Page 62 of Shattered Saint
I swear my heart skipped a beat. It was the first time in a long time that I’d felt seen by her.
I shrugged. "It’s been a long week."
It wasn’t a lie. This had been a long enough week that I’d barely heard from Easton outside of us seeing each other while working on our psychology project.
"Alright," she said, though her eyes lingered on me for a moment longer.
I held my breath until she turned away to focus on cooking again. Some of the tension left my body knowing she wasn’t going to question me right now. Questions about what I heard haunted me.
It was not only important for me to get the answers I wanted because I was curious. If this put our family’s safety at stake, it was imperative that we knew as much as possible in order to react.
"Mom, do you need any help with cooking?" I offered. I needed to find a way to keep busy.
"Sure, you can finish the salad," she said, gesturing to a large bowl on the side of the sink.
I washed my hands and added the rest of the chopped veggies to the bowl. I picked up the wooden spoon next to it and began stirring the salad. But even while I focused on finishing up a part of dinner, I couldn’t help but repeat everything that my father said in my head. Something bad was going to happen, and I didn’t know what it was or if I could stop it.
25
EASTON
The leather couch creaked under my weight as I shifted positions again. My thoughts had taken over and were the reason I wasn’t doing anything else right now.
“Damn it," I muttered under my breath as I ran a hand across my face. Thoughts of Bianca swam into my mind, and I was being driven to the brink. The way she had looked at me while we were sitting across from each other at the library or the way she looked when she was coming on my cock were all I could think about.
If it were completely up to me, I would stop hiding the connection that Bianca and I shared. I wanted to explore this freely instead of having to mostly sneak around, even though we weren’t doing a great job of sneaking around if I was being honest.
I needed to talk to both Bianca and Nash. Bianca would be first, of course, because we needed to discuss whatever the fuck this was and talk about what we wanted out of it. Also, I needed to come clean about everything.
How was I going to tell Bianca the truth?
She deserved to know about the deal I struck with Nash about her. It was shitty that she didn’t know now, and I wasn’t sure how she would react. Nonetheless, she deserved to have the full picture, even if it meant that she’d be pissed at both me and her brother.
I was convinced she’d never forgive me.
I could picture the hurt that would cross her face when she found out. The thought killed me.
Maybe keeping this as a deal that would end when the semester did was smart.
Bianca deserved so much better than this. Better than me and what I could give her.
This whole situation was a mess, and I was trapped at its epicenter. And I couldn’t blame anyone but myself.
Fuck.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, forcing me out of my thoughts. I stared down at the screen but couldn’t bring myself to answer. Because it was the one person I wasn’t prepared to talk to.
Nash.
I stared down at the phone, my thumb hovering over the screen. I didn’t have to answer it. Ignoring it was probably my best option until I got my shit together.
The phone continued to vibrate, reminding me that I needed to make a decision about this phone call. Finally, I swiped to answer Nash and put the call on speaker.
"Hey, man," Nash said. "I wanted to talk to you about your interest in learning more about the Chevaliers. About filling you in a bit more.”
That had been the last thing I’d been expecting him to call me about, but it made sense. Mentioning anything about the secret society that he soon would be the leader of over text message would be stupid. After seeing how rough Nash looked at times, I wasn’t sure this was something I wanted to do anymore, but my curiosity had been piqued.
"Easton?" Nash said when I didn't respond. "You there?"
