Page 187 of Forged in the Fire
Hell, half the time, I took pleasure in it.
“Who was he?” I didn’t mean to let it come out a command, but that’s exactly what it was.
A flurry of rage skimming beneath the surface of my skin and ushering me toward mayhem. The thirst for retribution rocking my hands.
Brinley flinched, but I knew it wasn’t because she was afraid of me.
She was terrified of being taken back.
Terrified of lowering the walls enough that I could see over them.
Moisture filled her eyes, a hurricane of browns and golds and reds drawing me deep into her storm.
“Silas…” She trembled, and I knew she was getting dragged back.
Terror breaking the cracks that had been made in her façade.
I set both hands on each side of her face, anchoring her to me as I whispered, “I’m right here. You’re not alone.”
THIRTY-FOUR
BRINLEY
TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD
Brinley satat the small island in the kitchen. A bleary light hung from overhead, and her temples throbbed as she sorted through the pile of bills that had grown so high they were going to bury her.
Her stomach was in knots as she tried to figure out how the hell she was going to make a dent in them.
She’d been close.
Close to finally catching up.
Paying off the debts that had hung over her head like an anvil.
She and Dereck had lived with their aunt for a year after their mother had passed, but when Dereck had started getting into trouble at school, she’d kicked them out.
Brinley had been seventeen.
Lost.
Grieving.
The hole inside her so big she didn’t know how she hadn’t bled out.
But she’d had to figure it out. Take care of Dereck because there was no one else to do it. Their father had only gone so faras to say they were living with him on paper since she’d literally gotten onto her knees and begged him.
She made it simple enough for him that the paperwork was already filled out so he didn’t have to put in the effort that he couldn’t seem to find the energy for.
She’d scrounged and saved and worked three jobs.
It was never enough. Food in short supply, and the hungrier Dereck got, the further he’d seemed to spiral.
Stealing, fights, and God knew what else.
Brinley had finally found a decent bookkeeping job at an attorney’s office, and it brought in enough to cover rent for a two-bedroom apartment, utilities, and food, that and nursing her mom’s old car along and praying it wouldn’t finally go kaput.
Then Dereck had been arrested, and she’d had to take out a loan to get him out, bartering with one of the attorneys at her office to help them, selling her soul once again to keep the promise she’d made to her mother.
