Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
brINLEY
Four days had passed since I started staying in Silas’s house. Four days of sleeping with him wrapped around me like that was where he was meant to be.
He said it was so he could protect me. Be right there to stand in front of any threat that might make itself known, but I was pretty sure there wasn’t a soul who could make it onto the property who wasn’t supposed to be there and come out with their lives intact.
I was highly doubting that I was in any actual danger within the compound walls.
The only real threat was the man who still wouldn’t budge or give me answers, but who was steadily chipping away at every reserve.
The brittle bricks guarding my spirit and body crumbling a little more with each harsh, vicious look.
I didn’t know if it was those or the gentle ones that were getting to me more.
The man both predatory and tender.
I had no idea what to make of him.
The contrast and complexity.
The intimidation and the care.
The way he’d tended to my foot then stood up and walked out like he couldn’t stand to be in the same room as me for a second longer.
The brash, greedy way in which he talked to me and the softness of his breath that he’d exhale into my nape when he was holding me.
He didn’t push it beyond that.
He’d crawl into bed long after I’d fallen asleep, the man a vat of whiskey and cherries that I’d float in for the night, and he’d be gone when I woke each morning.
Without fail, I’d be sticky and sweaty and pulsing with need.
My dreams had become both vivid and surreal.
In them, I allowed him to touch me.
To take me.
To own me the way he’d admitted that he wanted to.
I didn’t know how it’d happened, but I’d allowed myself to fall into the strange, terrifying comfort of this place.
Every free minute was spent hanging out in the kitchen with Elena, Kai, and Meems. Falling for them more with each beat.
Care coming on severe every time I glanced their way, that foreign sense that they felt the same way when they looked at me.
Like I mattered, and it kept filling up places that I hadn’t realized had been empty.
I probably would have completely submitted to the comfort of this place—convinced myself nothing was amiss and I was here by choice and not because I’d been forced to be—if it wasn’t for the fact I still hadn’t heard from Dereck.
The only reason I knew he was still alive was because I asked Silas and he told me. It pissed me off that those bubbles were no longer popping up to at least give me an indication that he was still breathing every time I stared at my latest unanswered text.
He was such a jerk.
So thoughtless.
And the longer I was there, the more my anger grew toward my little brother.
It wasn’t right, the way he used me. I wanted to take care of him. Support him. But how the hell was I supposed to do that when he never met me in the middle? I mean, had I even crossed his mind since he’d dropped me here?
I was still watching and waiting for answers, listening in close to conversations and trying to pick up on any intonation or trace.
Hoping one of the bikers at the shop would slip and reveal something they weren’t supposed to.
It turned out, the Crimson Crows were freaking tight-lipped. No sinking ships around here.
So, now I sat at the desk behind the counter in the office, inputting a stack of accounts receivable invoices and trying to make them match up against the payments Torque & Talon had received.
It was kind of a mess.
The move seemed to be the culprit of the disaster, like they’d just picked up and shoved everything into boxes without care or thought.
It didn’t exactly sit right since over the week that I’d been working here, I had come to realize that these bikers actually took the business seriously.
Without fail, they showed up at eight each morning and worked in the shop for hours.
Was it dumb that I’d taken some sort of pride in sorting out their financials? Wanting to help Silas? To fix something for him when I could feel the weight of burden pressing down on his shoulders?
Probably, but at least it kept me busy.
Kept me from succumbing to the frenzy that buzzed at the back of my spirit and mind. A distraction from the dread and worry that sat like a barbed-wire ball at the backside of my heart.
It didn’t matter that I could hear hoots and laughter and distorted voices seeping through the brick walls of the office.
I could still feel the tension that tugged and curdled the air. Every Crow carved in a razor-sharp edge.
Like something was coming.
A dull threat on the horizon.
Each of them ready for all hell to break loose.
Or maybe because of the lifestyle they lived, that was just the way they always were, and it had nothing to do with my situation.
But there was something about the way Silas hovered over me that told me that wasn’t quite right.
Metal and power tools echoed through the walls, a muddle of warped voices and indistinct conversations that carried as I studied an invoice then inputted the numbers into the correct column.
A shiver rocked over me when the door between the shop and office swept open behind me, the same way it did every time Silas came into the room.
I wanted it to be a reaction to the fear I should feel.
Nope.
In its place was shimmery anticipation.
A buzz of energy that slashed and struck, lifting the fine hairs at the nape of my neck.
Silas’s footsteps were long yet slowed, his boots thudding on the dingy floor, and my stomach twisted as I felt the overwhelming weight of his presence ease up to me from behind.
His breath fluttered a piece of my hair over my cheek as he reached around and set a plate covered in foil on the desk.
“Eat.”
Coarse, raspy care.
Bossy to the extreme.
King.
“I couldn’t eat another bite.”
Meems had already stuffed me before I came into work this morning.
Eggs and bacon and toast dripping with butter and homemade jam.
His chuckle was scraping and low, and God, my stupid belly did a thousand flips. “Pretty sure you’re going to want a taste of what’s under there.”
“You think you know me so well.”
It was a quiet taunt.
Begging him for the attention.
“I think I’m figuring it out.” His fingertips lightly trailed up the opposite side of my jaw, scattering goosebumps as they went.
One of those safe touches that I pretended didn’t mean anything.
The profile of his face just came into view in my periphery on the other side.
So close.
Smelling like an old-fashioned at ten-thirty in the morning.
Dang it, was that scent addictive.
“Why are you bothering?” I wanted it to come out as snark, but it reeked of desperation.
Those sinewy muscles bunched as he stalled out.
Hesitation blowing through him like the howl of the wind.
Even though he wouldn’t give me any details, we both knew what was coming.
I’d either be dead, perish to whatever secret he was keeping, or I’d be right back in the same place.
By myself.
Fighting.
Fighting for Dereck.
Fighting to protect myself.
Fighting to survive.
Except something had to change. It was time. I couldn’t keep doing this with Dereck, even though the thought of disappointing my mother destroyed me.
I couldn’t keep allowing him to ruin my life again and again.
That was if he didn’t…
I crushed the thought in its tracks. I refused to even contemplate it.
“I don’t know, Brinley, but I can’t seem to stop.”
The fingers that had been slipping along my cheek slid into my hair.
Fisting into the locks as his nose ran the length of my opposite jaw.
Flames tore through my body.
“If we don’t stop, I’m pretty sure it will destroy us both,” I rasped.
“Probably,” he grunted. “But I think it might be worth it.”
Worth it.
“I think I’ve been hurt enough.” It was a shaky defense.
His hand in my hair slipped down until he was holding me by the front of the neck.
Need flooded my veins, as well as a flicker of the old terror that worked to hold me back.
A prisoner.
Was that what I was always going to be?
His mouth pressed close to my jaw. Voice drenched in chaos. “And I’m the fool who wants to take away your pain.”
“I don’t know if there’s anyone who can do that,” I wheezed. I shouldn’t have released it. It sounded far too much like an admission.
“And I’m nothing but the selfish bastard who wants to try. Not supposed to touch you. Can’t touch you…” He murmured the roughened words up and down my jaw.
Trembles rolled and the desire that I’d been battling broke free.
Making me gasp as he let his lips come close to my mouth.
“Doesn’t stop the way I want to, though, does it?” he rumbled. “Way I want to peel you apart, layer by layer, then be the one to piece you back together?”
“I’m not broken.”
But clearly, I was begging to be with the way I leaned farther into his hold.
Because I wanted to feel.
I wanted to feel something different than I’d been subjected to for so long.
I was tired of the cold and the vacancy.
And whenever Silas entered the room? I felt alive.
“Nah, baby, you aren’t close to being broken. You’re a force. A storm. A Wildfire. And I want to burn. Even though doing it might prove to be the death of me.”
“And I’m ready to live.” It was a whisper. A secret. Maybe one I was trying to claim for myself.
“Gonna see to it that you will,” he murmured before he reached over to peel the foil from the plate.
Once again, he commanded, “Eat.”
I nearly choked over a laugh when I saw it was breakfast dessert.
Okay, dessert concealed as breakfast.
A mountain of pancakes piled high with cherries and whipped cream.
Silas dug his finger into the cherries and cream and brought it to my lips.
Stupid, foolish girl, sucking it into my mouth.
He slowly pulled it out, then he walked away, muttering, “Fuckin’ Wildfire. What are you doing to me?”
Funny how I thought I couldn’t eat another bite, and I’d scarfed down the entire plate.
But with the realization that it was time for me to make a change, I decided to go ahead and take a little of the good.
That good might have made me feel like I was going to burst, but it was worth it.
A strange satisfaction glided through me as I sat there an hour later, making a dent in the stack of invoices.
I should have been off kilter after the earlier interaction with Silas, the way it felt like we were on the brink of a catastrophic explosion, but it was an easy smile climbing to my face when the main door swung open to the lobby.
Probably a smidge too peppy as I stood to welcome the customer.
A man strode through before the glinting glass pane drifted shut behind him.
He looked simple.
Innocuous.
Safe enough.
But the blood drained from my head and my limbs went weak as recognition bowled me over.
It was the same guy from the drugstore parking lot.
Terror bubbled up to the surface, and nausea twisted my stomach into painful knots.
My attention darted in every direction, trying to gauge the best escape route.
Could I make it to the shop doors before he got to me? Did Silas have any clue that he was there?
He cocked an easy grin with a tilt of his chin, casual enough to suggest that he was only there to request a simple oil change.
But it was the gleam in his eye that told me he was there for devious things.
Fear clutched, and I tried to swallow. To stand my ground and not let this asshole know I was shaking.
His brow pinched like he was confused, but I knew full well that it was feigned. “You know…you look awful familiar. Kind of like this guy I know.”
A piercing pain stabbed into my chest.
Dereck.
He was talking about Dereck.
I didn’t have time to run or spit in his face or demand answers or any of the thousand things I wanted before he moved.
A blur as he jumped over the counter.
Terror screamed through my senses, so loud I thought it would burst my eardrums.
My senses whirring into disarray.
Wanting to fight because fighting was the only thing I had.
But he had an arm locked around my waist from behind and a knife pressed to my throat before I even knew what happened.
My knees sagged when he gritted in my ear, “You’re coming with me, bitch.”