Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37638 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37638 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
“You’ve been fighting an internal war half your life. You didn’t give up. You fought for your sister. And yourself. I know if it hadn’t been Winter wanting to leave the safety of Black Reign, you’d never have done it on your own. You did it because Winter needed it.”
“She only did it because she thought it was what was best for me. She’d have stayed if not for me.”
“Honey, she left for you. You left for her. You both fought for each other and pushed through your fears to help your family. In my book, that makes you the fiercest warriors of all.”
I couldn’t help the little sob that escaped me. Did he really see me like that? “I’m not brave, Brick. I hid myself away after Black Reign found Winter and me, and I’ve been licking my wounds ever since.”
“So? Everyone needs time to recover.”
“Even you? And if you tell me yes, then I’ll call you a Goddamn liar. You aren’t the type of man to hide from anything.”
Brick let go of my face to wrap his other arm around me in a tight hug. God, I loved this feeling! My smaller frame was surrounded by him, his scent wrapping me up as tightly as his arm. Gasoline, evergreen, and sex.
“We all deal with trauma in different ways. I throw myself into the workings of the club. More than once I’ve taken the heat for Sting and Warlock and risked going back to prison simply because I felt the club would be better served if those men were free to run it. To guide the men of Iron Tzars. The reality was, I wasn’t sure I could survive outside of prison in the long term. I still struggle with it sometimes. Before you call bullshit on that, let me tell you that I’ve spent as much of my life in prison as I’ve spent out of it. Other than the last six years, only my childhood was spent outside of a cell. I was more comfortable on the inside than I am in polite society.”
His confession stunned me for more than one reason. I knew he’d been to prison, but for him to have been in there that long meant he’d likely killed someone. No one got that kind of time outside of tax evasion or some other white-collar shit involving taking money from the federal government, and Brick wasn’t that kind of criminal. Unless he’d accrued a shit ton of time while he was incarcerated, but that seemed a bit extreme. No. He’d killed. I could see it in every line of his face. He’d seen death more than once and had sent men to their graves knowing full well what he was doing.
Without my knowledge, my arms wrapped around Brick as far as they could manage. I was stunned when I realized what I’d done but wasn’t about to pull away from him. It felt too good. We stood like that for a while, his chin resting on my head, both of us holding each other. I buried my face in his chest and took in more of his scent. His heartbeat was loud in my ear, as was the air moving through his lungs.
Brick gave me one hard squeeze before stepping back. I wanted to throw myself at him but managed to refrain. Barely. Thank goodness he took my hand and tugged me after him.
“Come on, little warrior. Back to bed. We’ve still got some stuff to clear up between us, and it’s getting settled now.”
Well, that wasn’t ominous or anything.
He led me to the bed and helped me in before following. I tried to move to my side of the bed, but, honestly. With a man his size, there was no my side/his side of the bed. Secondly, Brick snagged me around the waist and pulled me against him, urging me to lie with my head on his shoulder and pinning my hand to his chest underneath his palm.
“Comfortable?”
I wanted to tell him, no, I was very uncomfortable, and could I move to a room of my own, but that was the very last thing I wanted to do. Instead, I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
“Words, Serelda. Talk to me.”
“Yes.” My voice came out thready. My heart was pounding. What was he going to tell me? What did he want to get straight between us? Was he about to let me down easy? Tell me he knew I had a crush on him, but he wasn’t the man for me? That he’d take me back to Iron Tzars and my sister or to Black Reign and be my protector until then, but I needed to understand he needed a woman not as damaged as me?
“Turn off that brilliant mind of yours, Serelda. All you’re doin’ is causing yourself pain, and I won’t have it. Not when there’s no reason for it.” His arms tightened around me, and he pulled me even closer to him. Knowing I was hurting, even from my own stupid musings, made him need to protect me from it. That’s who Brick was. My protector.