Blackbird (Redemption 1)

But five minutes hadn’t been enough.

Before we’d even reached the doors to the next store, I felt anxious again. Like I needed to get away from my own skin, and I wondered if the driver would give me another five minutes alone.

“Excuse me,” a woman called out, trying to get our attention. “I can’t find . . . uh, this place. I’m not sure I’m even pronouncing it right,” she said with an embarrassed laugh as she pointed to her phone. “Can you help me?”

The driver looked at the phone for a second, looked down the street, and pointed.

That crawling feeling all over my body got worse as he started giving her directions and started over when she decided to type them into her phone. I rolled my shoulders and shook my arms out, trying to relax. But the feeling only grew until I felt so jittery that I worried there might actually be something wrong with me.

I need space. I need—I just need to get out of here.

I was about to tell the driver that I would meet him inside the store when an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled.

Chapter 33

Day 116 with Briar

Lucas

“You are agitated,” William stated when we finished with our meetings.

“Yes.”

“Do you need to discuss whatever has you acting this way?”

My eyes darted to his. “No.”

He seemed to accept the answer as we walked, but a minute later asked, “This couldn’t have anything to do with a certain First, could it?”

I groaned and turned on him. “You clearly have something you want to say, so stop wasting my time and get on with it.”

“You cannot keep her.”

I ran my hand over my face and wasn’t able to stop another groan from sounding in my throat. “I can’t deal with your hypocritical bullshit today.”

He continued on as if I hadn’t spoken. “What I saw the last time you brought her over was far worse than the first time, and even that was worrisome. Christ, the first two times I saw you with her at your house concerned me. I gave you time to see an error in your ways, but I cannot allow you to have more. You cannot care about a girl the way you care about that one . . . you cannot keep her.”

“Don’t forget that whatever you think is happening between Briar and me, you have been doing for years with one of your women, and no one has tried to stop you . . . yet.”

He casually waved his hand between us. “You

cannot threaten me, boy.”

I could, and for Briar, I would do so much more.

I stepped forward and dropped my voice so the warning was clear. “If you’re going to threaten my house, expect the kindness to be returned.”

William laughed like I was amusing him. “You cannot threaten me because there is nothing to threaten. I have told you time and time again that we do not care for our girls. We can’t. It is dangerous and it shows weakness.”

“And yet you—”

“And my weakness died long ago,” he snapped. His eyes filled with rage and agony for half of a second before it died out.

“You talk about her like she’s here, and you expect me to believe that?”

“Because I have not forgotten a single thing she did.”

I shook my head and turned to continue walking. “I don’t have time for this, William.”