39. Kai
Kai
“ Where is she ?”
I’m right behind Jenson as he explodes through the door of Ravenhall, the car doors left open behind us in our haste. River shoots up from where he’s sitting on the stairs, dragging his hand across his neck repeatedly.
Shut up. She fell asleep in the car. I put her in her room.
Shoving past Jenson, I frown. Is she okay?
“I think so.” He whispers it, but his face still shows the strain. “Aiden messaged. They got him.”
My tense muscles relax at that. Fucker won’t be approaching any more women in the dark.
“I’m going up there.”
I put my hand on Jenson’s arm when he tries to stalk past me. Let me.
His emotions are leaking out of him. Fear, and anger, and everything I’m feeling, but in such a way that he’s almost bleeding with his panic. Please.
At his nod, I’m already moving, passing River and leaving them talking in low tones as I jump up the stairs. Briar is out, River’s coat pulled over her where she sleeps on top of the sheets.
My eyes sweep over her, looking for injuries before I ease onto the bed beside her and tug her into my arms. Her sleepy murmur has the tension leaking from my body. “Kai?”
I can’t sign, not when I’m holding her. And I can’t let go of her, not yet. Briar turns, shuffling closer until her cheek is pressed against my pounding heart, her leg sliding between mine.
She sighs as if it’s exactly what she needed.
I don’t move until her breathing changes. A sleepy murmur as her eyes flutter open. “Hi.”
I press my lips to her forehead before pulling back, my eyebrows drawing down in a clear question.
“I’m okay,” she whispers. “Really. It just – it scared me. If River hadn’t come when he did…,”
She trails off, leaving the words unspoken. She doesn’t need to say it.
My heart beats faster at that. I sign with one arm, keeping the other wrapped around her.
We would find you. Always. I promise.
She smiles, but there’s something sad in it. I study her for clues before my chest tightens. He told you what happened?
It’s clear from the look in her eyes. She’s looking at me - not differently. But deeper . As if she sees a small, scared child instead of the man I am now. I still.
Briar’s nod is slow. “Not everything. But basics. You saved his life.”
I roll my eyes. That’s up for debate.
He was the one who carried me out of that building. Who stayed with me. A seventeen-year-old boy became a man overnight, with a broken kingdom and a traumatized child attached to him as a bonus.
Jenson never made me feel like a burden.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s not up for debate at all.
He saved me. My mother was not a good person.
I settle back. She was sick. In the head.
I never found out what exactly it was. But she never should have had a child.
I don’t remember a lot of my childhood. J and R found Emily after the fire to help me. There was no record of me anywhere.
Nobody ever knew I existed. Even my birthday is a random date, plucked from the air. A panicked response from River and Jenson when they realized it had been over a year since I’d been with them.
I didn’t even know what a birthday was when they explained it to me.
Briar’s eyes are wet . You don’t need to tell me.
But my hands keep moving.
It was always dark. She’d let me out at night to use the bathroom and eat, but she didn’t like me speaking.
My fingers skate over my skin. I learned to stay silent. And I never came out. Sometimes the space changed if we moved. She’d leave me until nobody was there.
I feel her hand slide under my shirt. She moves it up slowly, until her finger brushes the scars that cover my chest. “What made you come out that night?”
I hate thinking about that night. I didn’t know what I could hear. J… he wanted her to stop. And then there was a lot of shouting. The smell. It didn’t feel right. I opened the bedroom door and I couldn’t see anything. J woke up, and he carried me out.
“And you stayed,” she whispers, searching my face. “With him.”
I nod. It was the first time I felt safe.
I cup her face in mine, running my thumb over her cheek.
There is a lot of good out there too. I am not broken. Still here.
I am more than my beginnings. Jenson and River taught me that. But I’ve never truly felt it until now.
Because Briar doesn’t look at me as if I’m broken.
She pushes herself up until her lips meet mine. Soft, so fucking soft, just like they were in the car.
I’m more prepared this time. I capture her chin with my hand, tilting it until I can trace her lips with my tongue, taste her .
Briar makes a needy noise in her throat, pressing into me, and I push my arm beneath her until I can spread my hand over her back, needing her impossibly closer as our kiss deepens, our breathing unsteady.
I don’t push for anything else, and neither does she. This isn’t about sex. It’s something more.
She’s still here. So am I.
That’s all that matters.
When the door opens, Jenson enters silently, his eyes moving to her. Briar moves to sit up, but he shakes his head. “Stay where you are.”
She settles back into me as he kicks off his shoes. Jenson crawls onto the bed, lining himself against her back with Briar still facing me.
He kisses her shoulder, pressing his lips to her skin. His eyes close. “You’re alright.”
Not a question. As if any other answer is unacceptable.
She lets out a deep breath, pressed between the two of us. “I am now.”