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She shrugged, acting like it was nothing, but I saw the way her eyes creased at the edges—I witnessed the straightening of her lips. “You know, big brother and all that.” She waved her hand in the air as if to bat her words away, but it wasn’t working. I’d seen that there was more than that to it. I wouldn’t confront her about it, not yet, but I was one hundred percent positive that there would be a time where she felt like she could confide in me, just like she could about her ex.
I wasn’t stupid, I could clearly see he’d been abusive towards her, and unfortunately, that shit was just way too common nowadays. But me…I had every intention of showing this woman that what she deserved was way more than she’d been given.
“Big brothers can get like that with little sisters,” I remarked, going along with what she was saying. The only experience I had with that was growing up with my cousin Sofia—Lorenzo and Dante’s little sister. She was older than me, but I was protective over her, just like all the others were. And now Bailey too.
I blinked, hating how the image of Bailey curled into the corner of Romeo’s living room shot into my head. It was my fault she’d gotten hurt again. My fault that—
“Raf?” Her soft tone snapped me out of my own head, her small hand cupping the side of my face and tilting it so that I was looking right at her. “Where’d you go just now?”
“Nowhere.” I cracked my neck to the side, hearing the bones crunch.
She smiled sadly, like she knew exactly where I’d gone but still didn’t say anything. We had a silent understanding, one where we wouldn’t push each other too much. One where we knew our secrets were just that:ours.
Peyton was becoming my—
“Escape,” I murmured, thinking out loud. I hadn’t meant to say it, but now that the word was hanging in the air, I had to clarify what I meant. “You need an escape.” I pressed closer to her, watching her eyes intently to see what she thought about my words, but she was giving nothing away. “I need an escape too.”
Her gaze flickered between my eyes, then down to my lips before focusing higher again. “How do you…” She trailed off, her voice cracking. I waited, wondering what she was going to say. “How do you know I need an escape?”
I blinked, staring at her intently. “The mask you wear, it slips when you’re with me.” Her eyes widened at my words, but I didn’t allow her to think about it too much as I continued, “Wearing it all the time is exhausting. But with me, you can let it go.” I paused, pressing closer to her so that my lips were right by her ear. “I can be your escape, mama. Just say the word and I’m here.”
I pulled back just enough to press a long kiss to her cheek, to inhale a breath of her distinctive jasmine perfume.
“Promise?” she murmured, just as my cell vibrated in my pocket. I knew who it was without having to look—Romeo. He wanted to talk to me, and there was no way he was going to let it drop now that he knew exactly where I was.
“I promise,” I said, deadly fuckin’ serious as I stared into her eyes. I hated that I was going to have to walk away from her right then, but fuck, I’d given myself enough time to process all of my family’s secrets, not that I’d made sense of them in that time. But now I had to stop acting out and do what I needed to—talk to my brother.
My cell vibrated again, this time followed by a knock on the door and a shouted, “Raf, I know you’re in there! I need to talk to you.” I didn’t look at Peyton as I stared down her hallway, not wanting to let her see that I’d felt the way she’d tensed, I’d sensed the way the atmosphere changed and the terror took over.
I had to get to the bottom of it all, but first, I had to figure my own shit out, which meant…
“I gotta go.” I closed my eyes, inhaled a breath, then pulled back completely from her as our gazes met. So many things were said in one look, but the most important one of them all was: “This isn’t over.”
And it wasn’t. That wouldn’t be the last time I pressed my lips to hers, that was a damn vow I made as I headed to her front door, opened it up, walked outside to see Romeo standing right there, closed it behind me, then walked across both driveways and back to his house.
I’d wanted to come and go before he’d known I was here, but as I entered my big brother’s house, the first thing I said to Bailey was, “You called him.”
Her eyes widened, her gaze batting around the room, then landing on Romeo as he walked in behind me.
“Erm…”
“She didn’t need to call me. The sensor alerted me as soon as there was a second person in the house.” Of course it had. Bailey said that he’d upped security in the house, so that made sense. But still… “We need to talk,” Romeo continued.
“Then talk.” I shrugged, ambling over to the other side of the room, choosing to lean against the wall instead of taking a seat. I’d already been here an hour, talking things out with Bailey, but now I had to rehash it all with my big brother and—
“Mom.”
“Nope.” I pushed off the wall, not willing to hear any of it.
“Raf,” Romeo growled, his tone brooking no room for argument. “We need to talk about it.”
I laughed, halting in the middle of the room. “Why? It won’t make any difference. She was raped. He let it happen. And I was the one who had to deal with the aftermath.”
Romeo frowned. “You were a kid, Raf. You can’t have remembered—”
“What?” I interrupted. “I can’t have remembered what? The way Mom would scream in the middle of the night?” My breaths came faster. “The way she would pace the house in the dark, waiting for you and Dad to come home?” I took a step toward him. “Or how about the anxiety attacks that she had when it was just me and her—which was most of the damn time.”
“Raf—”
