Page 13 of Wicked Shadows
“Fair enough. Ready to go, Shadow?”
“I know I’m going to regret this,” Shadow mumbled under his breath. “Let’s get it over with.”
“You sound like you’re about to be tortured.” Bull didn’t bother to hide his amusement at Shadow’s discomfort. “Should I get the buckets of water ready?”
“I’d take waterboarding over talking about myfeelingsany day.” Shadow shook his head and opened the door for Brianna to walk through first. Once she’d cleared the threshold, Shadow turned to Bull and whisper-shouted, “Come find me in five minutes. Save me!”
The door latched closed with the sound of roaring laughter on one side and complete silence on his side when he met Brianna’s narrowed stare. His chest expanded with his deep breath, and he slid his sunglasses on his face. “Looks like I’m all yours now, Sunny.”
“Uh-huh.” She turned and began walking across the manicured lawn of the estate she shared with Noah, forcing Shadow to step quickly to keep up with her.
When they reached the terrace close to the pool, Brianna pulled out a chair and took a seat. Shadow followed suit, his sunglasses shading his eyes from the bright Florida sun, but his long face expressed his inner turmoil. He inhaled a deep breath and waited for the questions to begin.
“You know Elle Sinclair.”
It wasn't a question. It was a direct statement, and she expected confirmation.
“I know ElleMoore,” he corrected. “Sinclair is a stage name. But yes, I know her. I’ve known her most of her life, actually.”
“Ah, finally. A look into the elusive Shadow’s life.” Brianna teased him to make it seem less formal and put him more at ease.
“Yeah, yeah, okay. I know her very well. We first started seeing each other about eight years ago, but it’s been very…” He paused to search for the right word. “…sporadic.”
“What do you mean by that? Why do I feel like there’s more to the story?”
“I mean, for the first several years, we saw each other as much as we could. Between our jobs getting in the way. Sometimes, it was weeks apart. Sometimes, it was months apart.”
The outer corner of her eyebrow lifted, arching in a silent question. Shadow shrugged one shoulder and continued.
“I’d show up out of the blue and surprise her. We’d spend a couple of weeks or more together, have the best time of my life, and then I’d leave again for the next job. I wouldn’t see her again until the next time I had a break in the case or between assignments.”
She studied his face, analyzed his words, and considered what hewasn’tsaying. “You’re in love with her. Aren’t you?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny your assumption.”
“You just confirmed it. Why not just give it an honest try, stay together and see what you can have?”
“We already have too many strikes against us.” He shook his head and dropped his shielded gaze to the ground.
“She’s a good bit younger than you, isn’t she?”
The humorless scoff before he replied confirmed her suspicion. “Yeah, that’s actually the first strike against us.”
“You’re what? Thirty-five, close to thirty-six?”
Shadow nodded, and his full lips disappeared into a thin line.
"I think I read she's around twenty-eight now. That's honestly not a big deal, Shadow."
"Not now, no. But considering Elle's older brother was one of my best friends when we were growing up, the age gap doesn't help."
"I see." Brianna nodded slowly, realization settling in her mind. "You knew her as a little kid."
"When she was around seven, she developed a major crush on me. She'd follow Jeff and me around, spying on us from behind trees. It didn't matter what we were doing. She just wanted to be close to us. At the time, she was just my buddy's kid sister. You know? I never even considered…" His voice trailed off, leaving his thoughts unspoken, but there was no need to say it.
“You never considered anything would be kindled between you two, many years later, now that you’re both adults,” Brianna surmised.
With a heavy sigh, Shadow relented and decided to lay it all out for her, knowing she'd tell him the truth, regardless if he wanted to hear it or not. "Strike one, she's my buddy's little sister. That's just an unspoken rule every guy knows not to break."
