Chapter 24

BRATT.

“Marley, I’m fine,” I said, pressing a hand to my aching rib. “I’ve got some salve upstairs. I probably just got something lodged in there.”

“Lodged in there?!” she cried, and I winced at the high pitch of her voice. An ache was growing in my head, pounding at my temples like a prisoner trying to escape. “Bratt, just how bad was this fight?”

“I had to really chase after him, had to kinda barrel into him like a linebacker,” I said through gritted teeth. The second half of the stairs extending ahead of us felt more like a gauntlet than a little stride through my house. It wasn’t so much that I was in enormous amounts of pain, more that the adrenaline of the day was finally beginning to fade and emphasize my injuries.

I could feel my lats trembling. Something was definitely stuck in there. Shit.

With Marley’s help, I made it to my room. It still smelled of steam and soap from her shower. Even in my woozy haze, I couldn’t help but think of her as she rinsed the fear and trauma