AllFreeNovel
Share Us
27
BOOM
Noises clamored much too soon.
Light cracked through the darkness, then blazed as someone at the top flicked the switch. With the instinctive sense of belonging to a pack, I glanced over at Theo, garishly wounded now that I could pinpoint every gash.
“Oh, my—”
“I’ll be fine.” He refocused his attention on the stairs, and with a grunt, pulled himself up despite my attempts to help.
It came as a surprise when my left thigh screamed as soon as I put weight on it. The fall down the stairs was making itself known in detail, especially when I demanded my battered muscles to move. But what was the alternative? I was hardened now, a woman who’d seen fingers broken and loose teeth on the ground. Being locked in a basement with a wounded Theo beside me and a psychopath father and son above shouldn’t be so unnerving.
Yet … they’d never beenmyfingers and teeth.
A set of designer shoes clomped down the stairs, groaning beneath his weight. It made me thankful they were wooden steps, not concrete, since I’d been tossed down them like scrap meat.
A form came to a stop in front of us, his chin lowered until the exact right moment, his walk lean and unhurried. Trace. When he raised his head, I was once again appalled at the beauty. A man so lethal shouldn’t look that good. I felt sorry for all the women and men who fell for his outer grace and too late realized the inner demon.
A reflection of Theo, yet he couldn’t come close to the man standing beside me, one shoulder more stooped than the other, the thin lines of his lips containing a grimace. He was their beauty, their grace, personified. He’d done horrible things but was pained by it and repentant.
He was a prince born into the wrong story.
I reached for his hand. If we got out of this alive, perhaps he could become a part of mine.
“Brother,” Theo said.
“Ah, brother mine,” Trace replied. “What a twisted web we’re in.”
“Aren’t we always.”
“Thank you for bringing me back.”
“Yeah,” Theo said, pointing to his face. “I got all the thanks I need.”
“No worse than what we looked like as young children,” Trace said. “Come on, bro, you still got your teeth.”
Trace smiled, and for the first time I noticed how white they were, how perfectly straight. Veneers.
Trace cocked his head in a playful manner. “You know how Father is.”
“So, was it all a ruse, then?” Theo asked. “Having me go overseas, using the family’s funds, to find a son who was already located?”
“Actually, no,” Trace said. “I had no intention of coming back here. I was having lots of fun where I was. Drea says hello, by the way.”
Trace said the last part to me, and for a brief moment—one I wasn’t proud of—I buckled beneath his pointed stare.
“I’m glad she’s okay,” I said dryly.
“Better than. She’s upstairs.”
“Oh good. Give her my regards.”
“I sure will.Letty.”
I looked away when I swallowed, unwilling to show any obvious weakness in front of this man.
“Why are we here, Trace?” Theo asked. “As far as I can see, you’re back, Father has his favorite son at the helm, there’s no need for Scarlet to be beside me right now.”
