Page 199 of Fly's Path

“The one who took her do it? Because I’m already going to have a discussion with him before I leave, but he’s a dead man if he hit her.”

“Viktor isn’t smart, but he wouldn’t hurt Sheri.”

Sheri. Draven just called my woman Sheri. “I have a video that says otherwise.”

“Fly, he didn’t hurt me. Viktor just pushed me a little. I left way more bruises on him.”

“Good girl. I’ll show you how to do more damage later. Uncuff her so we can go.”

Draven sets the gun down and saunters up to me. “Who are you? And why are you looking at Sheri with lust in your eyes?”

“It doesn’t matter who he is, Draven. Leave him alone.”

I really don’t like the familiar way this man is acting towards my woman. “I’m Fly. A member of Children of Chaos and a representative of Vex. And I’ll look at my woman any way I like.” That probably wasn’t the best way to phrase that.

“Your woman. Is that true? Are you his, Sheri?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“Sheri.”

If he calls her Sheri one more time—

“Dra, I don’t know. I want to be, but things are complicated.”

What did she just say? “No, they aren’t. I love you and want to spend forever with you. Everything else is details that we’ll figure out along the way.”

“Details. They aren’t details. What happens in a few years when I’m madly in love with you, and you decide to leave? I can’t handle that. I can’t.”

I take a step towards her. “Sheri, I’m never leaving you. This is it. You and I are forever.”

“No one in my life stays forever.”

Draven reaches toward her and stops. “Sheri, I didn’t ditch you. I was always there.”

And that’s when the details hit me. They’re related. Draven isn’t flirting with her. He’s her brother.

“Like you were there when Grammie punched me today. Or when she threw a chair at me four years ago. Or when she tried setting fire to the house a little over a year ago. Where were you then?”

“I sent money.”

“Love isn’t a transaction. You can’t pay me to be my family. A friend taught me that recently. So if you want to be my family, you actually have to be there. Not just hand me checks that I’m not going to cash.”

Well, that explains the money.

“What do you mean you haven’t cashed my checks?”

“Not one of them.”

“Sheri. Do you know what I did to get you that money?”

“I don’t care. I need my brother, not money.” Sheri starts to shake.

There isn’t much I can do as the two of them stare each other down except walk over and wrap my arms around her. Like she always does, Sheri melts into them, giving me all her physical load while she’s burdened mentally.

Draven folds his arms over his chest and glares at her. “Fine, you win. You have your brother back, but don’t be upset with me when you find out I’m not the person you thought I’d be.”

“As long as you aren’t a monster, I love you.”