Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Drinking.
Betting.
Losing jobs left and right.
I shifted away from him, scratching at the furrows creasing my brow as I tried to gather myself.
To stop the anger and fear from bursting free.
It was my job to take care of Dereck.
It’d always been.
Unfortunately, that task was often more painful than I wanted it to be.
Annoying at times and excruciating at others.
But underneath it all, he was a good guy.
I inhaled a steadying breath, then exhaled as I began to speak. “Listen, we’ll figure it out. Whatever you owe him, I’ll get it handled.”
How, I wasn’t sure.
But we always managed.
Dereck shook his head, his shaggy brown hair hanging limply in his face, his jaw going taut as he shoved a few more things into the suitcase. “The only way to handle this one is to do what I say.”
It was right then that I noticed his tall, lean body appeared frailer than it normally did. The bags under his eyes darker and deeper.
Dread twisted my stomach.
“Is this guy…?” Bile rolled up my throat as worry took over, and I moved from the doorway to his side. My hand was soft as I set it on his forearm. “Is this guy threatening you or something?”
It wouldn’t be the first time Dereck got himself in that kind of trouble, and my insides quaked with the memory.
I gritted my teeth against the vision and forced myself to focus on what was going on right then.
Yeah, he made mistakes.
But he was human.
Made up of blood and flesh and soul.
And he was my brother. The one thing I had.
I would never allow any harm to come to him.
Dereck huffed out a gush of air, seeming to contemplate, then he whirled fully toward me and grabbed me by the outside of the arms.
He gripped on tight as he angled closer.
“Please, just do what I’m asking you, Brinley. Just this once. Then I promise you that this is going to end. I’m going to get myself together and you won’t have to worry about taking care of me anymore.”
He squeezed a little tighter when he rushed, “I am going to fix this. So please, do this one thing for me.”
My throat thickened as fear crawled through my being. “What are you fixing, Dere?”
For a moment, I swore that his golden eyes that were the same color as mine flared with guilt.
Then they went cold and flat.
“Just repaying a debt,” he said like it was no big deal as he turned away, moved to my closet, and hauled off a row of dresses.
While sickness curdled my stomach.
“You’re paying a debt with me.” The words were thin. Not a question.
“Do you remember what happened last time?” I heaved it out. Apparently, the skeleton I normally kept locked at the back of my closet, the thing that hovered in the air but we never talked about, had been given an escape route with Dereck dragging out my things.
With his back to me, he froze. Hair lifting at his nape. “It’s nothing like that, Brinley. Nothing.”
Guilt oozed out with it, then he seemed to shake it off and grumbled, “Whatever you might want to have over the next couple of weeks, I suggest you get it packed.”
Was I a doormat?
A pushover?
Nothing but a dumpster?
You know, just go ahead and pile all your trash on top of me.
Because here I was, sitting in the passenger seat of my brother’s car as we traveled through the desolate forest. Winding higher and higher up a mountain.
A blur of trees blinked by as we sat in uncomfortable silence.
My bags packed in the trunk and my heart beating a manic rhythm out ahead of me.
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. That I let Dereck talk me into this without him giving me any real details.
It only made it worse that he was a bottled stir of anxiety, continually glancing in the rearview mirror like we were running away from something rather than heading toward something terrible.
But no matter how hard I shook him, he just wouldn’t crack. Refusing to offer anything else during the two-hour trip we’d taken.
“If you’d just tell me what’s going on…” I finally released into the suffocating tension.
“Would you just leave it, Brinley?” The words stabbed the air like little daggers.
I let go of a sound of disbelief. “You got me wound up in something that I don’t understand, involved in paying back a debt that I don’t know the cost of, and you want me to just leave it?”
He glanced over at me.
It was the first time I really saw what he was feeling.
Fear.
Blatant and etched on every one of his features.
So distinct it nearly pinned me to the side of the door.
“I need you to trust me. Just this once,” he forced out.
Trust him?
God. He’d broken my trust so many times that I wondered if he understood what earning it meant.