Chapter 16 #2
Silas rolled his eyes, so casual as he strolled toward the back of his truck. “Dramatic much?”
“Bossy much?” she hollered back.
Another reckless giggle shot from me as I moved for the bed to grab my overnight bag since Silas seemed insistent on carrying my suitcases.
“What are you laughing about?” he rumbled under his breath.
“Your sister is both shy and a badass. Don’t blame me for loving it.”
He sighed, his voice contained so only I could hear. “The shy part is because of me. Keeping her in that cage.”
“Because you’re overprotective?”
I winced when I said it, quick to remember what he’d just told me.
These faceless bad guys I hadn’t known existed had abducted Elena.
My spirit clenched as old visions threatened to flash, my soul sick with the idea that Elena might have been tormented the same way.
“No such thing as overprotective, Brinley.” Hate ground from his mouth. “Not when you know the type of fiends that are walking this world. I’ve been trying to protect her since she was a little girl. Turns out, I’m not always so good at it.”
“I don’t believe that.”
Was that true?
“Doesn’t matter what you think.”
It was a sudden dismissal of the subject as Silas dropped the tailgate, grabbed the duffel and slung the strap over his shoulder, then pulled out the suitcases, taking one in each hand.
“I am capable of carrying something.”
“Unnecessary,” was all he gave before he went clomping his way around the truck and toward the porch steps.
His strides were so long I thought I’d have to employ my old high school track skills in order to catch up.
I probably needed to rethink my shoe choices while I was here, but honestly, that was not going to happen.
The additional height gave me an extra boost of confidence.
When I towered over someone, it made me feel like they couldn’t touch me.
Grievously, Silas still had me by three inches when I had them on.
I marched five feet behind him, head held high while my nerves zipped and zinged.
Firing in every direction.
Both apprehensive and kind of excited by the prospect of being here.
Elena’s gaze sparked beneath the dingy light that bled down from the sconces on either side of the door.
“Why does this feel like I have a long-lost friend moving in?” She sounded a little teary-eyed when she said it.
Part of me thought I should rip off the Band-Aid and remind her that I wouldn’t be staying here for that long, but something about it just felt mean.
So instead I tittered like a fool again, trying to inject some lightness into my voice as I climbed up the steps behind Silas, doing my best to avoid looking at the man’s perfect ass. “Are you trying to convince me this is some sort of mountain vacation?”
“What do you mean? Any time with me is a vacation,” she said, deadpan.
A chuckle rolled, then my gaze was gliding to the older woman standing to the left as she muttered, “My, my, my. It’s about time you brought her around. I’ve been dying to get a look at this one. I’m Meems.”
“Isn’t she so pretty, Meems? I told you.” Elena effused it at me with that gleam in her eye.
I wasn’t exactly shy, but I was still ducking my head under their scrutiny.
“Oh, more than pretty, I’d say.”
Silas grunted. “You two mind your manners. Brinley is our guest.”
Their manners? Had the man met himself?
And guest?
Meems tsked with an arch of a drawn-in brow. “Says my ruffian. I’m surprised you haven’t run her off yet.”
Oh, I tried to run, all right.
And her ruffian?
She broadcast it like he was a cute little boy tussling in the yard rather than king of whatever organized crime racket he was heading.
He didn’t answer her, only dropped in to peck a kiss to her cheek.
Who was this guy?
Then he swiveled, doing the same to Kai and making the toddler squeal, then he planted one at Elena’s temple.
Never setting those bags down when he did.
This was no time for my heart to go pitter-patter.
Without saying anything else, Silas maneuvered around to open the screen door, kicking it wide so he could stride in.
Elena gave me a purely anticipatory look, her shoulders hiking to her ears and her teeth clamping down on her bottom lip to contain her thrill.
I really shouldn’t feel any of it, but apparently, it was catching.
“Welcome to our home, Brinley,” Meems encouraged in a soft, raspy voice. “I hope you feel safe and supported here. Loved.”
“We got wove.” Kai drawled it in his little baby babble.
A surprised, gooey breath left me.
I hadn’t had love inside my house in a long, long time.
My spirit moaned. Missing it, only a faint inkling of recollection of what that’d been like.
“You need something, you come to me.” Meems gave me a pointed look. “Woman to woman. These hoodlums running around here don’t know their hands from their asses.”
It was all a tease, and I choked over her words.
“Thank you,” I managed around the rocks in my throat.
“If you all could stop badgering Brinley so I can show her to her room, that’d be great.” Exasperation colored Silas’s voice as he hollered from inside.
“Badgering? Hardly.” Elena scoffed as she pulled back open the screen door.
It appeared maybe he wasn’t king around here.
Then she turned to me with a grin. “After you.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled again, then I ducked through the door.
Yep.
Just as expected.
This place screamed Grandmacore.
Floral furniture and lace doilies and some truly uncomfortably-posed pictures on the walls.
And there it was—yarn and knitting sticks sitting on the arm of the couch.
“This way,” Silas grunted as he marched up the stairs.
I hurried up behind him.
He hit the landing, gestured with his chin to the only door on the left. “Meems’s room.”
He turned right down the long hall that seemed to run the full length of the house on the upper floor.
He ticked his head toward the first door on the right. “Brody’s room, my younger brother who is trying to patch in. For lack of better words, he’s a goddamned nuisance, so just ignore him.”
I gulped.
“Noted.”
“Opposite him is an extra bathroom.”
He kept moving. “At the very end of the hall is Elena’s room.”
He stopped at the two doors that sat between Brody’s at the front of the hall and Elena’s at the end.
“Kai’s room is here on the left. Mine is this one on the right.” He pushed open that door and strode in with my bags.
Blood careened through my veins.
I dashed to catch up to him, stalling out in the doorway because I was knocked senseless by the overpowering scent of him.
His presence multiplied.
I worried if I stepped through his door, I would be the one who was bathing in whiskey and cherries.
A giant bed sat against the right wall.
Drenched in black.
Shocker.
A dresser was opposite it, and there was a couch directly across from the door, tucked under a picturesque window that overlooked the front of the house.
He dumped my suitcases on the floor and jutted his chin at the door to the left side of his bed. “Bathroom and closet are through there. Use what you need.”
“Oh, I don’t want to take your room from you, Silas. I can sleep on the couch.”
Look at me, being charitable.
He unwound the duffel’s strap from his shoulder and let it drop to the massive bed.
Then he was stealing his way back to me.
Stalking, really.
That energy flashed, that tumbly thing in my stomach that I absolutely couldn’t feel hurtling me straight over a cliff.
He stopped an inch away, and I inhaled a frantic breath as he leaned close to my ear.
Only that breath was gone when he muttered, “Oh, you’re not taking my room, Brinley. I’ll be right here beside you. Not about to let you out of my sight.”