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)
Brinley’s obstinate spirit thrashed in the twilight.
Sparks of energy that glinted and flared.
Wild curls flying around her.
Fuck.
She was a force to contend with.
I caught up as she got to the landing, and I went to reach around her to input the code when she smacked at my hand.
“I can do it myself, so you can just leave me alone,” she hissed.
“Obviously you can do it, but you aren’t staying here.”
She whipped around. The gold in her eyes flashed.
As bright as an emergency flare.
“What? Did the heat get too much for you?” she snarled. “Was that guy too big of a contender? Are you scared of the trouble I bring, and you’re kicking me out?”
Each word was a barb.
She might have been irate, but I could see what was written below the spite.
Hurt.
Like she thought I was just going to abandon her.
Leave her to fend for herself.
Had the sinking sense that was the way it had always been for her, and I was pretty sure her reaction had nothing to do with her dislike of me but was a survival instinct.
With her back to the door, I reached around her and punched in the code.
“No, you’re coming to my house,” I grated.
“What?” she screeched, her expression morphing in a beat.
The door blipped and gave, and I basically picked her up and set her aside so I could get through.
She was a firestorm licking at my heels.
The beat of music from below throbbed through the baseboards. A distant thud of mayhem when I was standing in the middle of the pandemonium.
Wasn’t sure which of us was causing it.
Brinley or me, with her panting these jagged breaths at my backside, and me charging the few steps down the hall and into her room.
I threw open the door. Wood clattered against the interior wall, and I strode for where I knew her suitcases were stuffed under the bed.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” It was a gust of dubiety from where she stood aghast in the doorway. “I’m not staying at your house, Silas.”
“It’s not up for debate,” I growled, pulling out the suitcases and tossing them to the bed.
This would be a whole lot easier if she hadn’t packed her entire damned closet.
“Oh, but it is, King.” She spat the last, and I could feel her cross her arms over her chest.
A torrent of anger surged around her fear.
“I’m so tired of people thinking that they can just toss me around, keep me in the dark and tell me they’re doing it for my safety, like that is enough for me to blindly go along with your bullshit. First my brother telling me where I was going, what I had to do, and now you. I count.”
Her tone was pure venom until the last two words croaked out of her.
I turned to witness her clutching both hands over her chest, and fuck, she might as well have driven a blade directly into my mangled heart.
Because I was moving.
Stalking her way.
Little did she know that she was the one with all the power.
The one who was sucking me in like she was her own orbit.
That thing about her that made her so dangerous to me glinting around her like a halo.
“You want to know what’s going on, Brinley? You want to know that your brother is involved with vile, horrible people? You want to know what it felt like when they had my sister?”
Horror unhinged her jaw. “Elena?”
The fire in her drained, likely doused as the torment I felt when Elena had been Kent Ellison’s prisoner gushed out of me like a ruptured dam.
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed heavily. Those eyes ablaze as they searched mine.
I pushed on, grating through the fury and hate. “You want to know that she still sometimes wakes up screaming at night? Terrified? Do you want to know how I refuse to let that happen to you?”
I was so close to her that I could feel the fine hairs lift on her arms. So close that the chills that raced across her flesh became mine.
My spirit lurched forward without my permission.
“You count more than you fucking know.” It wheezed out. Stakes that struck into the ground like they were the one thing that could keep both of us steady.
Yeah. I was a fool to admit it. I shouldn’t let on the way she had me on uneven ground.
Our noses brushed, and I was inundated with her scent.
Almonds and apples and cream.
Leave it to Brinley Webber to have the ability to turn my voice into a forlorn plea. “Please…just let me take care of you.”
Confusion knitted her brow, though I could feel her softening. “I’m not weak or helpless, Silas.”
“No. You’re not, are you?” I breathed in what she exhaled. “But this is my job, Brinley. Taking care of people is the only thing I have. The only power I’ve got.”