Then I look back at Phantom. A beat of silence stretches, thick with everything we have not said for three years. With everything we are still afraid to touch.
I’m scared. I’m mad. I don’t know where my brother is.
But for the first time tonight, I feel something dangerously close to hope.
And it’s wearing Phantom’s face.
7
EVERLY
Charli steps closer and keeps her voice low. “I’ll take her upstairs to one of the guest rooms. She’ll sleep better in a bed. You okay with that?”
My first instinct is to say no, to snatch Kaylee up and keep her glued to my chest, to run even though I have nowhere to go. Then I look at Charli’s face and see nothing but tenderness and fierce loyalty, and I realize how ridiculous it is that I still think I have to do everything alone.
I nod once. “Yeah. Thank you.”
Charli doesn’t make a big deal out of it. She just moves to the couch, lifts Kaylee carefully like she’s precious cargo, and presses a kiss to her forehead before she carries her toward the stairs.
Kaylee doesn’t even stir. I don’t know how she does it, but that girl trusts everyone.
My throat burns with the knowledge that she trusts everyone because I’ve kept everyone who isn't safe away from her. Butwhile doing so, I also locked out good people. Suddenly the need to tell Phantom everything grips my insides.
Phantom extends his hand, waiting for me to take it.
Gray meets green.
Love stares down at me. This is the one chance I have at healing us. I can feel the eyes in the room tracking us even as they pretend not to.
I take a breath, and then I put my hand in his. Callused skin slides over my smooth palm and it’s like coming home to where I belong.
His fingers close around mine, warm and firm, and the moment he has me, he pulls me closer like he can’t help it, like he’s reminding himself I’m real.
His voice drops, meant for me alone. “You’re shaking, baby.”
He tilts my head up with a finger under my chin, and then slowly kisses my lips.
“I’m fine.”
“Liar. But I know what you need.”
I bet he does.
He turns toward the hallway and guides me away from the kitchen, away from the tree lights and the smell of food, away from the softness that’s trying to trick me into relaxing.
And doing a damn good job of it.
We move through the house and I feel it all around me, the quiet hum of a place that runs like a machine even when it looks likea home. Cameras are tucked into corners. Each exit is really a reinforced door, if memory serves. The subtle placement of men who are not visible until you’re already past them all give my worried soul reason to calm down for half a heartbeat. Savage Reign compound is warm, but this place is also a fortress.
Phantom’s room in the compound is upstairs, down a hall lined with closed doors and muffled voices. The air is warmer here, carrying the scent of cedar and leather and something clean that reminds me of him. I remember being on this floor years ago and walking barefoot. Back then we were almost carefree and then everything changed once I realized what my father was capable of.
Now my boots leave wet prints on the floor runner and I feel like I’m dragging the storm inside with me.
Phantom stops at a door and opens it without breaking stride.
His room is exactly how I remember.
Dark wood. A heavy bed with charcoal sheets pulled tight. A dresser that looks like it could double as an armory. A small desk in the corner with a laptop, a gun safe, and a stack of paperwork that says he runs a piece of this kingdom even if he doesn’t wear the president’s patch.
