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I still don’t know who he is to her. How he could possibly recognize her from her laugh alone. The familiarity in which he addressed her rubs my skin raw. I shake off the murderous urges as my curious gaze turns into more than a little bloodthirsty.
I turn my focus to her, watching the way she gnaws on her bottom lip, lost in her own thoughts. I wait for her to feel my attention on her and turn to me the way she always does. With each passing minute that she doesn't, my own anxiety ratchets up higher.
Scar isn’t herself.
None of us are.
The rest of the guys are also subdued. She hasn’t had any type of reaction, making it impossible to understand where her head is at. I feel almost as helpless as the day I lost Jen. Like I’m just waiting to lose the most important person in my life all over again.
The pain in her eyes, the lost and faraway look, it all reminds me of the time I first met her when hearing her scream from her nightmares were as common as hearing her and Kade have sex.
My thoughts wander back to that time and I realize just how far Scar has come in the past year. She’s no longer keeping us all at arm’s length, which means her lack of reaction can only be one thing. She doesn’t know how to react. She doesn’t know what our next step should be either. Maybe she doesn’t even know what to do with this man. I’ve never seen her hesitate to kill anyone before, but somehow I get the feeling that’s exactly the case here. Whether she realizes it or not.
The drive to Declan’s place seems to drag on as the silence transcends any level of comfort we normally have as a group. Nothing about this trip has been typical for us. It unsettles me that one unexpected twist of events has rocked us so off balance.
I stare out the window as Luca pulls off the freeway. We drive through lights, becoming further and further away until we reach an isolated residential area. Luca still doesn’t slow the car. Passing through stop signs as we begin to drive up a hill. It seems as if the road just keeps going, all the way until houses no longer line the streets.
We pull up to a wrought iron gate that closes off the street. Luca rolls to a stop and Declan clears his throat before telling him the code that opens the gate. The rest of us exchange looks as the intricate gate slowly opens.
There are no signs or any evidence that this is a gated community. Rather all indications lead to the conclusion that Declan’s family has more wealth than I had anticipated. It’s one thing to have a gate off of a residential street the way Luca does. It’s quite another for the main street to turn into your private drive at the top of a mountain.
I study Declan, but he’s actively avoiding our stares as much as Scar is now. His body is much tenser than when he first climbed into the car. I guess I was so focused on Scar, I didn’t stop to think how he would feel about coming back to one of his family’s homes. He’s never opened up to me, but from what he revealed when he discovered Scar’s true identity, I know being a James has been, at best, a burden but more likely a horror show.
Kade watches him with the same apprehension he had been using to watch Scar. I guess they also have come a long way from the time they couldn’t be in the same room together. Declan meets his eyes only to subtly shake his head.
He calls out another code just as Luca begins to slow to another stop.
Kade arches a brow, breaking the tense mood of the car. “Two gates. Really?”
Declan scoffs, a huff of amusement that draws even Scar’s attention. “How else would you know I was rich rich?”
I snort as Luca pulls through the gate and turns the corner of the road and the house appears before us. “I don’t think any of us would doubt that.”
I can’t take my eyes off of her as she takes in the huge mansion in front of us. Any other time Kade would join me in heckling Declan as Scar watched on in amusement. But I can’t dredge up the energy and I don’t think the rest of us can either. It was a brief moment of small smiles that couldn’t overcome the stress that has accumulated from this night.
“You can just park at the front,” Declan directs. “All staff will be gone at this time.”
Luca and Kade nod, but no one else says anything as Luca parks and we all pile out of the van. Scar looks at the colonial mansion with wide eyes, full of emotion. Of recognition, longing, and even a thread of disgust. None of us can blame her for her disdain for this type of show of wealth. It must be reminiscent of her own childhood.
Declan leads us through the front door, hardly stopping to show us around before leading us all to a hallway full of bedrooms.
Scar speaks up for the first time when she directs Ian and Joe to take Charles into an empty room and to rotate standing guard.
“We can all take turns,” Kade volunteers.
She scoffs, some of her normal fire bleeding through her stone cold exterior. “I can’t trust the rest of you Neanderthals with him.”
“Hey, I don’t even know who the dick is,” I argue back, taking issue with her saying she can’t trust us.
“Her ex,” Luca says derisively.
I nod, crossing my arms over my chest. Understanding dawns on me as to the reason why Luca and Kade seemed even more tightly wound than the rest of us. She arches a brow, challenging me. “Yeah, can’t trust me,” I agree, changing my tune now that I know their past. What a sick, twisted history it is. We all heard what she said, what she realized. His father is one of the men who ruined our girl. For it to have been someone who was so close to her. It somehow makes the whole thing that much worse.
Maybe I can understand why she is so lost in her own mind right now. That’s a hell of a lot to process. She’s handling it better than I did. I eye his body slung over Joe’s shoulder. Maybe we should just kill him.
“We have it under control,” Joe intervenes before things can get out of hand. He looks over Scar appraisingly. “How do you want us to handle him?”
She hesitates. Right. No killing. Not until she is certain of her own mind. “Just come get me when he wakes up,” she answers instead.
