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But there was something about having this big man, a man who’d obviously lived a hard life crouching in front of her, taking care of her. While his sweet, loving husband held her like she was precious.
Like he never wanted to let her go.
It was something else. She wasn’t a beloved sister or cousin.
She felt like a woman.
She couldn’t remember when she last felt like that. Delicate, not because her mind was fragile, but because these two men dwarfed her. Yet they wouldn’t use their strength against her, but for her.
“You can’t make me better,” she told them.
“No,” Liam said as he wrapped her knuckles with gauze then a bandage, going a bit overboard. They were just swollen with a small scratch. “Only you can fix you.”
She sucked in a breath. Yeah. He was right. Only problem was she had no idea how to fix herself. And sometimes, she thought she was scared to try.
“But you don’t have to do it alone. There are people who will help you,” Nico told her. “People you can lean on. You’re not supposed to do this sort of thing on your own.”
“I have my family,” she pointed out. “I’m hardly alone.”
“Aren’t you?” Liam said. “If you’re not on your own, then why haven’t you asked them to help you? Why isn’t one of them here, taking care of you?”
His words were bitten off, as though he found them almost bitter.
“It’s not fair on them for me to be a burden all the time.”
Nico tightened his arms around her, while Liam’s gaze spat blue fire. “A burden? That’s what they think of you? They told you that you were a burden? I’ll fucking kill them.”
“No, wait! They didn’t say it to me,” she said hastily as he stood.
Liam froze, staring down at her. His hands were clenched into fists. The last thing she wanted was for him to go off and tell Regent about this.
“But they made you feel it,” Nico said while Liam stood there. She got the feeling he was barely holding onto his control. Tension coiled inside him, ready to explode.
And that wasn’t going to be a good thing.
“No,” she said urgently. “Never. They’d never make me feel that way. I know they love me the same as I love them. They’ve done nothing but support and take care of me.”
“They let you hurt yourself.” Liam’s voice was a harsh whisper
“It . . . they . . . ” She sucked in a deep breath. “They didn’t let me hurt myself. When I first started doing it, they insisted that I talk to someone. I was having problems. Nightmares. I couldn’t leave the house. I was paralyzed by fear. If I hurt myself, then for a while some of those feelings were muted. I felt more in control.”
“How did we not know about this?” Liam said in a harsh whisper.
“How could you know? Only my brothers know.”
“What happened when they found out?” Nico asked her.
“Regent got me a therapist. She would come to the house twice a week. I finally found other ways to manage my emotions and need for control without hurting myself.”
“Until now?” Nico asked. “Or have you been hurting yourself before tonight?”
“I . . . I . . . ” He couldn’t know. No one knew.
“Show us your arm, pretty girl,” he told her.
Shit. Shit.
Liam just stared down at her. And she felt him willing her to do it.
