Page 253 of Forged in the Fire
Trent roughed a tattooed hand through his black hair. “It fits, man.”
Silas could barely breathe, and his nod was jerky as he realized the gift Trent was giving.
He was finally going to catch up to them.
“Know you’ve been looking for these bastards for a long, long time.”
“Yeah, I have,” Silas finally managed, the words choked. “I appreciate you giving me the details.”
Trent inclined closer. “Going to have more for you. Names. Locations. And I’m fucking trusting that this doesn’t make it back to Cutter.”
“You know it won’t.”
“Good.” Trent wavered, glancing at the ground before his inky gaze was back on Silas. “Things are about to get twisted around here. Want you to be careful. Look out for yourself and for your family. And if things go south, pack up and get the fuck out of this city.”
Unease stirred through Silas’s spirit. “You about to flip on our Prez?”
“All I can say is I’m about to make a few fucking things right, and I’m hoping to allow you the same as I do it.”
FIFTY-THREE
SILAS
“How isit possible I got you in my life?” I lay playing my fingers through Brinley’s hair, her head nestled on my shoulder, the night long as we just…talked.
Staying mostly off the hard topics and instead whispering about her hopes and dreams.
Unfortunately, her dreams had amounted to basically the hope of bare survival since her mother had gotten sick when she was fourteen.
Her teen years every bit as rough as mine.
I was going to see to it that she finally had room to dream again. Give her room to chase after every single thing she’d ever wanted.
Crazy as fuck that a big part of what she wanted was me.
My mind was still struggling to come to terms with it.
To accept that this was true. That she was mine and she was always going to be.
I had to wonder if the draw toward each other was because we had so many similarities.
Losing our mothers and the burden of caring for our families falling onto our shoulders.
It had shaped our lives in different ways, but in the end, it’d made both of us fighters.
I watched through the shadows as a soft grin kissed her lush mouth. “I guess you’re just lucky like that.”
My chest expanded. “I guess I am just one lucky motherfucker, aren’t I?”
Her fingertips fluttered down my chest. “Oh, yeah. I’d say you are.”
My soul did that buzzing thing. Frantic and flailing, still not sure what I was supposed to do with the magnitude of what I was feeling.
The lightness bled into emphasis. “I was terrified of this, Brinley. Terrified of letting myself go. Of loving a single person again,” I admitted.
I’d spent so much time hating myself. The choices I’d made. Who I’d become.
Regret was Karma’s most powerful friend.
