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Which I can, I’m just not sure how to explain it.
I know what I feel for the guys. For all three of them. I know what’s happened between us, and what they’ve given up to help me this time. I just don’t have the words to talk about that kind of thing.
And maybe I don’t have the courage to trust it—to trust myself—quite yet, either.
But mostly, I don’t want to confuse Chloe. Not after all she’s been through.
“The Reapers are on our side now,” I tell her, brushing her hair back again and leaving it at that. “They helped me find you, and they’re going to help us… help us stay safe.”
Chloe searches my eyes for a minute, then nods, her shoulders relaxing. “Okay.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Chloe,” I say, a lump growing in my throat. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find you sooner.”
She shakes her head. “No, Riley. I’m just glad you’re okay. I was—” Her voice hitches, her eyes welling up. She swallows it down, blinking before she allows any tears to fall, and lifts her chin defiantly. “I was scared. For you. I wasn’t sure what they did to you. I thought…” She swallows again, and this time her voice is a cracked whisper. “I thought I heard a gunshot from the house when I was running away.”
“You did, babe,” I say, grabbing onto her hand and holding it tight. “I shot Maddoc.”
Her eyes go wide. “MaddocGray? The leader of the Reapers?”
“Yeah, but he understands why I did it. He even respects it.” I squeeze her hand again. “I was scared foryou. I hated the idea of you out there on your own. And fuck, I’m so glad you were able to keep yourself hidden for so long.”
“Not long enough,” she says, looking away. Looking a little lost.
I turn her face back toward mine. “You did good,” I say firmly. “Those West Point fuckers had people everywhere. It’s amazing you managed to stay off their radar for as long as you did. We figured out you’d been staying at that abandoned place over off Alameda Avenue. Was that where you were the whole time?”
She shakes her head. “No, only for a day or so. I moved around a lot.”
“Good girl,” I murmur, running my hand over her hair.
“I tried to move mostly at night and found places like that one to stay out of sight during the day. I used that cash to pay for things… mostly.”
She ducks her head.
“Hey now, it’s okay. Whatever you had to do.”
“I know,” she says, raising her head and pinning me with a gaze older and a little harder than it should be. “You taught me that.”
“Yeah.” And part of me hates that for her, but the bigger part of me is damn happy that I taught her enough about how fucked up the world can be for her to realize that taking care of herself out there had to be heronlypriority.
She tells me a little more about her time on the streets, ending with—
“I had to steal a few things, break into one place when I thought I was being followed the second day, but I was doing okay.” A tremor in her voice tells me that “okay” is a bit of a stretch—probably why she reached out to Frank when I took too damn long to find her—but then her chin firms again. “I figured you’d, um, you’d find me eventually.”
“Always. You did good,” I repeat, hugging her tightly. “Now come on. Let’s go downstairs and get you something to eat.”
All three of the guys are in the kitchen when we go down.
“Hey, princess,” Dante says with a lazy smile. He raises his coffee cup in greeting to my sister. “Chloe. Good to see you again.”
“Hi,” she says cautiously, inching a little closer to me.
“Are you feeling better?” Maddoc asks her, leaning back against the kitchen island with a cup of coffee in his hands too.
My sister raises her chin, showing all the spine that kept her alive out there as she decides not to let her nerves get the best of her. “I’d feel better with some of that coffee.”
Dante laughs.
“You really are her sister,” Maddoc says with a hot spark in his eyes as they flick toward me that warms me from the inside out.
