out a bitter laugh. “We got a new superior officer. Captain Polinski. This guy… He was from a big military career family. He wouldn’t shut up about how his grandfather had served during World War 2 and probably saved the entire U-S-fucking-A with some bullshit or other. None of us believed him. Stories are harmless, but this fucker…” I swallow hard. “He had it in for the female privates. Always criticized them. Their hair, their clothes, their bodies. Was extra fucking racist to the ones who weren’t white.”
Seven has gone still, his attention rapt on me. He starts to put ointment on my knuckles, then says quietly, “That had to be hard to sit and watch.”
“Yeah.” I take a breath to steady myself. “We all hated him. We’d all talk about what we would do to him if we could. Everyone agreed that he needed to be taken down a peg.”