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He sounded genuinely delighted, and despite myself, a part of me softened.
Cole slowly drew Dylan out of his shell; even though Dylan wasn’t talking, he edged closer to look as Cole took toys out of the box.
“I have to know,” Karissa said quietly, with a stormy edge to her voice that startled me. “Did one of my men do that to your face?”
I touched my cheek absently and found the painful swelling there. “One of your men?”
“My brothers. Or Cole . . . he practically counts as a brother, he annoys me so much. Or anyone in the pack. If they hurt you, they’ll be punished.” She sounded surprisingly fierce, given I was nothing to her, and I stared at her in confusion. Her apparent kindness made my stomach ache, wondering if it was a trick.
“I was in a car accident.”.An accident I caused. An accident that could’ve killed Dylan too.The thought pressed into my chest, sharp as a blade. I’d come so close to losing the one person I lived for.
She looked at me like she knew the bruises on my body weren’t from the accident, but all she said was, “As long as they didn’t hurt you.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “So, they aren’t going to hurt me later?”
“No,” she said, sounding furious at the idea. “Of course not.”
“Because Dylan is Brennan’s son?”
“Because these brothers of mine are dickheads, but they aren’t those kind of dickheads,” she promised. “You’ll . . . see what you’re dealing with soon.”
Even though she was trying to be comforting, my stomach curdled. I needed to know what I was dealing withnow.I needed to figure out how to protect Dylan. And I needed to figure out how to escape.
My mission had been freedom for Dylan and me; that hadn’t changed, even if my circumstances kept shifting.
Cole lifted a metal airplane in the air, pretending to ignore us, but said, “Karissa,” in a warning tone.
She shrugged. “Hey, let me know if you find my Lite Brite. I miss that thing.”
“There’s more toys to bring down,” Cole said. To Dylan, he added, “You’ll have to keep giving me an excuse to play with this stuff, okay? Cause if I don’t have you around when I play cars, the guys will just make fun of me.”
Dylan’s lips twitched, almost like he was considering a smile.
Karissa squeezed my arm and said, “I’m going to get some sweet tea and lunch together and let you and Dylan get cleaned up. Come downstairs when you’re ready.”
“Okay,” I said, finding it hard to believe they were giving us the run of the house. I expected we were prisoners, but I hadn’t figured out where the bars were just yet. I didn’t want to make a mistake and bring rage raining down on us.
Karissa touched Cole’s shoulder. He nodded and got up, smiling at Dylan. Cole was enormous too, six-foot-two, broad-shouldered, and lean, but even though he towered over Dylan, he didn’t seem intimidating right now.
I took Dylan into the bathroom and gave him a bath, trying not to look at my face in the mirror. One of my eyes was so swollen that I couldn’t open it all the way, and dark bruises ran down that side of my face. I didn’t look pretty anymore, that was for sure.
“I want to go home,” Dylan whispered when I was getting him dressed in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt and a pair of denim shorts, the best we could do from the bin.
“Me too, honey.” I longed for home, but I wasn’t even sure what home looked like anymore. Not my house with Nathan, and not the house where I’d grown up. I longed to go home to somewhere I felt safe and loved, the cabin in the woods where I’d been happy with Brennan. But it wasn’t there anymore.
I squeezed Dylan in my arms. “But when I’m with you, home is wherever we’re together.”
He gave me the most side-eye I’d ever seen from a four-year-old. “Home is where my Lego bricks are.”
I laughed, delighted that he was talking again at all.
I took a long, hot shower while he played with toys in the next room, leaving the door open between us. His little feet padded to the tile floor and he asked, “Mommy?” several times while I showered, checking in when he couldn’t see me, and my heart twisted even as I answered him cheerfully each time.
My stiff, aching body felt better under the stream of hot water, but I had to find out what was going on. Reluctantly, I got out of the shower and put on the soft terrycloth joggers and T-shirt Karissa had lent me.
I looked in the closet. There were rows of men’s hoodies and dress shirts on hangers. Brennan had loved his hoodies. I touched the soft gray fabric of one, then pressed my face into it, searching for that hint of scent I’d first caught in here.
Brennan.
