Page 95 of Forged in the Fire
No, I might not have been able to make out the full story, but I knew that story was there.
Locked up like my old diary.
I just had to find a way to crack it.
I’d do best not to get cozy. Blinded by false comfort.
If I wanted to find out if Dereck and I were really going to come out of this thing unscathed, I needed to be proactive.
Not get lulled into a food coma.
Every minute my brother didn’t text me back, the more unsettled I became, and as much as Silas kept trying to weasel his way into my senses, making me trust him, I’d be an idiot to fall for it.
“Um, it’s fair to say you arein.” Elena’s voice was all conspiratorial exuberance as she settled onto the edge of the bed facing me. Amusement tugged at the edges of her lips. “Don’t be surprised if she doesn’t let you leave.”
Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of, though I was pretty sure it wasn’t Meems who was my jailer.
“I have to admit, it is pretty nice to have another woman around here,” she added. “You can see that we are a bit outnumbered.”
She shrugged her shoulder. “And okay, since you’re twisting my arm about it, I should also probably admit that I really like you and I think you fit in pretty great with my family.”
There was absolutely no arm twisting to it, and the cute, shy, confident thing she did was digging its way through the rocks that clogged my spirit in suspicion.
How was she so unbelievablynicewhen she was surrounded by all these bikers? There was no missing the overbearing masculinity that sucked the oxygen from that clubhouse.
Maybe she was a secret spy that Silas used to infiltrate hearts and minds, and this was all an act.
Then the gold flecks in her hazel eyes were shimmering with moisture, and she glanced away for a beat before she looked back at me with a pinch of pink on her cheeks.
“Honestly, it can get kind of lonely around here. It’s like I’m surrounded by all these people whose main job is to make sure that my every need is met, all while I feel like I’m missing so much.”
She choked a little sound as her chin trembled. “It’s weird having so many people around you and still feeling lonely, you know?”
With her vulnerability, my stomach twisted.
Okay, I sucked.
Was a deplorable, disgusting human being.
Even having an errant derogatory thought about this angel.
Because I was slammed with the torrent of pain that gushed out of her. So deep and heavy it couldn’t be feigned.
I tossed my phone to the bed and sat forward so I could take her hand. I squeezed it hard. “I totally get that, Elena.”
The second I touched her, a tear streaked from the corner of her eye.
The thing popped out so fast I thought she must have been holding it in for so long she was about to bust from the pressure.
With her free hand, she frantically swatted it away.
“I feel like such a jerk.” The quieted words crawled out of her like a dirty secret. “Feeling that way. Like I don’t appreciate every single thing my brother has done for me. Everything he’s sacrificed for me. For this whole family. But God, sometimes I feel like I’m a bird trapped in a cage.”
“You don’t need to feel guilty for recognizing that you’re lacking something.” The words clawed from my mouth, low in emphasis. “Even if you want more, it doesn’t mean you don’t appreciate what you have.”
Emotion wrestled through her features.
Shame and guilt.
