“It doesn’t matter what that bitch says,” I said, the words slipping out rougher than I meant. “We will protect you. I will. No one will dare mess with you, I promise.”
Down the hall I heard Dev rattling around in his room — drawers opening, something clattering. He was going to comeout any second, and for the first time in a long time, I wished he’d stay put.
Just for a moment.
“Thanks, K.”
She smiled — small, sad, the kind that twisted something deep beneath my ribs.
“But I don’t need a big brother.”
Gods.
She had no idea what that did to me.
I was aching to pull her into my arms.
To tell her the truth.
To stop pretending I didn’t feel the way I felt.
Why can’t I just be honest with her?
“I’m not your brother, Seph—”
“You’re my friend?” she interrupted gently.
I swallowed. Hard.
Her eyes were too open, too trusting, too bruised from a lifetime of betrayal.
“I never stopped being your friend,” I said quietly.
But that wasn’t the whole truth.
Not even close.
And the way she looked at me — soft, grateful, completely unaware of the wildfire she stirred in me — made it ten times harder to speak the words burning up my throat.
I opened my mouth—
And Dev’s door creaked.
Footsteps approached.
And the truth I almost said died on my tongue.
Because whatever this was…
whatever we were edging toward…
was not something I could spill in the middle of our living room with an audience about to walk in.
Not when she looked this fragile.
Not when I felt this raw.
“Seph, I’m coming!” Dev called from his room. “Be there in a sec.”
