Blaze (Virtues & Lies 3)

Arabella chuckles vapidly before fingering the fine gold chains around her throat. “Nothing.”

She’s lying, and I can tell because her reply is filled with contempt. Pulling the collar of her coat higher, she then presses the horn until Casper and Ryan both stand to attention.

“He can’t protect you on his own.” She shrugs, watching every single of her brother’s steps intently. “He thinks he can, and he’ll do whatever it takes, but you can’t survive this alone.”

“Go home,” Casper barks at her, opening the door wide for her.

“You’re making a mistake,” she breathes at him as she does as he told her.

“Did they tell you to deliver that message?”

“Don’t be stupid. If they knew where you’re hiding, it wouldn’t be me here.”

“Go home.”

She turns to me with a narrowed gaze. “What are you going to do once you have your baby? How are you going to care for it? How are you going to keep it safe when you’re looking over your shoulder all the time?”

“Get the fuck out of here,” he grits out at her, making to grab her arm.

“You fucking touch me and Christopher will kill you!” Arabella slaps his hand away hard enough that the impact echoes around us.

“Will he? Do you want to stake your life on it?” He draws his gun so fast that the action is a blur.

Ryan comes between them, but rather than shying away, Arabella pushes him out of the way.

“Piensa. Piensa en tu bebé…en ella,” she spits at him, shoulders square and chin held high. “And if you can’t do that—if you can’t think about them—think about mine. Es eso lo que quieres?”

“You don’t know what I want.” He pushes her away, into Ryan. “Go back to your husband, Belles.”

“No. Besides, I’m not here to talk to you. You want to die, that’s your problem…it’s your decision. But she deserves the chance to do the right thing by her and her child.”

They stare each other out in silence. Him glowering and her smarting him. Like she’s urging him to try and run her off.

“I only want to talk to you.” Her body turns slightly towards me, but her eyes never leave Casper’s as she speaks to me.

Rounding him, she walks to the front door and stands there waiting.

“I’ll get rid of her,” he mutters once he’s rounded to my side and is helping me out of the car.

“She’s here anyway; maybe we should listen to what she has

to say.”

“She’s got an agenda. I know my sister—she doesn’t want to talk. She wants to push you to do what she wants or thinks you should.”

We start for the house, his hand on the back of my neck again. I’m not sure whether he’s asserting his power over me or showing her who’s the boss. But either way, I want to hear what she’s got to say.

Ryan comes up behind her. He’s searching the surroundings as though we’re in the middle of a battle and about to be sieged. His lip is a bit bloodied, but apart from that, it’s only his collar that shows any signs that he and Casper were at loggerheads a minute ago.

“Ryan’s checked me over,” Arabella says when we get inside. “He made sure we aren’t traceable.”

“Oh good.” Casper dumps the bag with the baby bits on the hallway table and trudges towards the kitchen.

I resist the urge to follow him. Instead, I take my coat and hang it on the rack even though I normally leave it on the table just to annoy him. I take Arabella’s too and do the same.

“You can leave us, Ryan,” she tells him. “You’ve pat me down. I’m not armed or dangerous.”

Looking at her from head to toe, he pauses on her flat ankle boots and then with a shrug follows Casper.