Craving (Steel Brothers Saga 1)

Dr. Carmichael came running out of her office. “What happened? Are you all right?”

Purple haze…and then the concrete walls again… Closing in…

I tried to breathe…

Air…needed air…

Then flames…

Morphing into wings of purple and gold.

A phoenix rising…

And then blackness.

Chapter Fifteen

Jade

“Jade, you can’t leave.” Marjorie unfolded my clothes as quickly as I was folding them. “You just got here. Between you working for Ryan at the winery and me working around the ranch, we’ve hardly spent any time together.”

I swallowed. My heart was breaking, and not just because I would be leaving Marj. “I’m so sorry. I’ll find a place in town. We’ll still be able to hang out.”

“But it won’t be the same.” Marj grabbed my pair of black patent leather pumps and threw them back in my closet.

“Look”—I walked to the closet and retrieved the pumps—“I don’t belong here. I just can’t…”

“Can’t what?”

“I can’t stay around your brother. He nearly beat Colin into a pulp this morning.”

“That’s not like Talon,” Marj said. “He’s actually a peaceful kind of guy.”

“An ex-Marine? Doesn’t really reek of peaceful.”

Marj flung a pair of jeans out of my suitcase and onto the floor. “At least Colin wasn’t hurt.”

I picked up the jeans. “Wasn’t hurt? Okay, so there isn’t any lasting damage, but his face is pretty beaten up, his nose is most likely broken, and he’s damned lucky he doesn’t have any broken ribs from all the kicking. If he wasn’t an athlete and didn’t know how to protect himself…” I couldn’t finish.

Marjorie finally stopped going through my suitcase and sat down on the bed, her brows arched. “Why do you suppose it bothered Talon so much to see him kissing you?”

Marj had always slept like a baby. Four years of rooming with her in college had taught me that. As Talon had said, she would sleep through World War III. So it was no surprise that she had no idea what had gone on between Talon and me. Just as well. How exactly was I supposed to bring the subject up? Oh, by the way, I’ve been having a little midnight fuck fest with your brother. Really didn’t think that would go over too well.

“Talon’s been a little off lately,” Marj continued.

Off? The man was way beyond simply off.

“This morning I woke up early. Came to the kitchen and found a broken glass. Water and shattered glass all over the floor. I cleaned it up. Thankfully I’d put my slippers on this morning.”

Shattered glass of water… “Do you know what happened?”

She didn’t need to answer. Talon had been sitting at the table with his glass of water, as usual, and for some reason, he decided to break it. Or maybe it was an accident. But why would he have left it there for anyone to walk into?

“I’m pretty sure Talon threw the glass.” Marj bit her lip. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

What did Marj know? “So you know that he goes out to the kitchen most nights and sits with a full glass of water?”

Marj nodded. “I rarely get up during the night. I sleep the sleep of death, as you know. But every once in a while I get up and walk around. Talon is usually in the kitchen, sitting with a glass of water. Sometimes I sit down with him and we chat for a few minutes. This morning was the second time I’ve woken up to a broken glass of water in the kitchen. It’s possible that it’s happened other times and either Felicia or Talon himself have cleaned it up.”