How did he…
“None of them said anything.” That fact pissed him off. “At least not the specifics of what happened this time.”
This time?
I frowned.
“But my point is, you need to see someone, to talk to them. I want to be that person for you, but I don’t think I am.”
An inescapable sadness lived within that statement. “Milo…”
“Nope, you don’t have to make me feel better. This is one of the things that I should be doing as your big brother, but we’re not there yet.”
The big fierce guy with his tattoos and dark, furious eyes had shifted my whole worldview. Challenged everything I knew about myself. Proved that someone could care and want the best without wanting anything from me. I hated seeing him upset. Not that I could fix this either.
At least, I didn’t think I could.
“That said, I want to take you to meet someone.”
“I don’t want to be sent anywhere…” All at once I wanted to retreat. “You said you wouldn’t send me away.”
“I’m not going to,” he promised, hands raised with his palms outward. “She lives here—in Braxton Harbor. She’s a good person. Fuck that, she’s a great person. The point is, she’s been there for me. Hell, she’s been there for all of us. I don’t know a better person to confide in. She knows you—well, she knew you when you were little.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, not entirely certain of what to do with that. “Can I think about it? I’m not really big on strangers right now.”
Strangers. Doctors. So-called mental health professionals. Pretty much not anyone.
“That’s fair,” he said, then raked a hand over his head. “Are you—planning on staying here at the clubhouse?”
“Do you not want me to?” It was hard to tell.
Dropping his hands to his hips, he dipped his chin down as if he needed to gather himself. “It’s not a call you want me to make.”
“Wow. That really did look painful for you to say.”
His snort made me smile and when he lifted his head, he was chuckling again. “It is painful for me to say. Do I need to point out that you literally just kissed Jasper, Vaughn, and Kellan?”
“Nope. Pretty sure I was there for that part.” He rolled his eyes and I lifted my shoulders. “I’m not going to apologize for that.”
“I didn’t ask for an apology.”
“Good.” Okay, maybe I was being snippy.
“Apparently.” Him too.
Sighing, I tried to relax and dropped the defensive posture. “This is hard.”
“Fuck yes, it is.” He clasped the back of his neck. “Any chance you can just—go back to being someone who doesn’t know anything about boys?”
I hadn’t been that person in a long, long time. “Sorry.”
“Right. I’m kidding—well, half-kidding.” The pause elongated. I swore it was like he really wanted to tell me something but didn’t want to at the same time. Or maybe that was just me. “Look, if I have a preference, I’d rather you stayed at Liam’s place or we get you a different place if you need to. We can come to you…”
“But you don’t want me here.”
“Don’t want is a strong set of words.”
That was something.
“I just don’t know if it’s safe enough for you here.” A fact which clearly bothered him. “That said, I’m not going to order you to go back to Liam’s or—anywhere else.”
“You’re getting better at saying those words.”
“Bite me.” It came out so damn grouchy it took everything I had to not just laugh at him. As it was, he glared up at the ceiling. “I’m trying.”
“Yes,” I said softly, swallowing the laughter. “You are, and I appreciate it. I don’t mean to tease.”
“No, teasing is fine.” He rubbed his jaw. “It’s actually kind of nice.”
“Yeah? I’ve never had a sibling before.”
“You can’t tell,” he assured me, and I wasn’t entirely certain if that was a compliment or not. While the awkwardness was still there, the weird factor had dialed down. “Just—can you think about it for me? Like I said, if you want somewhere else, we can do that too. Not going to make you go anywhere.”
“I can think about it.” It wasn’t asking a lot.
“Thank you.” He exhaled. It was like maneuvering around landmines, but neither of us wanted to set off the other. “Can I ask about the Sharpes?”
I flinched. I didn’t mean to, but it escaped before I could suppress it at the sudden left in the conversation. Maybe it wasn’t a sudden left…
Milo’s frown tightened. “You really didn’t want to go back to them.”
It wasn’t a question. This wasn’t something I wanted him to know. Me, having some magical blessed life was important to him. “We should probably go see the guys now.”
We’d been out here for a while.
“Yeah, about that—” He grimaced. “Before we go inside…”
“You just said you weren’t going to ask me to go.”
“I’m not. Just—there’s something you need to know and it would probably be easier to show you.”
“What?”
“Just—we had a little help in figuring out where you were.”
He already knew I’d been at Pinetree. “How?”
“C’mon,” he said, gesturing to the door. He didn’t wait for me and I folded my arms as I followed him. My stomach kept doing the drop thing and I couldn’t quite seem to stay on solid emotional ground. There were a lot of questions waiting for me inside, but it might be easier with everyone there.
Maybe.
As promised, Liam stood right inside the door and Milo just rolled his eyes as he waited for me to go in. Liam wasn’t alone. Jasper straightened, as did Kellan, then Rome stepped forward. Were they all waiting right here?
“Really guys?” Milo said. “Subtle.”
“Not trying to be subtle.” Vaughn nodded to me. “Actually, we were just talking about food, Dove.”
“Save it for a minute,” Milo asked, holding up his hand.
They all gave him a variety of suspicious looks, but Rome shifted his weight. Then nodded and when he held his hand out to me, I took it. Milo headed up the stairs and I followed, with Rome, and apparently everyone else. It was weird. The guys didn’t follow us down the hall as we passed most of the rooms I knew to the room at the very end.
At the last door, Milo pulled out a set of keys and unlocked it. Why the hell was it locked from the outside?
“Oh, you’re back. Be still my heart…” The voice from within the room was as familiar to me as my own. Oh my god.
“Lainey?”
CHAPTER 39
EMERSYN
“Lainey?” It was like a grenade had been dropped. She was here? What was she…? Before the thought could even complete, she was just there. Dressed in shorts, a t-shirt with a hole in the sleeve, sans makeup and even with her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, Lainey looked like a million bucks.