Page 17 of Forged in the Fire
I gulped but held my ground. Keeping my eyes pinned on him as he came to cover me in his shadow.
Energy crackled. Zapped and zipped across my skin.
He was so freaking tall it meant my head was tipped all the way back, and he leaned down even closer.
“You want to know what I think?” The words were gravel.
No, I probably did not want access to this guy’s mind. Instead of telling him so, I narrowed my eyes at him. He seemed to take it as an invitation and dipped in even closer.
Heat rippled from his ink-covered flesh, and his lips were so close that I could feel their movement against mine when he spoke.
“I think you’re looking for something else.”
My pulse scattered, and somehow, I managed to grit out, “And what am I looking for?”
Silas’s big hand was suddenly on the back of my neck, holding me up since the man had me nearly bent in two.
“Trouble.” His eyes blazed, and I realized they were more green than anything else. “Think you’re lookin’ for trouble, Brinley, and I don’t think you have the first clue the kind of trouble you’re already in.”
Confusion pinched the corners of my eyes, and a ball of dread filled the entire cavity of my chest.
There was something different laced in his voice. His gaze flitting all over my face like he was searching for my understanding. Like he was trying to get me to hear something he couldn’t say.
He straightened then, pulling me upright and leaving me disoriented, my knees weak as he shoved his hands into his pockets and backed away.
Then his tone turned cold again. “There’s plenty enough of it to go around for each of us. I’d suggest you don’t make it worse.”
He turned on his heel and strode back through the trees.
I guess the man was completely right about me looking for trouble.
Because I staggered along behind him.
Dipping behind the trunks of giant oaks as I went like he didn’t fully know I was there.
Ridiculous, but I couldn’t stop.
That gravity beckoning me forward.
Or maybe I just had a grim sense of curiosity.
He finally broke out of the trees ahead of me where there was a dirt road.
I stalled out because standing there waiting on him was a young woman who was probably a few years younger than me, though I could be wrong since I couldn’t make her out very well in the distance.
But what there was no mistaking was the small child who was holding her hand.
A child who bobbed his knees then went running toward Silas.
Silas swooped him up and hooked him onto his hip, and the man tipped his laughter toward the star-strewn canopy above before they casually turned and strolled down the lane.
While I stood there gaping, wondering who the actual fuck this guy was.
FIVE
SILAS
The next morning,I slowly eased down the steps from the second floor of my house to the chaos happening below.
