Page 191 of Forged in the Fire
Still a mess. Constantly losing jobs and not having enough for rent. But that was minimal in comparison.
We’d been halfway normal until now.
“But Dereck knows,” Silas seethed. It wasn’t even a question. It was a straight shot of judgement.
I swallowed around the tears. “Yes. But I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want the burden of knowing who they were and knowing they were out there if I couldn’t do anything about it. Dereck was dead if I went after them.”
“I can do something about it.” There was a promise behind it. Like that was exactly what he intended.
My head barely shook. “It’s in the past, Silas. I just want to live. Put all of this behind us. Ensure my brother is safe, then I want to live life. Finally, truly live it.”
He didn’t look convinced. I was pretty sure the next chance he got he was going to shake the names out of Dereck.
Probably right before he put a bullet in my brother’s brain.
I scratched my fingertips over the stubble on his cheek. “I need you to promise me that you’ll let this go.”
His jaw clenched. “Not sure that I can. Idea of someone hurting you makes me want to go on a rampage. I want to end anyone who’s ever hurt you. Destroy them the way they deserve to be.”
He brushed back a curl from my face, twining it around his finger as he stared at me through the dancing shadows.
“You want to fight for me, King?” I meant for it to come out playful, but it was brimming with emotion.
The pad of his thumb stroked my cheek. “Yeah, Brinley, it’s become blatantly apparent that I do.”
“I just want this all behind me.”
He inhaled a cleansing breath like he was packing away the little I revealed, but I had the sense he planned on ripping it wide open later.
“And what does that look like, Brinley? If you were fighting for you? Living a little for yourself and not sacrificing everything for your brother?”
I shrugged a little. “I don’t know. Maybe I’d go back to school. I always had this dream of being an accountant.”
His soft chuckle was surprised. “An accountant? I thought most girls dreamed of being librarians or doctors or, if you’re Elena, opening an adorable store.”
His eyes widened a smidgeon with the tease.
I could feel the redness pink my cheeks. It seemed once I let a wall down, the vulnerability came flooding out. “I don’t know…I just…like piecing numbers together. It’s like a puzzle that I’m solving. And I like the idea that I might be able to help people save money, maybe? Take some of the strain off their lives.”
“Which is why you’re taking that job out in the office so seriously?” he surmised.
I sent him a playful glower. “I don’t do anything half-assed. What did you expect?”
He shocked me by suddenly rolling onto his back and pulling me on top of him. His fingers weaved into the fall of my hair as he gazed up at me. “What I didn’t expect was you.”
THIRTY-SIX
SILAS
I stared up at Brinley.Her eyes glinted with unshed tears and with a belief that seemed impossible that she could feel.
After learning the tiny bit she revealed about what had happened to her, I couldn’t believe that she was here.
She hadn’t divulged much, but I could feel the magnitude of it.
The way it’d shaped her.
Scarred her.
