Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
brINLEY
Night seeped into the blue and pink sky, deepening it in ashen hues.
But I guess the silence had seeped even deeper as we traveled farther into the property toward Silas’s house.
Winding through the thicket of trees set in a dusky haze.
I sat in the front passenger seat of a pickup truck, my bags stowed in the back.
I hadn’t been able to process what was happening in the time that Silas had stuffed all my belongings into my bags and had me packed.
While I’d stood there dazed.
Trying to make sense of what had happened today.
What should have been an easy trip into town to buy hair supplies and snacks had turned terrifying.
I could admit that.
When Silas had drawn that gun and told me to stay behind him, I’d been petrified.
Then I was pissed. Just freaking pissed that I was in this position. That I’d lost all control. That I was just supposed to concede to every command that Silas Mercer made since no one had done me the courtesy of telling me anything.
Then Silas had pretty much let on too much, and I’d been stunned silent while he’d flown like a maniac through my things.
Of course, the jerk had paused an extra beat while he’d tossed in my panties.
I hadn’t even been able to hurl any snark at him for doing it because I’d been too caught up trying to wrap my head around what he’d implied.
Elena had been kidnapped by whoever these guys were who were apparently after me?
And…and Dereck was involved?
A toil of sickness toppled over my guts.
I attempted to blink through the nausea. To stub the visions down because I couldn’t accept it.
My brother wouldn’t do something so atrocious.
Would he?
Silas glanced over at me as he maneuvered the wheel from the driver’s seat.
I really hated to look at him after what he said.
“Need you not to fight me on this. Because in my home? That’s where I protect the people I care about most.”
I knew rationally that statement didn’t apply to me.
It couldn’t.
He didn’t even know me, and I didn’t know him, and the few things I did, I sure as hell didn’t like.
Well, except I kind of wasn’t hating the sensation that licked up my arm and crawled to my cheeks when he stared across at me.
It felt fluttery and warm and nice.
God knew it shouldn’t.
Not when that dastardly gaze was fully intrusive and breaching all boundaries of human decency and respect for privacy.
He might as well have been flaying off layers of my flesh to see what was hidden underneath.
But still, nice.
I knew it made me an outright lunatic for even thinking it, but God, I was so tired of fighting all these battles on my own.
Who could blame me that it gave me a tick of comfort to maybe have someone else in my corner?
Probably every logical person out there, but guess what, there was no logic here.
Not when I was in this mess. Treading dark, dangerous waters that were bound to drag me to their depths.
Demons laughing raucously as they pinned me down so I would drown.
I just hadn’t quite put my finger on whether Silas was one of them or not.
I finally looked his way.
I knew better, and I had to barricade myself against the outright severity that blasted back.
It was truly unfair that he was so obscenely hot.
My stomach that had been in knots of dread flipped with something it shouldn’t.
He arched a sharp brow. “You good?”
An incredulous laugh arrowed off my tongue. “Am I good? I just saw you pull a gun on a man who may or may not have been out to hurt me, then you fly back here like a bat out of hell and throw all my clothes into my bags, demanding that I stay at your house, and you want to know if I’m good?”
“Yeah.” He offered it with a shrug.
Like it was just another simple hiccup in a regular day as he wound down the gravel lane through the dense thicket of trees.
I blew out a flustered sigh. “No, Silas, I’m not good.”
Hazel eyes found me again.
A flash of fire and an assuaging of fear.
Maybe I really was in shock because the second he looked at me it was tempered.
“I’m going to see to it that you are.”
“Is that a promise?” I tried to make it come out a taunt, but it was shaky.
Clearly, I was losing my touch.
A big, tattooed hand landed on my thigh, and he gave it a squeeze.
I nearly flew out of my skin.
“Yeah, Brinley. It is.”
Boundaries.
Boundaries.
Boundaries.
I silently chanted it like I could erect them between us.
But did I want them?
Did I want him to stop touching me?
I shouldn’t feel like this—especially with a man like him—but part of me liked it.
Wanted it.
The buzz and the burn that lit every time he came into my space.
Apparently, I was becoming as reckless as Dereck.
The woods finally broke open to a two-story house nestled in the trees. A second, smaller one sat to the left, the two buildings separated by a few hundred yards.
The larger one was painted powder blue with white trim.
A quaint porch sat out front, decorated with four rocking chairs and a mishmash of potted flowers.
It looked like a granny’s old house rather than a biker’s lair.
But I supposed that lair was hidden at the end of the hall I’d gone running from last night.
Mind-jarring since that felt like a lifetime ago.
Going from the terror that Silas was set on butchering me into pieces to him bringing me to his house after he’d implied that in some way I was important to him.
As a job, I was sure.
I bet I was nothing more than a bargaining chip.
Insurance promising Dereck would fulfill whatever oath he had made to Silas.
I wouldn’t be of any value to him if I were dead, and I wasn’t ignorant enough not to know something else was definitely going on here.
Silas pulled the truck to a stop up near the front and one second later, the screen door blew open.
Elena came barreling out with little Kai in her arms.
Both their faces gleamed with smiles and excitement.
That crater inside my chest that normally only accommodated my dread and worry over my brother expanded in a fit.
Pressing at the vacant places.
An older woman shuffled out behind them. Short and plump with those same sage eyes threaded with blues and browns shining with something that looked a whole lot like mischief.
“And here’s the welcome committee.” Silas muttered it with affectionate irritation.
I chewed at my bottom lip. “I’m not so sure this is a good idea.”
I mean, was I really supposed to stay here? With them?
“I thought we already discussed this?”
If he meant growling at me exactly what was going to happen, then I guess he could consider it a discussion.
At least he’d said ‘please’.
“I still don’t know what I’m doing here.”
“Letting me take care of you, that’s what.”
I huffed in frustration, then Silas pushed toward me, leaning over the console. It made my heart take off at a sprint.
“You let go a little, and you just might find that you like it.”
It was packed with innuendo, and I nearly choked on the lust that suddenly addled the air.
“It’s not going to happen, King.” How I managed to make it sound like I was disgusted by the prospect, I’d never know.
Silas chuckled a dark sound as he pulled away, taking my breath with him.
Every intimidating inch of him was written in arrogance.
The tattoos on his arms and neck seemed to crawl with the same crude appeal as his eyes watched me with right then.
“You sure about that?” The words scratched across me. Silken sandpaper.
Crappity crap, this man was dangerous.
And not in that ‘he’ll pull a gun in broad daylight and raze his enemies’ sort of way.
It was in a ‘Brinley could make very terrible, heart-decimating mistakes with him’ kind of way.
I could already feel my ribs creaking under the pressure.
I needed to remember the first was just as valid. If Dereck didn’t come through with whatever Silas wanted, I’d likely end up with a blade to my throat.
“Very,” I tossed out like I’d rather eat a piece of gum stuck to my shoe and threw open my door, needing to get the hell out of the confined space I was sharing with him before I combusted.
By the time my heels hit the ground, Elena’s voice was carrying on the wind, except she’d lowered it like some kind of bro who was prepping for a rager.
“Brinley in the house!”
An impetuous giggle erupted. Reckless beyond measure.
Apparently, when my life was at stake, I had no problem laughing. I guess sometimes the only way people survived was laughing their way through the treacherous things.
“Bwinwey house!” Kai waved a fist in the air, clearly trying to mimic his aunt.
That hole inside me throbbed all over again with the way he said my name.
Precious.
I tried to fight against it. Not to let my ribs expand to make extra room, but I figured that type of fight would prove fruitless.
I glanced over the hood of the truck so I could gauge Silas’s reaction to seeing his son after a long day.
I’d be a liar if I said I hadn’t really liked the sight of it yesterday.
Proof that he might not be all cold blood and killer.
His expression morphed.
Adoration and loyalty poured out, mixed with something that looked a whole lot like terror.
Nothing cold about it, but there was still something grim congealing the surface.
Clearing my throat, I threw my arms up like I was arriving to the party and I hadn’t been dragged over here against my quickly faltering will. “That’s right, Brinley in the house!”
What I was doing, I didn’t know, but I’d always been a fake it till you make it kind of girl.
No use in changing that now.
“Party time, baby!” Elena shouted from the porch. “We already have dinner ready, then we can watch a movie or listen to music or shop online, or whatever you want to do. I’m about to lose my mind from boredom.”
It sounded exactly like my kind of rager.
Silas shut his door. “Brinley isn’t here for you to play house with, Elena. And wasn’t the party enough for you last night?”
“Letting me out of my cage for two hours is hardly going to break the deep-seated boredom that has sunk into my bones.”
Her droll tone promised she was on the verge of death.