Free Relentless (The Hero Agenda, #2) by Tera Lynn Childs, Tracy Deebs

want me to talk to him?” Deacon asks.
    “No. I’ll go.” I’m the one who upset him after all. I glance at Jeremy. “Find a list of campus labs within driving distance. Then the rest of you figure out who else needs to go. As few of us as possible,” I stress. “With Rebel down and Deacon still recovering, we’re doing a quick in-and-out, smash-and-grab routine.”
    “On it,” Jeremy says.
    “Yeah,” Dante agrees. “We’ll figure it out. Go do…whatever you have to do.”
    Whatever I have to do. That’s one way of putting it, I suppose. Too bad I have no idea what that is.
    The one thing I do know is that sitting here isn’t going to solve any of our problems. So, with my friends watching—all with varying degrees of trepidation that do nothing to set my mind at ease—I push back from the table.
    Cross the living room.
    Knock on the half-open bedroom door.
    There’s no answer, but then I don’t really expect there to be. Not when he’s this angry.
    Figuring no guts, no glory, I push open the door and step gingerly inside.
    Draven is on the other side of the room, staring out the window. His shoulders are hunched, his hands are in his pockets, and he’s all but vibrating with a combination of rage and sorrow.
    The rage I can handle. It’s the sorrow that has my hands shaking and sickness blooming in my belly. The last thing I ever wanted was to make Draven sad. He’s had enough sadness in his life, and the idea that I’m contributing to it, that I’m just one more thing that makes him feel bad about himself, makes me burn with regret.
    It’s that regret—that fear that I’ve hurt him—that pulls me to his side.
    That has me wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my chin on his shoulder.
    That has me whispering, “I’m sorry,” into his ear.
    He shakes his head and shifts just enough that I fear he’s going to pull away. He doesn’t though. Instead he shrugs. “Nothing for you to be sorry about.”
    “There is,” I argue, tightening my arms around him. “I upset you, and I never meant to do that. It’s not that I don’t trust you to take care of me, Draven. It’s not that I don’t think you’re strong enough or don’t have kickass powers or won’t do whatever it takes to make sure we’re all safe, because I know that you are, you have, and you will.”
    “Then what?” he demands, whirling to face me. “We haven’t seen each other in nearly two weeks, and the first chance you get, you want to run off with your hero ex-boyfriend? You want his help instead of mine? I get it. You’ve known him longer. You trust him more than you trust me. But—”
    “Is that what you think? That I trust him more?”
    He raises a brow in obvious challenge. “Don’t you?”
    “There’s nobody I trust more than you to have my back. Don’t you see? That’s why I want you to stay here, why I want to keep you out of danger until you’ve recovered from Rex’s treatment, until your powers are back at full. It’s because—”
    I break off, unsure if I should say the words that are racing to the tip of my tongue. Things between Draven and me have happened so fast, and while it feels good and real and like it matters, I don’t know if it’s like that for both of us. Don’t know if he feels the same way, if saying the words out loud might ruin everything.
    “Because what , Kenna?” He looks frustrated as he shoves a hand through his hair, face pale and eyes tortured.
    That’s what does it for me, what has me saying the words that have been inside me for days. For weeks. I can’t stand the idea that he’s hurting—and that I’m causing any of it. “It’s because I’ve fallen for you, Draven.” I blink back the tears that are suddenly blurring my vision. “I love you.”
    For long seconds, I’ve fallen into an abyss. Like all the air has been sucked out of the room, and with it, the ability for my words to make any sound.
    Or maybe that’s just me gasping for breath,