“You’re welcome.” Lucas moved into the room, and I listened to the door close once more as Lucas stopped at my side. He set a tray on the bedside table. “I brought soup and a straw, so you won’t have to move much to drink it.” He sat on the chair. “How did that go?”

“Confusingly.”

Lucas smiled. He picked up a bowl and stuck a straw in it, bringing it to my lips. “It’s not too hot.”

I took a gulp before I pulled back. “I… I think he likes me,” I confessed. Everything he’d done and was still doing pointed in that direction.

Lucas threw his head back and laughed. Once he stopped, he ignored my glare and said, “Whatever gave that away?”

“Lucas,” I whispered urgently. “I can’t have him liking me.”

Lucas’s smile saddened. “From what I can tell, it’s too late for that.”

It wasn’t too late. I had to make sure of it. Adrik needed someone who wasn’t damaged, and I would push him to find that person, because it wasn’t me.

Chapter Thirteen

Adrik

He needs someone better. I’m not for him. I’m weak, dirty.

Those words seared my mind as I lay in bed. Neither West or Lucas knew I had been standing in the doorway and that I’d heard. My chest ached at those words. I wanted to drag West into my arms and tell him he was all I needed. Despite knowing he wasn’t ready to hear it.

Instead, I would stay and worm my way into West’s life in other ways. I would have him see me as the man who would be there for him, and eventually, he would not be able to deny what we could build on between us.

Rolling, I stared at the wall that separated us. The house was quiet since most of the men had left. I’d even sent Dimitri home to sleep, after I promised I wouldn’t leave the house. I thought sleep would pull me under quickly, but it had not. My worry for the man in the next bedroom was too pronounced.

How could West think I needed someone better when all I saw was him? Eventually, he would understand he was not weak or dirty. He was perfect, even with his new scars.

I had an urge to go to him, but he needed space.

Tomorrow, I would finish this for him. I would end the woman’s life and take pleasure in delivering her pain as she had. I had no doubt she’d been the one who had inflicted the agony on West. He was in and out of sleep on the drive to the house, and his mumbled words had begged his mother to stop.