Chapter 18 #2
Elena nodded frantically as if she were trying to draw the faith I had in her deep down into her spirit before she suddenly threw herself at me.
For a second I was shocked, then I gave into the embrace.
Let her hug me so zealously I thought she might squeeze the life out of me.
Eager gratefulness rolled out with her words. “I won’t, Brinley. I promise, I won’t.”
I hugged her back with as much fervor. “Just be careful doing it, okay?”
I tacked on the last because I couldn’t stand the thought that she might run out and do something reckless.
Because it wasn’t about taking unnecessary risks. It was about taking the ones that meant something.
I guess maybe it was time I started to listen to my own advice.
“How will I know?” she asked. Desperation poured out of her.
I curled my arms even tighter and whispered, “Your heart will know.”
She nodded in my hold, both of us hugging the crap out of each other before we broke apart when we heard a throat clearing from the doorway.
Caught off guard, Elena whipped around.
I guess I wasn’t so shocked to find Silas there, leaning against the jamb like the crooked king that he was, a paper bag dangling from a big hand.
Maybe somewhere deep inside myself, I’d felt him coming.
A shockwave that blasted my senses.
“What the hell, Silas?” Elena hissed. “That was mean, sneaking up on us like that.”
The arch of his brow nearly touched his hairline. “You’re in my room.”
Elena sent him a scowl. “Well, this is where Brinley is.”
I guess it was probably that second he noticed that she’d been crying, because his bare irritation flipped.
In a beat, his features were gripped by dread and worry.
An instant ball of simmering rage. His eyes darted to me.
Demanding to know what was going on.
If I was the one who was responsible for it.
Without a doubt, if he disliked me before, he’d hate me if I’d harmed her in some way.
I’d end up on the chopping block out back. I imagined there had to be some sort of torture chamber on the property.
You’ll have to find a better reason to off me, buddy.
Because I really wanted to wrap Elena up and protect her, too.
Crap, I guess Silas Mercer and I had something in common, after all.
Well, that and the scorching energy that blistered through the air whenever he got within a hundred-mile radius of me. I doubted something so powerful could be one-sided.
And okay, I really liked his little boy.
And Meems was pretty freaking great, too. I might have even developed a little soft spot for Brody.
Silas crossed his tattooed arms over his chest.
The man all sinewy strength and concern.
The expression he wore right then made it exponentially worse.
Being in his space and thinking he might be something different than the treacherous biker who’d wrangled my brother into a position he hadn’t intended.
“What happened?” Silas glanced between us with the demand.
Clearly, he thought whatever it was, he had to fix it.
Elena huffed as she slipped off the bed. “Am I not allowed to have a private conversation with my best friend?”
Best friend?
I didn’t think I’d ever been promoted so fast.
“Best friend?” Silas repeated exactly what I was thinking.
Elena lifted her arms out to the sides, palms up, a razzing accusation twisting across her face as she gestured around the room. “Do you see any other friends around here?”
“Wow, and here I thought I was special.” It came out playful.
She looked back at me with a grin. “Oh, believe me, Brinley, you are special. Even if every one of those girls who hang out at the club decided they actually liked me, you’d still be my number one.”
I gave her a teasing scowl. “I’d better be.”
“You can count on it.”
Then she reached out, the sudden playfulness we’d been tossing around caught up in something intense.
That grief and hope shining bright in her eyes.
I wavered for a beat before I took her offered hand. She swung it around. “Sometimes our hearts just know.”
Emotion raced my throat. Thick and sticky.
Then she gave my hand a little tug. “Why don’t you come stay in my room so you don’t have to be by this bossy brute?”
Silas pushed from the wall. “Not going to happen.”
Elena pouted. “Why not?”
He strolled in like a snarly viper. “Go to bed, Elena. We already talked about this.”
“Ugh, fine.” She turned back and wrapped her arms around me again.
Hard.
Her mouth at my ear.
“Thank you.”
“Anytime and always,” I whispered.
Big, big promises I shouldn’t make.
She nodded again before she pulled away, pranced over to her brother, and lifted up on her tippy toes to peck a kiss to his cheek.
Then she was out the door with it clicking shut behind her.
“Huh. I guess she wasn’t so mad, was she?” I mused quietly.
Silas didn’t answer. Instead, he stalked over, and he dropped the bag he was carrying to the floor on his way. A wraith slipping through the dancing shadows of his room.
Severity fired from him in a way I hadn’t seen it do before.
He leaned in close, and he planted both hands on the bed on either side of me.
I might as well have been taking a big gulp of whiskey-soaked cherries.
I needed to be careful, or I’d get drunk on that scent.
“What was going on in here?” he demanded in that growly, surly voice.
I blinked. Stunned for a moment by his proximity before I found my footing.
“Other than you being overbearing and bossy, as usual?” I sent him as much sass as I could muster.
Irritation rolled out of him. “With Elena.”
“We were just talking.”
“About what?”
Cripes, was this man nosey.
“That was bestie talk.” I lifted my chin like I was going to prove some kind of point.
Show him that Elena deserved at least a modicum of privacy.
Some grace and belief.
“I’m not playing, Brinley. You think I didn’t notice she was crying?”
I got his worry, but I didn’t think he comprehended that he was sheltering her in a way that left no room for growth.
“News for you, King,” I snarked, hoping he’d get the clue. “You don’t need to know every little move your sister makes.”
Some emotion I couldn’t quite pinpoint crashed out of him. Banged at the walls and battered against my chest.
“You don’t get it, do you? How dangerous these people are?”
The intensity that flash-fired from him blasted me back. My head hit the pillow, and a gush of air ripped from my lungs as Silas crawled over the top of me.
He pinned me without any part of us even touching.
“How could I when I have no idea who you’re talking about?” The words creaked.
It was a wonder I could even release them.
The normal green in his eyes glowed red. I should have been terrified by the sheer hatred they contained.
But I guess I was wholly distracted by the way it seemed muddled by fear.
By fierce loyalty.
A secreted part of him that I couldn’t discern.
Silas seemed to war.
Hesitating as he hovered high, his body pitching back and forth with the ruthless energy he radiated.
“There are monsters who roam this world, Brinley. People who are so wicked, who have no good in them, that I can’t consider them human. And it’s my job to protect the vulnerable from them.”
No doubt, he was talking about Elena.
The rest of his family.
His club.
Maybe even me.
But I was sure there was something about the statement that went so much deeper than that. Sure that he was leaving out something extraordinarily significant.
A pivotal piece of him that throbbed and begged from the shadows.
My heart jackhammered at my ribs.
So fast and quick it seemed to gather up the oxygen in the air and swirl it into a vortex.
A vortex that threatened to suck us both down into an endless pit.
Because I thought I could see it.
Silas’s own confusion. Both of us in disbelief at whatever this feeling was that whipped through the room.
Or maybe it was a normal encounter for the Crimson Crows’s president.
A nightly occurrence where he ended up perched over unassuming women laid out in his bed, and I was the only one here who felt like a hurricane was twenty seconds from hitting land.
Except, I was pretty sure I could hear his heart hammering, too.
Heat blistering from his flesh and flickering over mine like a fiery caress.
His reservations were so distinct I could taste them coating my lips.
One more thing about this man that could get me drunk if I wasn’t careful.
But I wasn’t feeling so careful right then.
This was straight recklessness.
Like maybe I was taking my own risk by not shoving him off.
Silas Mercer was the last man I should want.
But God, there was something about him that drew me in. Like maybe he was inviting me to crawl through his fractures and cracks.
The most terrifying part was I thought maybe he could crawl through mine.
“What does that mean?” I finally managed, going back to what he’d said.
I wanted to know how and why it was his duty to protect the vulnerable when I was pretty sure he was little less than the grim reaper blazing through town.
I needed to understand this.
“Why am I really here?” Here I was, the vulnerable one, all but pleading it.
In contemplation, Silas’s tongue stroked over his plush bottom lip.
Gaze burning a hole right through the middle of me.
A battle of trepidation and conviction crawling through his expression before he gritted, “Because I have a deal with your brother. I protect you as long as he delivers what I want.”
Okay, so I was completely at fault that I was crushed by his answer.
Gutted, really.
I set myself up for it, after all. Letting him swindle his way under my skin.
Bringing me here.
To his family.
Promising me he would protect me like it actually meant something to him.
Anger boiled to the top, snuffing out the hurt.
“So I am the means to an end? A bartering chip? A job?” Plainly, it wasn’t completely snuffed out considering my stupid, unreliable voice cracked on job.
I rammed my hands against his chest to shove him off.
A frenzy took me over as I fought to get away.
I had to get out of this place before he completely wrecked me.