Page 104 of I Will Revel in Glory (Death by Daybreak MC 3)
I shove my hair back, realizing how hypocritical and completely insane that sounds.
“We’re here to help out,” I offer lamely, studying Nellie and this strange new domesticity that she’s taken on. She’s still Cat’s wife though; she knows a lot. She’s been through even more than that. I try to imagine Cat curling up around Nellie at night, telling her all of his fears, his insecurities.
But nope.
Does not compute.
Nellie blinks at me, her attention moving to Sin before returning to my face.
“How are you feeling?” she asks, and I frown slightly. “I remember being pregnant with every single one of you.” She moves over to stand in front of me, putting her hands on her hips and smiling. As if by magic, Cat comes in the back door and then there he is, the devil himself.
Since Nellie is used to the tension between me and Cat, she ignores it.
“You were the worst,” she continues with a laugh as Sin shifts uncomfortably behind me, and Reba tries her very best to just smile through a moment that’s equal parts awkward, sweet, and dangerous as hell.
Cat is staring at me.
I can feel his gaze like flames against my skin, eating my flesh away, using the fat beneath my skin like fuel.
Shit.
“I was bloated like crazy, and I couldn’t stop throwing up.” Nellie laughs again, shaking her head. “I remember with Gaz, my breasts hurt, and I was obsessed with orange juice …”
“Please stop,” I choke out, but Nellie takes my pained expression for exaggerated embarrassment instead of what it actually is: agony. Complete and utter agony. I feel like I’m being ripped apart emotionally, and I don’t want to hear another fucking word about Nellie and what it was like to be pregnant with any of my dead siblings.
Nellie chuckles and then reaches up like she’s going to touch my cheek. She pulls back, the way she’s always done, but I grab her hand and press it to my face anyway. That lights her up from the inside like it’s fucking Christmas.
Speaking of … I was with the mafia for Christmas. You know what we did? Nothing. Nothing at all. I barely even recognized that the holiday season was rushing by. Did Nellie cry? Did she think about me during each special occasion that I wasn’t here for? Not that it matters. We haven’t done much for the holidays since, well, you know.
“The only change I see in you is thicker, shinier hair, and”—here Nellie goes out of her way to annoy me by pointing at my chest—“you keep rubbing at your boobs. Are they sore?”
“Christ, woman,” Cat growls out, but not without affection. He really does love my mother, despite … everything. You just saw him shoot an innocent woman and an unarmed man in the head, I remind myself. You just saw him kill your fucking brother the same damn way. “Knock that shit off.” My father looks me over, but not unappreciatively, his eyes drifting over to Reba. He doesn’t like having her here; he isn’t going to let her go. I can see that much right now. And it scares me. It scares me so damn bad. “Glad you’re here,” Cat tells me, lifting his gaze from my face to stare at Sin over my shoulder. “I was going to call her down here anyway.”
He turns away and then glances back at me.
“Come with me—just you.”
Cat takes off out the back door, expecting me to follow.
His words … they’re not a request, and my entire body goes cold. I’ve got my Magnum beneath Beast’s jacket, but I’m still worried. A quick look at Sin shows that he is, too.
“Follow him,” he tells me, sliding his phone from his pocket, likely to text the other guys. “We’ve got you, Gidge.”
I believe that. More than I’ve ever believed anything in my life.
I give Reba’s hand a quick squeeze.
“I’ll be back soon,” I promise, and she nods.
“I’ll just stay with Nellie for now,” she tells me, and I take off, striding along to catch up with Cat. He hasn’t gone very far, but as soon as he sees that I’m with him, he continues deeper into the garden with me following behind.
At any moment, he could turn and blow my brains out. It’s that easy for him, isn’t it? To put a gun to another person’s head. Yet somehow, I don’t think that’s what he’s up to. If he wanted me dead, he’d have killed me either before or after he shot my brother.
Cat strays from the brick path, ignoring the crackle in the sky that says a storm is coming. Looking up, I can see the gray clouds rolling in, but the thought of rain doesn’t do a damn thing to calm my fears about the nearby wildfires. As I said before, rain can be a blessing, but it can also bring lightning and start new fires. That’s a real fear, and I have an ominous feeling about it all.
