Page 91 of Hers To Keep

“Shh, we don’t have to deal with this right now, babe. We’ll have time to decide later,” Ace assures me, glaring at the guys who take the warning and step back.

“Ace,” I shout, remembering the truth he’s just discovered. “Wesley, your father…”

“It’s all the same to me, Scarlett. I’ve never had a father. Not in Warren and definitely not in Wesley. That he is my biological father means nothing to me, it changes nothing.”

Suddenly as I turn back and look up at the guys who don’t look at all surprised, I see Bass looking directly at me..

“Jade,” I cry out at the sight of him here and not with my sister protecting her like he swore. “Does she know I’m okay?”

Bass steps forward at the mention of her. “I left before shecould run after me, but I texted her when we got here,” Bass assures me.

I quickly turn to Roman who stands beside him. “Jade doesn’t know you’re back. You can’t leave, Roman. Tell her you’re back.”

For once I see a fear in his eyes that rivals anything I’ve ever felt. The fear of Jade discovering the monster he’s become. “I can’t, Scarlett, I can’t look my little sister in the eye and tell her what her big brother has become. A puppet, a criminal, a murderer, someone she’d be so ashamed of.”

I sit up, painfully but managing. “You’re her family, Roman, her brother. She will forgive you for that, you know she will.”

He shakes his head, running his hand through his hair, an anxious chuckle escaping him. “But I can’t, Scar. How will I ever be able to come clean to her? How will I ever be able to admit it was me who shot and killed our father in cold blood?”

Suddenly, we hear a loud, shrieking cry come from behind us as all eyes turn to the door that remains open, finding Jade standing under the doorway, a look of utter resentment and betrayal in her clear green eyes before she takes off running toward the darkness of the night.

THE END… FOR NOW.