Shoulder the Skye (Skye Druids #2)(32)
Author: Donna Grant
“Unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean.” And it infuriated Elias.
“I found myself in a situation I couldn’t get out of. It wasn’t just Sydney watching me, but all the others, too. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d felt so scared. I didn’t know what they would do to me if I tried to leave, and I didn’t want to find out. I took the only option I had left. I reached out to my father.” She paused and drew in a shaky breath.
Elias wanted to sit beside her, to reach for her hand as she had done for him. But he remained in his seat. He, better than most, knew all about violent loss. He wouldn’t push Bronwyn to tell him something she wasn’t ready to share.
Hazel eyes lifted to his. “I left Skye and this house because of him. I wanted him to suffer as I’d suffered since Mum’s death. That sounds so childish.”
“We can no’ help how we feel, lass.”
She kept picking at her nail as her gaze dropped to her lap. “After Mum, Dad became a ghost of the man he’d once been. He drank heavily, and there were nights I heard him crying. My parents were madly devoted to each other. The kind of love you always hear about but never actually think is real.”
Elias knew it was real. He’d seen it with his sister and Scott.
“Dad blamed himself for Mum’s suicide. I kept telling him that it wasn’t his fault, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He didn’t know how to go on without her. I took care of him, did everything a child could do. I thought that would pull him out of it, but it didn’t. I got in trouble at school, but that didn’t do anything either. I ignored him, I berated him, I yelled at him. Nothing worked. I was losing him.”
Like she had lost her mum. Elias briefly squeezed his eyes closed, his heart hurting for what she had endured, and all of it alone.
“I couldn’t stay and watch it happen to another of my parents,” she stated as she looked at him. “So, I left. I didn’t think he’d notice, but after a few days of no one to cook his meals or make him get out of bed, he did. That was when he started calling. I ignored those and the dozens that followed. It wasn’t until I got his voicemail that said he had hired a private investigator to find me that I sent him a text and told him I was fine, but that if I wanted to talk to him, I’d let him know. He continued calling once a week, but I never answered.”
“Until you contacted him.”
She nodded, the despair on her face heart-wrenching. “I did. And it got him killed.”
Elias sat forward, anger simmering below the surface. “What happened?”
“Sydney happened. I thought I had been discreet, but someone must have known something. I snuck out before dawn, left everything, and just ran. Once I knew I hadn’t been followed, I told Dad to meet me in an alley far from Sydney. But Sydney’s gang hadn’t followed me. They trailed my father. I spotted Dad. He held his arms out to me, a bright smile on his face, and that’s when I saw Sydney behind Dad.”
Elias fisted his hands. He knew what was coming.
Bronwyn swiped at her eye. “I didn’t even have time to reach him. I didn’t get to apologize for what I’d done or tell him how much I loved him. Sydney took his life in an instant. By the time I reached Dad, he was gone.”
Aye. Elias should’ve made Sydney pay when he’d had the chance. But he would have a second opportunity. He’d make sure of it.
“I…” Bronwyn sniffed and drew in a shaky breath. “Let’s just say the tethers of fear that had held me were broken. I turned my fury on Sydney. I didn’t care if anyone saw us. I attacked. He didn’t expect it. It was just Sydney and two others. I don’t remember what I did. I was so furious that I lashed out. Whatever happened, they left me alone. I contacted the authorities, who came immediately. They ruled Dad’s death as natural, said he had a heart attack. I couldn’t prove otherwise, so I let it be. I alerted the police to Sydney and his group. They went looking for Sydney, which gave me the time I needed to get out of Inverness and bring my father home to be buried next to Mum.” She licked her lips. “Sydney always retaliates, so I waited for just that to happen. Days turned to weeks and then months. I thought he had forgotten about me. But I was wrong.”
“Is that when you became drough?”
She slowly shook her head as she met his gaze. “I believed I could handle Sydney myself. I was ready for it. I didn’t become drough until he turned his attention on Beth.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Bronwyn didn’t know why she had told Elias her story. She hadn’t meant to, but the words had flowed. And once she began, she couldn’t seem to stop. He listened raptly, taking in every word. For the first time in her life, she felt truly heard. As if he understood the complex emotions that’d led to her decisions.
She trusted him even when he said he didn’t judge her for turning drough. That, in itself, boggled her mind. Yet she saw the acceptance in his eyes. The Knights had been the same.
Bronwyn was used to the hate and revulsion people hurled her way. She had grown accustomed to the disgust and animosity on their faces. She had been prepared for that. When anyone treated her with compassion, humanely, it rocked her to her very foundation.
Perhaps that was why she found herself spilling her secrets. Well, at least one of them.
The empathy, the kindness in Elias’s gaze was almost too much. Vitriol and contempt couldn’t penetrate her armor. But respect and understanding brought her to her knees.
“Is Beth safe?” Elias asked.
Bronwyn nodded. “Absolutely.”
“You seem certain of that.”
“I am.”
One side of his mouth curved upward in a crooked smile. “Good.” He slowly sat back and stretched his legs, crossing his ankles. “If you doona mind me asking, why a drough? Why no’ go to someone for help?”
“I did go to someone. Dad died because of me. I couldn’t let anyone else lose their life because of my bad choices.”
“Aye,” he said softly. “I ken, lass.”
She shifted beneath the weight of his gaze. “It wasn’t an easy choice by any means. Beth is all the family I have left. I’ll do whatever is necessary to protect her.”
“You’ve already done it.”