Page 51 of Burned & Bound

Not in front of Jackson.

“There’s extra blankets in the hall closet.” Jackson just kept on talking while I suffered in fucking silence. “The bathroom is just outside the door. I think you’ll have to grab towels from the closet too. Maybe? I don’t fucking know. I don’t use it.”

“It’s fine,” I managed to say. I dug my nails into my palm in a desperate attempt to ground myself. Pain helped. Sometimes.

“I get up at five-thirty, but I usually sleep heavy, so just do what you need to in the morning.”Right, I had to be at the stables before him.Maybe I should’ve stayed there. There was no yellow in the stables. “Help yourself to whatever’s in the kitchen. The coffee is on a timer—”

“I said I’m fine,” I snapped. “Just the room is fine.”

I didn’t need his handouts on top of letting me stay with him.

“Okay.” The sigh he let out grated on my nerves. So did the way he ran his hand through his hair like he was trying to find a reason to stay in the room.I needed him to leave the fucking room.“Well, help yourself. I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

“I won’t.” The only thing I needed from him was to walk out the fucking door.

“I know,” he said. When he started for the door, I skirted out of the way, shrinking into myself to avoid being touched. I couldn’t handle it. “Good night, West.”

“Night,” I muttered and watched him walk out. When he was gone, I shut the door, leaving me alone in the awful yellow fucking room. I let out a shuddering breath as I stared at the walls.Was the room smaller?The room felt smaller. Too small. “I can do this…”

The sheets and blankets were white with yellow flowers.

Fuck, it was too much. How was I supposed to sleep on that? I couldn’t.

With shaking hands, I tore everything off the bed and shoved them in a corner. It wasn’t far enough, but it was all I could do.All I could fucking manage.

I sank to the ground at the foot of the bed and buried my head in my hands as the familiar demons in my chest tore their way to the surface. Another shattering breath escaped me, hot tears leaking out as I squeezed my eyes shut.

I hated the fucking color yellow so goddamn much.

CHAPTER 35

jackson

My kitchen was spotless.My kitchen was never spotless. Granted, I rarely used my kitchen. I was a pop-it-in-the-microwave kind of guy—which wasn’t how my mother raised me, so I never told her that shit. She’d move her ass right back into my house and teach me how to cook if she knew that.

Top to bottom, it practically shined. Counters, sink, windows. Hell, even the floor looked scrubbed clean. And sitting on the counter were two covered plates of food—one labeled with Tess’s name and the other with mine. I took a peek at my plate, wondering what the hell West could’ve made. Scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.Did I even have eggs and bacon in the house?Shit. Did West know my kitchen better than I did?

And what the hell had he made Tess? I looked. It was some kind of cooked-up meat and vegetables thing—did I even have any of these things in the house? I had to believe West wouldn’t make shit that Tess couldn’t eat. He liked animals too much.

My gaze drifted around the kitchen. He’d done a fuck ton of work.Which begged the question as to when the fuck did West sleep?If his track record held steady, I had a feeling he hadn’t.

Curiosity got the better of me. I walked down the hall toward his room. The door to his room was cracked open, and I peeked inside, frowning.

The bedding had been stripped off and thrown into a corner.Fucking rude.I put work into that. Tess lay on the bed, sprawled out and happy. Her tail thumped against the mattress when she saw me but that was it.

There was no sign of West at all in the room except for his duffel bag on the floor.

“You’re really going to make me say it, aren’t you?” I asked my girl. Her ears twitched but that was it. “Come on, now. You’ve got breakfast to eat and work to do.”

It never ceased to amaze me how quickly that dog could move. She bolted from the bed and sprinted down the hall before I had a decent chance to turn and follow.

Closing the door, I filed away talking to West as something to do later. Sure, he had free reign of the house to do whatever the hell he wanted to do, but that sure as hell wouldn’t make me worry any less.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I grumped as Tess howled in the kitchen. I never did move fast enough for her.

CHAPTER 36

west