Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
My own shirt is soaked and I maneuver it off while doing my best to keep her close. She’s cradled against me, so small and helpless.
“What happened?” Carter asks, his voice eerily calm. My throat is dry, my words ragged as I answer him, “It’s done with.”
“What does that mean?” he questions further, in a tone I can only describe as cautious as Daniel returns with a blanket and holds it out, his gaze nowhere near Braelynn’s naked body.
I tuck the blanket around her carefully and as I do, I find myself telling her it’s all right. Daniel slowly takes the seat beside us.
“What happened?” he asks.
They all have questions. My heart hammers as I hold her, running my hands back and forth along her skin, rubbing warmth into her. With her hair wet, her lips blue and her unfocused gaze anywhere but on me, I can’t fucking take it.
“Declan, what do you mean it’s over?” Carter’s voice comes out harder this time and Braelynn tenses. She’s fucking terrified.
The microwave beeps and Jase is heard scuttering around the kitchen.
“You’re going to eat,” I tell her softly, ignoring Carter, and brush my nose against her temple to get her attention. Her gaze reaches mine and I’m fucking shattered.
She’s not okay. She’s never going to be okay after that.
“Declan. What. Happened.” Carter’s tone is what snaps the last of my composure.
“Ronnie is dead. That’s what!” I scream across the kitchen. Braelynn goes rigid in my arms. “He’s dead and she’s mine.” The finality and viciousness in my words are unexpected. As is the wide-eyed shock that flickers across my oldest brother’s face. Jase stands beside him. Both men are powerful, deadly and my elders. Both of them have killed for me. They would die for me.
I can’t remember a time in my life when I’ve seriously fought with any of them. All my life they’ve protected me. I’ve never once thought of going against them. Fuck, I only live to protect them and what we have together. I’d be dead if they weren’t here. I know it. And yet, in this moment, I hate them.
“Carter,” Daniel says from beside me, attempting to ease the tension, just as Jase sets a bowl down in front of Braelynn, who hasn’t loosened her grip on me in the least. The silver spoon slides along the rim of the bowl and the faint sound is all that can be heard in the kitchen as my brothers stare at me. Waiting and watching. I ignore them and turn my attention to her.
“Eat, Braelynn,” I command her, but she doesn’t move, other than the trembling. She doesn’t even look at me.
“Declan,” Carter starts and Daniel tries to appease him. “Maybe now isn’t—” Daniel says, but it’s to no avail.
With Daniel seated beside me expressing concern for her and Jase standing behind me with a different concern altogether, Carter looks between the three of us.
All I can do is bring my focus back to her.
She’s so small and vulnerable. Her hair still soaking wet, her body still shaking.
I’m on edge and feel everything slipping. “Eat,” I tell her, a hardness coming over me as she stares at Carter rather than at me. Gripping her chin, I force her gaze to mine. “Eat.”
“Did she tell you—” Carter starts again and my fist slams against the table. The spoon rattles against the porcelain bowl and Daniel leans back. Braelynn’s nails dig into my skin as she struggles to hide under the blanket, making herself even smaller than she already is.
“Leave it, Carter,” I tell him, my jaw tense, my fist still at the ready.
Daniel stands slowly and with a grip on Jase’s elbow, ushers him out.
“We should go,” he says loud enough for Carter to hear. His gaze drops from me down to a petrified Braelynn.
I ignore him. He’s done far worse than I. If I want her, I will keep her. That is something a man like him should easily understand. It doesn’t explain the flurry of agony and loathing that consume me in this moment when I look down and she stares back at him in fear, rather than listening to me.
Just as the thought enters my mind that I don’t owe them a fucking explanation, I know I do. I know she’s a threat to us all.
“Eat,” I command her and she buries her head in the crook of my neck.
I position her how I’d like her, needing her to fucking listen. She needs warmth. With both hands on her hips, not giving a fuck about the blanket, I force her to sit forward. “You will eat, Braelynn,” I seethe. The words are spoken from between gritted teeth and with her eyes shut tight, a gasp of a sob leaving her, she reaches for the spoon with shaking hands but she can’t grasp it.