Everything clutched.
My heart and my body and my mind.
How had I gone and gotten so reckless? Let this girl invade? Take up the places inside me that she couldn’t?
“We left so we could get a second chance at life, Trent.” Logan’s voice came as a bid where he stood at my side. “All of us. Stop refusing it for yourself.”
I glanced at him with a scowl. “Not sure I get that luxury, Logan. The one thing I need to focus on right now is making sure everyone is safe. I can’t get distracted and fail again.”
At protecting Gage.
At protecting my brothers.
Fuck.
At protecting her.
Eden was the only person I’d ever considered letting in, and the first thing I’d done was put her in danger.
And I didn’t know how to stop.
How to resist.
This girl the kind of dream I didn’t want to wake from.
“You deserve joy, man.” Logan squeezed my shoulder. “Stop fighting it.”
The old demons screamed.
Whimpers and pleas.
Gunshots.
Blood. So much blood.
All of it on my hands.
“Not so sure about that.”
The sound of a motorcycle out front pulled us from our conversation, and I glanced to the screen on the security system to see Jud pulling into the driveway. He eased to a stop and climbed off. Dude nothing but a goliath who came striding to the front door. He entered the pin on the keypad to let himself in.
At the beeping, Gage hopped up and went beelining that way.
“Uncle Jud, Uncle Jud, did you come to see me, too? This is the best day ever in my whole life!” he shouted as he flew through the archway and out into the main room.
Way I wanted it. My kid completely oblivious to the turmoil that was raging inside me.
“Whoa, there he is. Gage in the cage!” Jud shouted. Inevitably, he was hoisting Gage up and spinning him over his head like he was gonna pile drive him. The two of them were in a constant wrestling match.
Gage squealed and laughed and hung on tight as Jud carried him in through the archway.
“No way, nuh-uh, Uncle, you can’t keep a good man down. I’m comin’ for you. You won’t even know what hit you.”
Jud had tossed him onto his back, one hand slung over his shoulder to keep the child from falling, and Gage had gotten him into a chokehold from behind, squirming all over like he was actually going to take Jud to the ground.
My chest stretched tight at the goodness of it. Way my brothers had surrounded me, come together as one, to raise this kid when I hadn’t known how to do the first thing right.
They’d sacrificed.
Relinquished a shit-ton of their freedoms and offered them to me.
Then that tightening was turning to a seizing when I felt the pressure in the air.
A zap of energy. A burst of light.
That magnet had me shifting my attention to where Eden climbed to her feet.
She was all nerves and hope and kindness.
So fucking gorgeous wearing a floral dress that hugged her just right.
My mouth watered, and my mind sprinted to the second I could get her alone again.
Little Temptress.
Distracting me in a way she couldn’t.
“Eden,” Jud said, dipping his chin.
My brother’s eyes flitted around to take in the situation. Adding. Calculating. Sliding to me for a quick second of speculation.
She’d stayed, and she wasn’t fucking going anywhere.
“Hi, Jud,” Eden whispered in that wispy tone.
Sound of it had always twisted me inside out.
After last night?
It was nothing but shackles and a chain.
“How you holdin’ up, sweetness?” Jud asked, the man rigid and hard and looking for a fight.
Knew him well.
He wouldn’t rest until we put this threat to bed.
Autumn eyes found me. A question. A whisper. A claim.
The connection that bound us thrashing wild.
She looked back to Jud. “Better than I could have imagined.”
Possession slammed me, and I was moving that way, the lure unstoppable. I moved up to her from behind, wrapped my arms around her waist, and fucking stuttered out a relieved sigh.
No use in denying it now.
She leaned back into my hold, exhaling, too.
Jud’s lips twitched at the side, dude silently gloating that he’d called it with that bet. Taking the girl to my bed.
Apparently, I owed him my share of Absolution.
Would gladly part with it if it meant keeping this girl whole and safe. My son happy and unharmed.
I dropped a kiss under Eden’s ear.
Gage howled from where he was perched on Jud’s back like he was witnessing the most scandalous thing. “See, Uncle, see?! My dad’s got a girlfriend and he’s gonna be kissing her like a bazillion-gajillion times!”
“I see that, shorty,” Jud said, voice a tease but his eyes intense and on edge.
“Would you mind taking Gage in the other room so I can talk with my brothers?” I murmured at Eden’s sweet flesh, not wanting to let her go, but I needed to find out if Jud had gotten any information.