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“Big brother speech already? Don’t mess around, do you?”
“I’m protective of those I love, and I love my family—the ones I’ve chosen rather than those binding me by blood. Caera is currently the only exception to that rule.” Jasper jerked his chin to the right. “Ky texted. Her phone hasn’t moved from a spot just over there for the last few minutes.”
Saul squinted past the low beams of the headlights into the dark. True dark, away from street lamps and house lights, lightly kissed by moonlight. He could barely make out the shadowy outline of several trees, maybe a boulder. “Thanks.”
As he stalked past Jasper, the sadist’s hand lashed out and snagged his forearm in a death grip. “Our intel is that it’s a manmade beauty spot, designed for the residents. Trees, rocks, a few benches, and a pond. It stretches for about two acres, so don’t go running in there and breaking your fucking leg, or worse, taking a header into the water. Think smart, Saul. Do you need a flashlight?”
“No. I’ve got it.”
“All right, then.” Jasper released him. “You need us, you holler.”
Setting off at a jog again, Saul crossed the street and found the paved path leading across a wide swath of grass. He followed it, hoping he was taking the same route Caera had, all the way into a dense copse of what appeared to be a mixture of pinyon and juniper trees. He kept going through the thickest shadows until the trees thinned out into a weirdly wonderful oasis.
Someone had put some effort into making the most of this parcel of land.
The path curved as he ran, and he realized it skirted around the edge of a pretty big pond as he’d been warned. Moonlight shimmered on the still surface, and across the water, he thought he saw a hazy silhouette huddled on the grassy bank.
Caera. He almost shouted it. Almost.
Instead, he ran faster, cursing the stretch of pathway leading to her. He wouldn’t give her time to run, and he couldn’t forewarn her that he was coming if she was planning on throwing herself in the fucking pond to drown.
Twenty feet away from where he’d seen the figure, he began to walk, calming his breathing and praying his heart would do the same. It was definitely her—her hair was like a beacon in the moonlight, reeling him closer.
Ten feet away, he stopped, unsure whether to break the silence or what to say.
“You ran all that way,” Caera said quietly without turning around. “I watched you.”
“Well, I took my eyes off my little rabbit, and she bolted.” Saul stepped nearer. “I’m rather fond of her, you see, so I thought I’d better track her down and make sure she was okay.”
“Maybe it’s time to let her go.”
“If I thought that was what she really wanted, I would.” He settled down on the damp grass beside her, copying her position. Arms hugging raised knees, chin on forearms. “Can we stop talking about you in the third person now?”
She sighed. “I think you started it.”
“I did. What tipped you over the edge, Caera?”
“Straight in for the kill. I…Anarchy was the tipping point.”
Confused, Saul ran the evening through his head, trying to think of anything that could have been said or done to invoke this reaction. There was nothing, literally nothing that came to mind. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither did I, until I watched her. My existence hurts people, Saul. Every rung on the ladder of my life, I’ve grabbed using pain as a footstool. Darius, the woman who took me in, Samuel and Meredith. My being here, being introduced into Jasper’s life…it followed the pattern. I caused him pain, and in turn, he hurt Anarchy by turning her away when all she wanted to do was comfort him.”
“There’s a massive difference between adjustment and pain, Caera. Everyone deals with both in their own way. Jasper is like you—he’s secretive with his emotions, he’s a private person, and until he met Archie, he was pretty set on dying alone.” Saul rested his cheek on his arm, so he could look at her as he spoke. “Anarchy is his opposite—she’s a giver, a comforter, and she believes that every problem under the sun can be fixed with a hug. It isn’t easy to love someone who minimizes their pain and tucks it away, because it erodes away at the foundation of them. You know what I mean, bunny.”
She still wouldn’t look at him, which was concerning. Her gaze was trained somewhere out over the quiet water. “But she does. Anarchy loves him.”
“She really does. Can you keep a secret, Caera?”
“I’ll take it to my grave.”
Jesus, his palm itched with the urge to spank that mindset out of her. Goddamn it, he hoped they weren’t going to get wet tonight. A midnight swim in a fucking pond was not his idea of a good time. “This is not common knowledge. There are only a few of us who know, and I think being one of them might help you understand the lengths we go to as a family.”
“Secret. Got it.”
“Anarchy killed a man.”
Oh yeah, that got her attention, he thought smugly as Caera’s head lifted, turning slowly to stare at him in disbelief.
