I can be patient.
I’ve waited this long already.
And I’d wait a lifetime for her if I had to, because she’s worth it.
I’m just closing the refrigerator when I hear the door to the cottage snick open and closed, as though someone’s trying and failing to be as quiet as possible. I stay in the corner of the kitchen, the darkness surrounding me ensuring I can’t be seen when Cole strolls through.
And takes a seat.
At the fucking kitchen island.
Wonderful.
I clear my throat and step forward, making his attention snap from his phone to me and I flip the light switch, since there’s no longer a point of trying to sneak around in the dark.
Cole’s hair and clothes are mussed up but not like they would be if he’d just come home from a fight. His pupils are blown, and he seems fidgety, which is unlike him.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, and his entire body freezes as the words leave my mouth before he lets out a long breath.
“Lana James is going to kill me,” he mutters, and I hold back a smirk.
He thinks none of us know about the fucked-up games going on between them, but it’s obvious to anyone with eyes.
“And?” I say, because I know he doesn’t mean it literally.
“Well, what would you do if someone drugged and kidnapped you, before you woke up tied to a bed and…” He trails off when he realizes he’s giving awayfartoo much information, but I’ve already gotten the picture. It wasn’t that long ago we found Cole in a similar position after a late night visit from Lana.
My blood heats when I imagine doing something like that to Gracie. It’s not the first time I’ve pictured something like that, something so dark and damn depraved that it shouldn’t be a turn on in the real world.
But I can’t think about that while her brother is sitting in front of me unless I want to die tonight, because there’s no way I can hide my reaction to those thoughts, and there’s no way I’ll be getting out of that conversation without outing myself.
I shrug. “So let her kill you.”
He gives me a derisive look but can barely stop the smile he’s trying so hard to hide. “Maybe I should.”
Maybe he should stop fighting the pull between them, and maybe I should stop fighting the pull towards Gracie. And maybe, just maybe, I should embrace a little of that darkness myself.
I need Gracie like I need air, and I’m going to do everything in my power to get her.
Even if I have to do it a little…differentlythan what I would have previously preferred.
Gracie Aston is mine.
She always has been.
She always will be.
And it’s about time she becomes aware of that fact.
She doesn’t need to know my name, but she does need to know that she belongs to me.
SIX
GRACIE
My friends talk and laugh around me, though I don’t hear a word.
Ever since the night at the club, I’ve been distracted, unable to pull my thoughts away from the guy I spent the night with and searching him out everywhere I go, even though I have no idea what he really looks like.
