Chapter 36
CHAPTER 36
NORTH CAROLINA
S eth’s eyes were heavy. His brothers’ faces fading into the darkness.
Heat flared into his face, but it wasn’t his own. The hand supporting him was like a furnace. His lungs pulled in air faster than he needed.
He couldn’t breathe.
He was suffocating.
Fingers trailed through his hair, and a low hum penetrated his mind.
He concentrated on the soft vibration along with the gentle touches.
“You’re okay,” she said above him.
It was Adria.
Except he wasn’t okay. He was spiraling.
Trapped. His body had betrayed him.
What happened?
Why was he like this?
“Kaydon’s in his room, and Bryson’s in the Blackroom.” Eric’s voice was muffled, like it was underwater.
Then he remembered. Bryson had hit Kaydon. His brothers were fighting.
His body tensed in the arms holding him .
Adria said, her voice close to him, “Just leave the sedative on the table.”
The haze felt like sludge as his mind pushed its way through.
“No,” he said, making his tongue work. “No drugs.”
No medication, no drugs. Hell, he barely drank.
“Seth?” Adria said.
Her forest-green eyes appearing in his vision.
Why did she always have to look so perfect?
“We are going for flattery, are we?” she said.
Shit, had he said that out loud?
Her hands cupped his face, her heat mixing with his.
“You with me?” her perfect lips mouthed.
Being in her arms, it shouldn’t feel this good. He had more than he deserved already.
He closed his eyes, blocking her delicate face from view.
“Not completely,” he said, reaching his hand behind his head.
It was wet and sticky.
“You’re bleeding,” she said. “We have to stop meeting like this.”
She said the last part in a whisper, her arms pulling him in closer.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “I didn’t handle it, should have helped, I ? —”
“STOP,” Adria said.
She was using that voice. The one that sent blood straight to his groin.
Fuck, he was so messed up.
“I’m in awe of you,” she said.
He groaned in protest. “I’m a mess.”
“You tried again,” she said, pushing a lock of hair off his forehead, leaving a trail of tingles in her wake.
“It’s so complicated with family. They are the ones that are supposed to love you unconditionally. And I know what it is like to give them your love without conditions, only to have it snatched from your grasps and treated not like a treasure meant to be kept safe, but as a trophy to be displayed.”
He opened his eyes, locking onto hers.
That night after the bar felt like a lifetime ago, yet here they were again. And once more, he had the unsettling feeling that she saw him.
Not just saw him—knew him.
Not because she had studied him.
But because she had been him.
“What you’re afraid of isn’t them,” Adria said softly. “Love bends, but it doesn’t break. Don’t let your past take them from you.”
Her mask was off.
Perfectly broken.
Except she had reassembled herself piece by piece.
He loved that.
Adria had shattered, and she didn’t have a Kaydon or Bryson to put her back together. She had put herself together alone.
A quiet, aching admiration stirred inside him. “How did you get past it?” He tried to hide the pain in his voice.
Tears welled in her green eyes, shimmering like broken glass. Seth didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Afraid if he did, the moment would shatter.
She looked away, inhaling slowly, steadying herself.
And when she looked back—her eyes were black.
“I found where he kept the trophies.”
She let the words settle between them, the weight of them crushing.
“Every one.”
A pause.
“And once I had them ? —”
Her voice was quiet. Final.
“I burned them to the ground.”
Seth woke up. His skin tingled with the phantom sensation of Adria’s arms around him .
Reality contrasted harshly with the delicate touches in his dream.
It had been twenty days since the attack. Adria was still refusing to leave her room.
Seth flopped onto his back, staring at the ceiling. He hadn’t liked Adria at first. She was supposed to be an enemy, except she never acted like one. And now, three weeks without her hands on him. He was surprised to say he missed it.
Sunlight filled the room, making retreating to his dream impossible. Instead, he put on a pair of sweatpants and headed for the dining room.
Kaydon’s voice was easy to hear as Seth came down the stairs.
“The waiting around is torture.”
Seth would have killed for some torture right now. Sexual or otherwise. The needs inside him demanded pain. After seeing Adria, he had thought of nothing else.
“I still don’t understand why we didn’t kill that fucker,” Kaydon said.
Seth agreed, entering the room. His hand twitched, thinking about how close he had come to turning that fucker off.
“We have been over this already,” Eric said, sounding as tired as he looked. “We can’t kill Jonathan unless it’s sanctioned.”
“Now he’s out there somewhere,” Kaydon said, waving his hands around.
Eric said, “When are the three of you going to learn? There are consequences for your actions?”
“And Jonathan’s actions? Don’t they have consequences?” Bryson asked.
Seth grabbed a small scoop of eggs and sat down at the far end of the table.
“He’ll have consequences,” Eric said, eyes darkening. “But that decision isn’t mine. ”
All four of them glanced at the ceiling.
Bryson said, “She needs a push. A reason to come out.”
Eric moved to the kitchen, his gait stiff, thirty-two stitches etched into his side.
The doc said he was lucky to be alive.
Crest had been three times his size, but Seth knew better than anyone that size didn’t mean shit.
When he had first arrived, Seth had written Eric off as too old for the job. But after the incident, after watching him hold his own, Seth had stopped questioning his age and started paying attention.
Eric wasn’t just some ex-military hardass—he actually knew his shit.
“She can get past this,” Kaydon said.
Bryson nodded, his voice uncharacteristically serious. “We just need to help her a bit.”
Seth’s head snapped up.
Since when did Bryson want to help Adria?
“What?” Bryson asked, noticing Seth’s eyebrow twitch.
“Nothing, just didn’t think you were in the business of helping the…” Seth glanced at Eric and tried to think of one of the tamer nicknames Bryson had called her, “Ice Queen.”
“I…” Bryson hesitated, taking in Seth’s face.
The two of them were not on warm terms, as currently, Seth was still pissed at him.
“You’d like her to come out, right?” Bryson asked, his voice hopeful.
Seth hated being mad at him.
Adria had said Bryson wasn’t his father, but Bryson hurt Kaydon, and he had almost killed Adria.
Seth was having a hard time getting past it.
“I don’t want you to help her because you think I want it,” Seth replied. Glancing out the window, he watched three new patrols walk by. Eric had tripled security, and now the entire estate was crawling with minions.
“I’ll talk to her,” Eric said, sitting down at the table, wincing.
“Maybe she needs someone that isn’t on her payroll?” Bryson said, his eyebrows raised.
“Meaning?” Eric asked.
“Meaning I can say things that you won’t,” Bryson replied.
What the hell did Bryson want to say to her?
“I’ve been helping with things, right?” Bryson said, “Let me try with this, too.”
That was another change. Since the attack, Bryson had been helping Eric with Adria’s family business. Filling in the gaps, while she was out of commission.
According to Kaydon, Eric was impressed with his initiative.
Eric took a long look at Bryson. Probably wanting to know the same thing as Seth. Why the sudden interest?
“I fucked up, okay. I was wrong about her. Give me the chance to tell her.” Bryson’s voice cracked, and the table fell into a stunned silence.
Eric was in a full glitch, fork midair halfway from his plate.
Finally, he shook his head, laughing.
“Sure, kid. You can help. And if you wanna talk to Adria alone, have at it. But it’s your funeral if you piss her off.”
Seth saw Bryson relax.
“And El, she is still working on things from her end,” Bryson said.
Eric took a sip of coffee. “You mean the girl you called while Adria and I were passed out?”
Not a girl.
His sister.
Seth wasn’t surprised that Bryson didn’t give him that information. Elena had left the family before Seth had gotten there.
Rumor was she was a drug addict who went on a bender and never came back. But Seth knew that wasn’t the actual story.
She had gotten pregnant with a person Callen found unfit. Being Callen, he didn’t just sit her down and have a little father-daughter heart to heart.
No, instead, he dragged his own daughter into a room full of men loyal to him and shut the door. By the time she came out, she was no longer pregnant.
The abuse was so depraved that two of Callen’s men risked their lives to help Bryson and Kaydon sneak her out.
She was a Winters though, through and through, and five years later, they heard she married one of the more ruthless leaders on the west coast.
Sota Kings.
He didn’t have a seat at the table, but he had power.
“El can use her contacts outside the family to help us gain the upper hand,” Bryson said. “With Jonathan out there, we need all the help we can get.”
Eric nodded. “If it helps Dri, I’m for it. But,” he pointed at Bryson, “if it hurts her, it’s your ass.”
“El will help. She’s good with that stuff,” Kaydon chimed, mouth full.
“On that note, I’m gonna go check on the troops,” Eric said, removing himself from the table.
Without him, the room fell into an uneasy silence.
Bryson continued to eat, and Seth pushed a piece of egg around his plate.
Kaydon said, “You gonna tell us why you really want to talk to Dri?”
Bryson looked up, his sharp gaze bouncing between the two of them.
“I told you. We have to get her out of that room.” He exhaled, rolling his shoulders as if trying to shake off something heavy. “El said the best way to protect her is to be trained on auction day. The only way that happens is if she leaves and starts working again.” He waved his hands dramatically. “That means we need to?—”
“Bullshit,” Seth interrupted, his tone cutting.
Bryson’s brows lifted.
“I don’t think you should talk to her,” Seth said, standing abruptly. “She deserves better than us. I think we should leave her alone.”
Seth stormed towards the exit.
“Kaydon,” Bryson commanded, and before Seth could make it, he felt Kaydon’s arms around him.
“Fuck off, Kay, leave me alone,” Seth said, struggling, even though he knew it was useless.
Kaydon pinned him to his chest, forcing him to look back at Bryson, who stood with his arms crossed, watching.
“You think she’s too good for us,” Bryson mused, stepping forward, “or too good for you ?”
Kaydon’s teeth nipped at Seth’s earlobe, making him shudder. He squirmed, grinding his ass against Kaydon’s growing erection.
A soft growl rumbled in Kaydon’s throat, vibrating into Seth’s chest.
Bryson gripped his chin, forcing Seth to meet his gaze. “You like her.”
“No,” Seth lied, tearing his eyes away.
A light slap landed on his cheek—not painful, but just enough to send heat spreading beneath his skin.
Bryson narrowed his eyes, stepping in closer. “Dammit, Seth, it wasn’t a question.”
Kaydon, lips brushing Seth’s ear, was the one to say it first. “I like her.”
Bryson blinked, surprised .
“Oh, what, like you didn’t see that coming?” Kaydon teased.
Seth’s voice was quiet. “Do you like her?”
Bryson shrugged, hands up. “She’s nice, and I don’t hate her, but I wouldn’t go that far.”
Kaydon smirked. “Nice?”
Bryson rolled his eyes. “Fine. She’s sexy. She winds me up. That’s all.”
It was more than that.
Seth knew it.
Kaydon knew it.
But no one was about to push Bryson into admitting what he wasn’t ready to say.
Instead, Seth curled a leg around Bryson, pulling him in closer, pressing them all together. “Maybe I do like her. Which is why if you talk to her, I want you to promise you won’t hurt her.”
The look Bryson gave him knocked the air from Seth’s lungs.
“I’m not gonna hurt her,” Bryson said, his voice softer now. “Who do you think I am?”
Your father.
My father.
The words were there. On the tip of Seth’s tongue. But they were unfair.
Bryson didn’t hurt people—not innocent ones, anyway.
And he was trying.
Adria said love was about giving, not asking for anything in return.
Seth swallowed and shook his head. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Bryson’s fingers slipped under Seth’s chin, lifting his face. “You don’t have to be sorry, Killer.”
His lips brushed against Seth’s, a soft tease of contact before Kaydon tightened his grip around him, caging them together.
Seth let himself sink into the warmth of them. The steady strength of their presence, the way they surrounded him. He wanted them to use him up—to pull him under until he didn’t have to feel anymore.
“We’re going to do this together,” Bryson murmured. “And what happened before? I don’t want to apologize for it.”
Seth tensed.
“Not because I wasn’t wrong—I was.” Bryson’s grip firmed. “But because it’s something I need to show with actions.”
Seth laughed softly, trying to shake off the weight in his chest. “Is that why you’re working?”
Bryson pressed a hand to his chest, mock-wounded. “I work.”
“I’ve never seen it,” Kaydon said. And Seth could feel him smiling.
Bryson scowled. “Well, I work now, okay? Get over it.”
“Does this mean we can make up?” Kaydon purred, dragging his tongue along the back of Seth’s neck. “Because I’m dying for a little playtime.”