Damian's Assassin

"Darian! Are you okay?" she asked, surprised and concerned.

A look at Dusty's tight features revealed he was furious. She looked away fast for fear of the sizzling blue gaze and dropped to her knees in front of Darian, pulling his hands from his face to see the wound. Dusty stalked off and slammed the bedroom door. They looked after him before she met Darian's gaze. The wound healed itself.

"Are you okay?"

"I broke all the rules. Dusty's gonna kill me," he whispered, stricken. His eyes watered, and he shook his head, shivering. He smelled of ocean water and blood.

If he'd been talking about any other man, she would have doubted his words.

"C'mon. Let's at least get you dried off. Then we'll have cookies, okay?"

He nodded and stood. Her eyes went to the bedroom, and she walked the opposite direction to the laundry room and ruffled through Dusty's neatly folded laundry.

"Go change," she said, handing a towel, T-shirt, and jeans to the distraught man.

He obeyed, and she went to the kitchen. She'd automatically made enough dinner for three after cooking for Kyle and Jonny for three months. She put a heaping plate in the oven and returned to the living room with cookies and milk for Darian.

He was hugging Sunny as if she were the only thing in the world that mattered. He reminded her of Jonny when her brother had learned of his father's death last summer. She'd never seen anyone cry as hard as he did. Sensing similar distress in the man before her, she sat down.

"Anything you wanna talk about?" she asked.

"I ruined his life."

"I doubt that, Darian," she said, holding back a smile. "What happened? Why were you guys covered in seaweed?"

"I have issues," he said, pointing to his head. "Sometimes they overwhelm me, and I kinda go crazy. I went sailing."

"In the middle of a tropical storm?"

"Yeah. It's stupid."

"Darian!" she exclaimed. "And Dusty fished you out?"

"Yeah."

"You shouldn't do things like that."

"I don't care what happens to me," he said stubbornly.

"But you care what happens to Dusty, don't you? I mean, it's one thing to hurt yourself but to hurt someone else is just wrong!"

"He's going to kill me anyway."

"Dusty cares about you or he wouldn't have come after you. You really shouldn't do things like that," she repeated, reminded of similar conversations with Jonny. "It's kinda selfish, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't hurt him on purpose," he said, looking even more upset. "I figured when he found out I ruined his life, he'd kill me anyway."