Chapter Six
Braxten
“I don’t trust her.” Knox’s hard voice breaks the silence around the kitchen table. “Something isn’t right with her story.”
He has voiced this from the beginning. Knox doesn’t trust anyone, especially females, but what he fails to realize is Alice isn’t just any stranger, she’s not just any girl. Not to me.
“She’s the victim here, Knox, remember? Not the enemy.”
“How can you be so sure of that?” he counters. “Why our land, Brax? Why does she remember her name and nothing else? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It doesn’t have to make sense,” I fire back. “I’ve seen the scars, man. She isn’t faking shit!”
The reminder of what I saw earlier, the deep, jagged grooves embedded into her skin, has rage igniting in my veins all over again. There is no doubt Alice has suffered at the hands of a ruthless monster for a long time.
The fear in her eyes is as real as the scars she bears. As real as the vengeance that burns in my blood.
“I have to agree with Braxten here,” my father says, backing me up. “I don’t believe this girl has any malicious intent toward this family. I think she’s even more lost and confused about this than the rest of us.”
“That may be true, but we still need to look at this from all angles,” Justice adds, speaking up for the first time. “There are a lot of scenarios to consider, one of them being that this very well could have nothing to do with our family. Her ending up near our property could be pure coincidence.”
“Then why would she say what she did to Brax?” Knox points out doubtfully. “She acted like she knew him.”
Justice shrugs. “She was disorientated. She could have spewed anything in that moment.”
“I don’t think so,” I cut in, my gut telling me different. “There’s something more here. I know it. I feel a connection to her which doesn’t make any sense because I know I’ve never seen her before.”
No matter how much of my past I have fought to block out, I’d never forget a face like hers.
“Maybe it’s more of an understanding than a connection,” my father voices thoughtfully. “If anyone can understand what this poor girl is going through right now, you boys can.”
That’s true. I know what it’s like to lose everything, to be alone and have no one, and now after seeing the scars, I can relate to her even more.
“I’ve decided we need more help with this,” my father continues. “More eyes and resources. Which is why I’ve contacted Agent Jameson.”
Ryder Jameson is the FBI agent who helped us expose the corruption of the founding families. He can be trusted and has resources that other law enforcements don’t.
“I gave him the little we had to go on and he said he would do some digging. In the meantime, we keep our heads up and eyes open. Trust no one and take no chances.”
“This is exactly what I’ve been saying all along,” Knox bites out. “So why are we trusting her? We’re not even considering that she could be the enemy.”
His continued, misplaced blame sends my temper flaring. “Would you knock it the fuck off already?” I bellow. “You don’t want to trust her, Knox, fine, but then trust me, goddamn it. I wouldn’t have brought her here if I thought for one second she was a threat to us.”
His jaw flexes in anger, cold, hard eyes unforgiving, but among his anger is fear. Fear of losing more than he already has. I know exactly where it stems from, the bond that has already taken a hit, one we all made for his sake.
Since Justice has left the circle, the bond hasn’t been the same. Not nearly as frequent, but on nights when my brother’s demons come back to haunt him, that’s when the bond reforges.
I’m all he has left.
The reminder is like a bucket of cold water, dousing the anger burning beneath the surface.
“She’s just like us, man.” My voice softens as I try to make him understand. “How we were only years ago. Alone, scared. Only she has no one while we had each other. We need to protect her. Like dad protected us.”
“What if she isn’t ours to protect?” Justice says.
My gaze cuts to his. “What are you talking about?”
“What if she already belongs to someone else, Brax, have you thought about that? Maybe she was taken from them and they are out there looking for her right now.”
I have considered the possibility, but it makes no difference to me.
“If that is the case they didn’t take very good care of her to begin with, did they?
They lost their chance. Now it’s mine and for as long as I’m still breathing I will make sure no one ever hurts her again.
” The vow rolls off my tongue with the same conviction I feel all the way to my core.
It sends Knox firing off like a loaded gun. “This is the fucking problem.” He points at me, expression furious. “You aren’t thinking clearly. You’re thinking with your dick, not with your head.”
He’s wrong, it’s so much more than that, but how do I explain the protectiveness I feel over her when I can’t even understand it myself?
“Fuck this, I need a smoke.” He pushes out of his chair, knocking it to the floor before storming out the back door, but not before I see that fear in his eyes for a second time and it has guilt threatening to swallow me whole.
“I got him.” Justice stands and follows him out into the darkness of the shadows; a place where we have walked with our brother time and time again.
I drop my head in my hands, regret weighing heavily on me.
My father grips my shoulder, strong and steady. “You’re doing the right thing, son. I’m proud of you for taking care of this girl.”
I turn my head, meeting his intelligent gaze that always seems to hold all the answers. “They don’t understand. They can’t. They didn’t find her the way I did. They haven’t seen her the way I have. She needs me, Dad. I can’t turn my back on her.”
“Of course you can’t.” He turns his chair, facing me head on.
“Look, your brother is scared of change and there has been a lot of that lately in our family. It will take some time for him to adjust, but he will be okay. He’s stronger than both you and Justice give him credit for. He always has been.”
I’m not so sure about that, but he doesn’t know what we do, doesn’t know the demons that lurk within my brother, something that Justice and I have always battled alongside him. When the three of us are together, he’s less afraid. If he loses that, I’m not sure what will happen to him.
“It will all work out, you’ll see,” he adds confidently. “Right now, you just worry about being there for that girl and I’ll take care of the rest of y’all.”
It’s what he’s always done. Taken care of us, even when we didn’t make it easy for him. He didn’t have to love us but he did. A stranger, a man who never shared the same blood, let alone skin color, but he loved us more than anyone ever had. More than our own flesh and blood.
I peer back at him as one question emerges. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course,” he says without hesitation.
“Why did you do it?”
Confusion slips over his face before I quickly elaborate.
“Why did you take us in all those years ago?”
He sits back in his chair, expression sobering with the weight of the question.
“No one wanted us. Not even our own parents. Hell, my mother threw me in a fucking garbage can and left me to rot.” The words leave me on a bitter laugh, tasting like acid on my tongue and infiltrating my chest with the pain I will always carry, despite never even knowing the woman. “But you, you took us in. Why?”
Dark eyes that are always filled with understanding hold mine, conveying a love that I’d never known until him. “Well, you know what they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
His words slam into my chest like a sledgehammer, making my throat swell like a motherfucker. My jaw hardens as I fight to reign in that emotion.
His hand grasps the back of my neck, forcing me to acknowledge what’s prevalent in his eyes.
“You listen to me, boy. Blood means nothing, but love, love means everything, and loving you boys is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.
You were always meant to be mine, Braxten, and nothing will ever change that. Ya hear?”
I nod because I’m unable to form any words at the moment. Leave it to my father to put it into perspective. To remind me that all the pain we endured was for something. Actually, it was for everything. For the family I was denied at birth.
“Come here.” He pulls me out of the chair and into his arms for a hard hug. “I love you, son.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
He claps me on the back before pulling away. “Now go on and get out of here. Go take care of that girl. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I leave out the front door, forgoing a goodbye to my brothers. I’ll worry about them tomorrow. I’ve kept Alice waiting long enough.
Darkness shrouds me as I walk across the property, my thoughts and emotions raw from the aftermath at what just transpired in the kitchen.
Between all the unanswered questions when it comes to Alice, and this new rift between my brother and me, I’m not sure where to go from here or how to make it right for us all.
All I know is I will find a way, I won’t turn my back on either of them.
My turmoil takes a fast turn when I come up to the house and find Alice sitting in one of the rocking chairs, her head bowed as she silently reads a book that lays open on her lap.
The porch light casts a glow on her that makes her look every bit of the lost, lonely girl I know she is. Something my brothers don’t see.
She’s so engrossed in the book that she doesn’t hear my approach. Not until my boot lands on the first step, the wood creaking beneath my weight.
Her head snaps up. “Braxten.” My name floats past her lips soft and startled. “You scared me. I didn’t hear you walk up.”
“Sorry. I didn’t want to interrupt. You look engrossed in that story.”
She tucks a stray blonde strand behind her ear. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
I take a seat in the other chair across from her. “What are you reading?”