Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
She squeezed my hand a bit tighter. “Trauma does that to you. It tries to steal the joy from your future, too.”
Her voice shifted to a desperate wheeze. “You can’t let it.”
A tear slipped free. I didn’t even know it was there. I’d never felt so vulnerable or exposed in all my life.
It appeared the harsh façade I normally wore had been left at this house’s front door.
Part of me wanted to run out and grab it. Don it the way I did my clothes and shoes.
Protect myself the only way I knew how.
But Elena was looking at me with her spirit splayed wide, soft hazel eyes shining with moisture, and she was hugging that little boy.
I was still reeling from the bare glimpse Silas had given me into what the child had likely suffered.
“Meems is right, just like you were last night,” Elena prodded, dragging me back to when I’d been trying to give her encouragement. And there they were, turning around and doing the same for me.
“Your heart will know,” she emphasized.
Then she laughed a tinkling sound. “And I’m not saying it’s my brother who will make you feel that way because that man is about as overbearing as they come and you can do a million times better…”
Playfulness ridged her brows, and I knew she wasn’t truly trashing Silas since she grinned this wry, overindulgent grin as she mumbled out of the side of her mouth, “But I can’t help but feel a little somethin’ somethin’ when the two of you are in the room together.”
“Oh, you aren’t the only one,” Meems agreed. “Two of them are nothing but flame and gasoline.”
“You should have felt it, Meems, when Silas came waltzing back late last night and I was in there having a chat with our Brinley? The energy was as heavy as a bomb.”
Kaboom.
Obliterated.
Just like I’d worried.
“There’s nothing between us,” I defended on a shaky breath. “I’m only here until we get this thing sorted with my brother.”
Whatever the hell that was.
“Mmhmm…well, you might as well take a little good while you’re here.” It was pure suggestion out of the mouth of Silas’s grandmother.
I choked over a disoriented laugh. Was she actually suggesting what I thought she was?
But I didn’t have a grandmother or an anyone to give me crap, and I’d be a liar if I denied that I loved it just a little bit.
And that was the whole problem.
I was pretty sure I could love far too easily when it came to them.
Reckless girl, just begging to get her heart bashed in a little more.
I lifted my chin and tried to shove all the emotion down, playing it light, an attempt at a joke as I forced out the rebuttal. “I think I’ll have to pass on that certain kind of indulgence, thank you very much. I’m usually a safe road kind of girl.”
And I wasn’t about to allow myself to be a doormat anymore.
I forced a giant grin. “But I will take a little something of whatever you’re getting ready to bake over there.”
Meems chuckled as she started to waddle back toward the kitchen area. “We’ll see about that. But at least you’re taking a little of the good that I have to offer.”
Then she paused and looked back. “It doesn’t matter where it comes from, Brinley. The good. The joy. Don’t be afraid of it. Don’t shun it. Live it.”
I stood there dazed for a moment before I was being jolted back in surprise when chubby hands were suddenly reaching for me.
Kai basically jumped out of Elena’s hold and into mine. Giggling and wiggling as he wrapped his little arms around my neck.
His weight so perfect and right, and my heart was getting filled to capacity again. If I wasn’t careful, it would burst from the pressure.
Then he edged back so he could see my face, his tiny palm patting his chest. “My Bwinwey?”
More of that insecurity. More of his fear that he was going to be forgotten or left behind. But in spite of it, he was still brave enough to ask for what his little soul needed.
One of my hands curled up to cup the back of his head as I held him close, and I pressed a kiss to his temple, fighting the words that broke loose in a jagged whisper. “Yeah, baby, your Brinley.”
TWENTY-THREE
SILAS
I planted my palms on the rugged table inside of Church. It was the middle of the day, but darkness still reigned in the windowless, cavernous room, the shadows barely broken by the faint glow of the chandelier that dangled from the ceiling.
Phoenix and Trevan were on either side of me as I angled toward the five Crows who had gathered on the opposite side.
Everyone remained standing.
Still itching and twitching with the violence that charged through their veins.