Page 83 of Shadow Of Sin

“Which brother?” I ask.

“What?”

“You said ‘my brother will lose his mind.’ Which brother?”

Cillian looks at me like I just asked him what color the sky is. “Eva. Come on.”

“I’m asking.”

“You know which one.” He turns back to the road. “The one who’s been a completely different person since you showed up. The one who misses our weekly basketball games and sleeps at your apartment instead of staring at his monitors until the ass crack of dawn.” He pauses. “Speaking of which.”

“Speaking of what?”

“You and Wolfe.”

“What about me and Wolfe?”

He’s quiet for a second, navigating a turn. “How is he?”

“Excuse me?” He cannot be asking about⁠—

“Jesus, Eva. I’m not a fucking perv. I just wanna know how he is with you, how he is when nobody else is watching.”

“Oh,” I say. Something in his voice makes my chest ache. He’s watching out for Wolfe just like he did years ago when he sat outside his younger brother’s bedroom door during their father’s rages. He wants to make sure the person he loves most in the world is okay.

“He’s good,” I say. “He’s really good.”

“Yeah?”

“He eats real food now.”

“Yep,” Cillian says. “He shocked the shit out of me when he ate one of the sandwiches at the house the other day. He’s always been weird with the textures of different foods.”

I smile. “Yeah. But he’s getting better with trying things. He sleeps more than three hours a night, too. He’s...” I search for the right word. “Present. Like he’s actually in the room instead of running calculations in his head.”

Cillian nods slowly. “That’s new.”

“I know.”

“That’s you.”

“I don’t think it’s just me.”

“It’s you. Trust me. I’ve known him his whole life, and I’ve never seen him like this.” He pulls onto the highway. “Look, I’m not going to do the whole overprotective brother thing. Sal already has that covered from your side, I’m sure.”

My grin widens. “He really does. But he loves Wolfe, and he’s been matchmaking from day one.”

“Cool.” Cillian chuckles. “My brother doesn’t let people in. Not because he doesn’t want to. It’s because our dad taught him that letting people in gets you hurt. He broke things Wolfe cared about to prove that caring was dangerous. And Wolfe learned that lesson so well that he spent the next however many years of his life making sure he never cared about anything that could be taken from him.”

He taps his fingers on the steering wheel and weaves around a slow-moving car. “Then you showed up. And I think he cares about you in a way that he can’t control and can’t turn off and can’t protect himself from. That probably terrifies the shit out of him. It also might be the best thing that’s ever happened to him.” He shrugs. “So, don’t break him, okay? That’s all. Just don’t break him.”

“It’s not my plan.”

“Good. Because if you do, I’ll have to choose between you and him. And I love you, Eva, but there’s no contest.”

I stare at him. “You love me?”

“You’re family now. Whether you like it or not.” He winks at me. “Don’t make it weird.”