AllFreeNovel
Share Us
destroyed a thousand times if it meant a thousand more days with him.”
I walked into the girls’ apartment, my steps slowing and eyes narrowing in suspicion when I found the twins in the living room with Libby.
We’d all moved back to our own places a few days after Johnny’s death. I doubted anyone was coming after my family . . . if anything, Kieran would come after me. And I wouldn’t be able to blame him when he did.
But that hadn’t stopped the near-constant calls from everyone. They wanted to know if I was okay. They wanted to know what our next move was. They had dozens of questions I didn’t have the answers to.
I’d turned my back on the girl I needed to breathe.
I’d killed my best friend and buried him next to Gia.
I was a fucking coward because I still couldn’t look Einstein in the eye.
And I had a feeling I’d just walked in on my own intervention.
Libby stood when she saw me, relief washing over her face as she rushed to me. “Talk to her. Please.”
Not my intervention . . .
“Libby, get over your shit with Mom and talk to her yourself.”
“Einstein,” she said, frustration lacing her tone. “She’s not okay, Dare.”
I stared at her for long seconds, my chest heaving with a dry laugh. “Of course she’s not okay. Johnny hasn’t even been dead five days. We buried him this morning. What do you expect—?”
“She hasn’t eaten in . . .” She turned to the twins, but neither answered. “I don’t know when she last ate. She won’t sleep. She’s obsessing over work to distract herself, but it’s going to kill her. Didn’t you see her today?”
My mouth opened but no response came out, because in avoiding looking her in the eye, I’d avoided looking at her at all.
Libby’s mouth formed a tight line, and with two large steps to close the distance between us, she pressed her hands to my chest and shoved me back. “You’re not the only one hurting,” she hissed, moving to shove me again. “You’re not the only one who lost someone. Your family needs you, you can’t just check out because you were too stupid to see the signs and got your heart broken.”
I grabbed her wrists when she tried to push me again. “What do you want me to do? You’re all grieving someone I killed. Einstein is mourning the loss of her boyfriend who I fucking killed, Libby.”
“I want you to fix it. I want you to keep this family together the way you always have. Johnny was sick. He was insane. No one blames you, Dare, but you can’t just leave us when we need you.”
“I would never leave any one of you, but that’s . . . fuck, Libby.” I dropped her arms and stepped back, my shoulders sagging. “I’m tired. I’m so goddamn tired. I’ve been trying to keep the entire family together since I was thirteen because it’s always been, ‘Dare will know what to do.’ I never knew what to fucking do. That role shouldn’t have been put on me then, and I don’t want it now. People are still dying, and we’re still neck deep in things I don’t want us in, and at some point I want all that to end. I don’t want to be Boss. I’ll never be Dad, and it’s exhausting trying to be.”
“I don’t want you to be Boss,” she mumbled, her eyes darting to the floor.
A weighted breath puffed from my chest. “For someone who rebels from this life so much, you seem to push me toward it.”
“I wouldn’t call it rebelling, per se,” she said with a shrug. “More like fleeing with flare.”
The corner of my mouth twitched up and my eyes rolled. “You’re an idiot.” Stepping toward her, I hooked my arm around her neck and pulled her in for a hug. “All right, let me go check on the genius.”
Maverick stood, his face somber. “I’ll come.”
“No, I’ve got it. I don’t want her to feel like we’re ganging up on her.” Rubbing the back of my neck, I sighed. “Besides, I’ve been avoiding this talk.”
I walked through the apartment to Einstein’s room and almost didn’t knock on the door when there was absolute silence on the other side.
I turned, not surprised to find Libby and the twins just a few feet from behind me.
“She’s awake. Trust me, just go in,” Libby said, not bothering to whisper.
And when I opened the door, I found out why.
Einstein was sitting at her desk with her noise-cancelling headphones on. All three of her screens were up and running, her fingers twitching over one before she threw her headphones off, music screaming out of them, and shoved from the desk to run to the bed.
